I love my Loestrin! I had horribe periods from day one! Two days of cramps, sometimes vomiting from them, 7-8 days of bleeding really heavy. I had acne on my back and arms, sometimes chest and face. Tried 6 different types of BC pills. Some caused breakthrough bleeding, some caused cramping all month, some did nothing.
Eventually I was diagnosed with PCOS (poly cystic ovarian syndrome) which causes your body to mix up two of the hormones in your cycle so your egg starts to develop but before its finished and the egg releases it forms a cyst. Anyway, it makes your body resistant to insulin and can end up causing type two diabetes, which it did with me. (way back before PCOS had a name they werent really sure what to do for it)
My sister had tried Loestrin Fe and said she had zero side affects, so when the doc said he wanted me to use BC again to help with the pain and heavyness of my cycle, I told him I wanted to try Loestrin. It is the best one I have ever been on! I have almost zero pain from cramping, usually just a little tension in my lower back and my period has gone from 7-8 days to 3-4!
It does not help acne, BUT if it her pain and heavy bleeding is from PCOS then metphormin takes care of it too!
Some tell-tale signs of insulin resistance from PCOS are acne,especially on arms, back and chest, heavier hair growth as in the thighs and chin (more masculine areas that girls don't usually have trouble with, dark streatchmarks and the darkening of skin in the arm pits or really anywhere that skin touches skin a lot or something touches skin a lot. For instance I have dark pits, a dark line across the back of my neck that looks like its dirty, dark crescents inder my breasts, a dark line where my underwire sits on the side of my chest,below my pits, and, well, even the vaginal area has darkened. (I thought it was my getting older that did that until the fertility spec. told me it was the insulin resistance from PCOS.
Checking for PCOS would top my list if she has any of these (you didn't say where the acne was, I don't think). Many women have it and don't know it. They don't know what causes it and it can cause fertility problems, although a good fertility doc with specialty in PCOS helped up get pregnant on the first try, without fertility drugs, and we had twins! (my age was a factor in the twins)
Either way, sometimes it takes a lot of trial and error to find the right BC pill for you. Mine is definatly Loestrin Fe (with iron)
Good luck and i hope her next cycle is pain free!
Oh to edit: you do have to take it at the same time everyday as it is a lower dose, but you are supposed to do that with any BC pill and it comes in a generic called Junell