It started when I was 13 years old. My first period, and immediately a struggle. What might have been an awkward moment for most girls felt like a personal disaster to me. From the very first month, I had intense abdominal pain. Not just \u201ca little cramping,\u201d but pain so severe that I literally doubled over. Back then, there was nothing but paracetamol, so I took large amounts just to somewhat ease the pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember being the only one in my class or at least among my friends who had such severe menstrual pain. No one seemed to understand what it felt like. While others just went on with their day, I was doubled over in pain or sometimes had to call in sick to school. That was my harsh reality. I really thought: what is wrong with me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was only later, when I started using the pill, that the pain became a bit more bearable. But it never fully disappeared. Sometimes it felt like my body just wouldn\u2019t cooperate, even though I was doing everything I could to relieve the pain. What always came back were heavy periods and constant cramps. This ritual remained my monthly reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, as I\u2019m in perimenopause, the severity of my periods seems only to get worse. The first two days of my cycle require a \u201cdiaper,\u201d that\u2019s how heavy the bleeding is. But, as always, I just keep going. I work, I function, I live on, because what else can I do? It remains a challenge to keep going, even when I feel awful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The silence around menstrual pain is something I have struggled with for years. People often don\u2019t understand how you feel. It\u2019s not just \u201cnormal\u201d discomfort; it\u2019s a physical and emotional burden that you can\u2019t simply brush off. The pain is there, the fatigue is there, and sometimes it feels like your body is working against you. Menstruation is often treated as something to just get through, while for many it\u2019s a heavy burden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Menstruation is not just an inconvenience; for many women, it\u2019s an experience that profoundly changes their lives. It\u2019s high time we talk about it openly and honestly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why I\u2019m Sharing This Love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jennifer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It started when I was 13 years old. My first period, and immediately a struggle. What might have been an awkward moment for most girls felt like a personal disaster to me. From the very first month, I had intense abdominal pain. Not just \u201ca little cramping,\u201d but pain so severe that I literally doubled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ongecategoriseerd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flexibleassistance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flexibleassistance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flexibleassistance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flexibleassistance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flexibleassistance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.flexibleassistance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667,"href":"https:\/\/www.flexibleassistance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions\/667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flexibleassistance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flexibleassistance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flexibleassistance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flexibleassistance.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/strong>I\u2019m sharing my story not to complain, but to raise awareness. To show that menstrual pain isn\u2019t always a \u201cnormal\u201d cycle. It can have serious consequences for daily life, from school to work, from mental health to physical health. I hope my experience encourages others to take their pain seriously and open the conversation about menstrual complaints whether at work, in the classroom, or at home. Women deserve not only recognition for the physical pain of menstruation but also for the mental struggle that comes with it and therefore deserve understanding and support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n