Obligatory not trying to reduce women to their anatomy, just trying to conceptualize how impactful periods are, for example during middle school, high-school, or adulthood.
Looking on Google for questions like
“How much has having a period impacted you?” Or questions like that doesn’t get much answers, but it’s something I’m curious about and not really comfortable asking the women in my life about.
Hope it’s an okay question
25 comments
Lots of missed opportunities due to bad cramps.
Very much.
Fortunately not at all. I discovered very early that staying active during my periods reduced my cramp pains. Everyone has a different body but I learned to adapt to it and accept it as it is. It hardly bothered me during my growing up days.
Now it’s much more impactful because of hormones fluctuations and mood swings. Now it has become more of an issue because of the mood swings and energy level fluctuations. Maybe lifestyle changes would help.
A lot. I had heavy, early periods that none of my friends were experiencing when I was young. They’ve continued to cause me pain and inconvenience throughout my life, despite different attempts at treatment. I don’t even want kids so I resent my uterus very much.
Never cramped. I believe sports helped with avoiding cramping tbh. Idk, could just be making it up.
Not at all, but super annoying, wish I could have turned them off from the moment they started.
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I didn’t learn how to swim. I didnt have swimming classes in elementary school and when I started junior high, I also started having my period (I was 11)… Periods + swimming was not something I wanted to deal with so I missed so many classes along the years.
I never had debilitating cramps, but my migraines were the worse. They were so bad that at some point my mom thought I had a tumor, Im pretty sure some of the blank spaces in my memory are because of those migraines.
Oh, and the fear of leaking… The constant anxiety… I still check compulsively.
I remember a whole lot of laying in bed dead to the world, even throwing up quite a bit because it was so bad. The only good thing about it was that it was so regular I could pinpoint the exact time it would come
It effected my health a lot. I started my period at 9, and they were always heavy. Having heavy periods made me extremely anemic and sick all the time. I got an IUD when I was 18. I haven’t had a period in 8 years and I’m so much happier and healthier.
My period really didn’t effect me until I turned 29 when my periods started getting really heavy. I would bleed really heavy for weeks at a time and not too long ago my iron was so low that it was almost at transfusion level. I’ve been begging my OB for a hysterectomy but he wants to do hormonal BC but I’d rather just have surgery and it be over and done.
Before I went on birth control I threw up for an average of 6 hours and had the chills so bad I would shake and bury myself in blankets every start of my period even in summer when it gets to 115F. I had excused absences from school for it after a teacher berated me for “skipping school” monthly and my mother called and gave him an earful then called the principal and nurse and brought a doctor’s note.
It was all related to hormones. My estrogen just dropped really fast apparently. Birth control fixed it all, luckily.
I began getting periods when I was 10, and they were very heavy. Getting mine before most of my friends and struggling to handle a heavy period produced a lot of shame and anxiety around my period. I feel more comfortable now around my period, but my friends that got their periods much later don’t quite understand how I felt as a young girl and why I feel strongly about being vocal and open about periods now.
Extremely. I had heavy, painful, messy periods and PMDD (period-related depression/anxiety) that made my teen and young adult years completely miserable. I also had a phobia of period blood so every pad change was a mini panic attack in the bathroom. I got made fun of for not using tampons but I couldn’t bring myself to touch *that*. I came to hate everything about my body. I started stopping my periods in my mid-20s and it was life changing, but even though I haven’t had a period in 10 years I still have a lot of anxiety about them. I frequently wake up in the middle of the night to double-check that I’ve taken my pill.
In the beginning, it wasn’t much of a bother. My period occurred every 3 months and was always light. Lasted maybe 3 days.
As I got older, the irregularness increased.
Now it’s annoying. My period irregularity has increased. I bleed anywhere from 3 weeks at a time to having a month off and bleeding the next. Now i never know when it is. I’m always spotting. I get a break a few days a month. I have talked to my doctors about it but it hasn’t been that helpful. Went on birth control to help (nexplanon), doesn’t really help. At this point I cut my pads in half lol since liners are too thin when I do lightly bleed. Or I just free bleed if i’m spotting
I got very, very lucky. My mother’s periods were so debilitating she was put on BC very early in her teens. I’m 40 and for the most part it’s just been an irritating, minor annoyance but normal part of my life. Very, very lucky.
I swear my lady bits have been trying to kill me since puberty.
It’s had some big affects on my mental and physical health. When I first got it as a kid I cried and stayed in my room the entire week with the blinds closed. I hid under my covers and watched the lion king on repeat, mainly because I was terrified of growing boobs and potentially facing more sexual harassment or abuse. Probably not the most normal thing to worry about, but I’d been through a few things by the time I was 11.
