#100: Periods are NOT supposed to be painful.
20 Sep 2009 Leave a Comment
in Your Body
One the worst myths that doctors rely on and say to women when they complain about painful periods is “every woman has bad periods” or that “cramps are normal”.
They are not normal.
During teen years or in times of bad health, many women do have cramps occasionally. There are probably a select few times in a woman’s life this can be considered a normal occurrence. However, if you have cramps every month, or your period causes enough pain to make you unable to work or function, you probably have a medical condition causing it.
From age 14-24 I told doctors my periods were bad. I tried to tell them I had unbearable PMS, mood swings, cramps that travelled down my back and legs, and stomach problems. At first, doctors insisted this was ‘normal’ and that some day it would ease. I kept going back to them, again and again, saying, “This just isn’t right”. Each family doctor in turn would tell me that ‘every woman gets cramps’, I should ‘exercise more’ or would prescribe painkillers that rarely worked. I insisted on seeing gynecologists, who stared at me blankly and offered no respite from the pain. They sent me for numerous ultrasounds and often said ‘there is nothing wrong with you’.
This led to years of me enduring severe pain, all the while wondering why I was so crazy that I could imagine myself into pain that left me curled in a ball for 2 days every month. How powerful was my mind?!?
By age 25 I had had enough. Unlike myself, I hope that every woman does not wait 10 years to finally muster up the strength to insist on proper treatment. I had a family doctor that was fairly new at the game, so did not attempt to dissuade me and instead sent me to a proper gynecological clinic to investigate the problem.
I was scheduled for a laparoscopy (a minor surgery where they sedate you and through 3-4 small incisions in your belly button and abdomen view your pelvic area) in 2006. When I came out of surgery, they told me ‘you have endometriosis’.
Endometriosis is one of the major causes of pelvic pain. There are other gynecological disorders that can also be diagnosed via laparoscopy, such as Pelvic Congestion Syndrome, Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome and I am sure many more that I do not know because I am not a doctor. What I have learned in my research since being diagnosed is that endometriosis is rarely, if EVER, visible on ultrasounds. These doctors, sadly, either did not know that or chose not to explain that to me. Many women who suffer from endometriosis are told they are crazy simply because doctors perform routine ultrasounds and determine that the diagnosis is ‘emotional problems’ when nothing is visible on an ultrasound.
Since being diagnosed I have become my own health advocate. When it comes to my period, I am the best expert. After my first surgery I continued to feel pain and so insisted on follow up treatment. Although, again and again, I was denied it, this time I had learned the lesson that I KNOW MY BODY BEST and that NO WOMAN SHOULD HAVE TO ENDURE PAIN every month. I was able to locate a brilliant surgeon who helped me ease my pain levels through proper treatment for endometriosis. Doctors told me there was nothing wrong with my bowels when I complained, even after my diagnosis, and when I had surgery I actually faxed them the operative reports, explaining that where they said there was nothing wrong, I actually had adhesions from the endometriosis attaching my bowels to things that required detachment. In short, I was right every time and this time I held them accountable.
The lesson I had to learn in a very drawn out long manner was that women know their body well. Women know their body and what they need better than any doctor will give them credit for. If you feel something is wrong, it probably is. If they investigate, find nothing, and you still feel something is wrong…keep fighting. If they tell you that you are crazy, it is all in your head and you need psychiatric treatment, by all means get treatment…and then keep on insisting for an answer.
Periods should be minor inconveniences and my friends who are healthy with no gynecological conditions are able to work through their period, take perhaps an advil or two and keep going. If you feel pain for hours, have bad periods every month or feel unwell at your period time, ask for an answer. You are your best advocate when it comes to making sure you are not in pain when your period comes!
Periods are not supposed to be painful….
