please help,i am a concerned mother of a 17 year old daughter. she has been having a light period for several months now. I thought at first it might be because it was trying to regulate. I have only known this for a couple weeks now and 2 days ago i found out that at some point she had sex or something along the lines of sex with her boyfriend (i don't have exact details just yet) at some point i am assuming that it was around the time that she started the bleeding that dont stop. she is not on any form of birth control. She has been swearing to me that she hasn't done anything am just finding all this out and i am not sure what to think..can it be because of this encounter? could it be a std? is it normal for someone that young? so many questions and i have no answers.please someone help...

There are no known STDs that would cause constant bleeding without any sort of open sores. She would definately know if she was suffering from something like that because it would be painful. Also, having sex would not be causing her periods to be constant like this either as sex is a normal and natural activity.

Irregular periods are, in most cases, a normal occurance. They can be signs of hormonal fluctuations (which can occur at any time in life) or signs of physical or mental stress. The more stressed or unhappy we are, the more irregular our periods are. This is also effected by unhealthy eating and illness. So those are some things to concider.

There are also some illnesses and conditions that can cause irregular periods such as hormone imbalances and endometriosis, to name a couple. They are usually accompanied by other symptoms though.

The only way to know if she is experiencing normal irregularites or something induced by illness or disease is by getting a full exam by a gynecologist. If it turns out that she is having normal irregularities and the bleeding does not subside, you might consider birth control as a means to control the cycles. It is a well known and effective means of regulating periods.

I hope this helps you both!