I’ve had to miss school due to bleeding through my pants.
I can feel my period approaching because my mood will change and I’ll either become short tempered or very sad in the few days leading up to it.
Having a period at one point felt cleansing. Then after I had a baby it was awful and I became very anxious about my health because I didn’t stop bleeding for 3 months straight. There was so much shedding. Things are getting back to normal now though!
Periods can be difficult. Some women can’t or choose not to get their period. Personally, when my period is healthy I feel more relaxed because I know my body is regulating itself the way it should be.
I get bad cramps the first day of my period, but I don’t think it has impacted my life significantly, apart from having to leave school early.
So, so much.
Before puberty I was excited to experience it, but then I began having period pain. The mess itself is very uncomfortable as well. Growing up, I also had an issue where my period would never stop without medical intervention. I would always be hyper-aware of any possible leakage. Eventually, I went on bleeding for weeks on end (40 days straight) and lost so much blood I became anemic. That anemia led to mild depression, which caused me to struggle in school.
Once I realized that my periods were not normal and I went to a doctor with my mom, I was prescribed hormonal birth control to stop my period from happening every day. Whenever I missed a day, I would end up bleeding the next day. The first set of pills I took also intensified my cramping and mood swings. My relationship with my family became strained as I was prone to lashing out at them. After about a year I learned there there were different pills with different levels of estrogen and progestin. I switched to the new pill and my symptoms improved, although I had to slowly try and repair my relationships.
Every few months, I would try to get off the pill. But it never worked. After the first period finished, the next cycle never ended my bleeding. I always had to get back on it or risk becoming anemic again.
To this day, I still need to take birth control to regulate my period. Obviously this is *not* a normal experience, but this truthfully is what I have gone through because of my period.
It almost killed me, knocked my hemoglobin down to 6, got me diagnosed with a bleeding disorder, got me a transfusion and started me on hormonal birth control at 13. Fuck that shit.
Other than an occasional first day bleeding when I wasn’t expecting it to start, honestly not at all. I’ve always had a super chill reproductive system so I am definitely lucky to not really ever get cramps or headaches, just the inconvenience of actually bleeding for a few days every month. And after I had a baby I got an IUD, so I’ve only actually had like 2 periods in the last 4 years.
My period was never particularly bad but it was much heavier and more painful when I was young than as an adult. In middle/high school the biggest stresses were potentially worrying about the mess, occasionally feeling sick and low energy from it, and just general frustration. Mentally it was annoying when I was still a kid and periods got in the way of feeling like a kid, and then it was annoying when I wasn’t sexually active and it felt incredibly useless. Now it’s not really something I think negatively about but that took a lot of time (and my body deciding to grant me light periods now, thankfully).
Too much, I’ve always had cramps that leave me bed bound for two days so I often find myself missing out socially. Only a few days ago one of my closest friends turned 21 and I had to miss out because I couldn’t move for cramps and lower back pain and I felt awful for missing it. I also get a ton of other side effects which make it hard to live with. I really want a hysterectomy to end my suffering but I’m only 21 so that’s out of the question for at least 15 more years, even though I most definitely do not want kids. Can’t even use any contraceptives because I’m on antidepressants that are working really well and any hormonal change will likely have a bad knock on effect on my mental health. Fun times!
I grew to accept it as a painful and annoying part of life. I always have painful cramps and pain meds usually take the edge off, but not always. I read a tumblr post once that said they deal with cramps by pretending they’re a Viking warrior who got stabbed in the gut but needed to continue fighting and tbh I sometimes do this as well. On the days it feels like Michael Meyer is having a stabbing fest in my uterus I just pop some pain meds, take a deep breath, and move along because I’ve got stuff to do and it’s not gonna be hindered by my body throwing a tantrum for not being pregnant.
My period has always been irregular and has arrived at some pretty inconvenient times, like during long car rides with no nearby restroom, at the beach, in the middle of taking final exams, during a gold medal fencing bout (while wearing white knickers). I’ve ruined plenty of underwear and have lots of practice getting blood stains out of sheets, pants, underwear, etc. It’s something I always have to be prepared for and make sure I have extra pads/tampons in my bag.
Speaking of tampons, I didn’t use them until my 20s because the first time my mom tried to show me how to use them I wasn’t on my period so I shoved it up my DRY vagina and then the tip of the applicator somehow *broke off* and got *stuck in my dry vagina!!!* So yeah, it took me a while to try them again, but once I got the hang of them they’re great and a lot less messy than pads.
I do love the sense of solidarity it creates between people with periods. We’re always willing to give a pad/tampon to those in need and we can vent to others who understand what we go through.