Comatose women LTC question

[cmonkey]

I just thought of a question that I plan on asking my teacher, but also thought I'd toss out here: when you have a female pt in LTC who is comatose or incapable of ADLs, how do you deal with menstruation? I'm assuming pads.

I was thinking about the family who had their daughter's doc perform a hysterectomy to keep her small so they could continue home care. It's called the Ashley Treatment in the news now. Last year another family wanted it done for their daughter (15y, with CP) so she doesn't have to deal with the "indignity" of menstruation.

I understand it can be messy, but someone with CP is not incapable of understanding the process. She's not mentally delayed, fps, at least according to the articles I've seen.

Aaaaanyway, what's the protocol where you work?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

At my workplace, our comatose female simply menstruates directly into her brief (adult diaper). She is incontinent of bowel and bladder, and the CNAs simply wipe the blood away whenever they perform pericare during this time of month.

[cmonkey]

Ahh, I forgot about the briefs. That makes sense. Thanks!

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

In the past I have had young women with these type of disorders who chose to reciev DepoProvera injections to prevent menses. For one this worked really well because her cycles lowered her sezure threshold quite a lot. You have to balance that with the bone loss and weight gain that are likely to occur.

[rn2bnwi, BSN, RN]

Most of our patients that were of that age received the depovera shot and we charted menustration, which was infrequent and very light.

[aerorunner80, ADN, BSN, MSN, APRN]

At my workplace, our comatose female simply menstruates directly into her brief (adult diaper). She is incontinent of bowel and bladder, and the CNAs simply wipe the blood away whenever they perform pericare during this time of month.

Ditto to what The Commuter said. I work in a hospital and that is what we do as well.