What I Want Men To Understand about Periods.

Periods can be really painful and heavy for some women

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

Most days I’m raring to go and happy, until my period arrives. While some women find their periods not so painful, mine are so painful that they can keep me down for days. I get really bad stomach pains, which have become more painful since my two C-Sections over thirteen years ago. However, they were also double painful before this.

When I first started my periods, the pain became so bad that it would pull me to the floor. My mum took me to see a doctor who very nearly admitted me for a scan on my pelvic bone and my pancreas as he originally thought that the pain was being caused by a problem with them. The pain has doubled since then.

My periods start really light on the first day, but by the second day they are really heavy. The pain I get with them often feels like having a scalpel cut through my stomach with no pain relief. The pain can make me really tired, stop me walking or doing things, and it can make me feel very irritable and moody. I take Feminax to relieve the pain which is Ibuprofen Lysine. It helps to control and lessen the pain, but it does not take it away completely. I also have to rest and sleep a lot throughout my period, as they can make me feel exhausted and more ill if I don’t. I use warm baths and showers, and as much as I use tampons on my light days, I cannot use them when my periods are really heavy as they can be quite painful to insert.

There are somethings that men say that really annoy me, and I will list these below:

• It’s only pain.
• It’s not as if your giving birth again.
• Get over it.
• Life goes on.
• It can’t be that bad.
• Your not pregnant.
• Some people have it worse.
• Your not dying.

Periods and the pain that comes with them affects each woman in different ways. Some may have them light with little to no pain, but for others, they can be extremely painful and tiring. I also feel dizzy when I am on my period, and resting is crucial to my recovery otherwise I will be unwell for weeks. My periods vary in pattern, sometimes they…