I had my 1st period when I was in my 8th Grade. And 2nd when I was in 9th. I had irregular periods for years. I had consulted many doctors, but nothing seemed to help. All tests were regular. I wasn’t suffering from PCOS, but I was suffering.
I wasn’t lucky like my female friends, who knew exactly when their cycles would hit them. I had to wait. For months sometimes. And then, when the period hit, it took away all my strength. It was very, very painful. So painful that I had to leave my practical exams midway because I couldn’t take the pain. But what pained me the most was that, what a male professor at my college understood, my fellow females didn’t.
Yes, Periods are painful
“So what? It’s just a period. You wouldn’t be able to use it as a reason when you get married,” they would say. And the little girl would weep inside.
Just a period? Then why does it feel like my body parts are trying to tear out of my body? Why do my legs feel as if they are not bones but jelly? Why do the cramps make me roll into a double? Why do I feel like it would be better if I died because the pain was just too much?
Was it painful just for me? Or was the female conditioning so bad that the pain didn’t matter? That we are not even allowed to feel the pain of losing blood from our bodies? Instead of teaching our girls that it will be painful, we show them ads where you can go out and play if you have the proper sanitary napkin.
Maybe it’s high time we acknowledge that each girls’ period is unique. And while some can go and play if they have the proper sanitary napkin, others might not be able to even get up from their bed, and it’s okay.
Normalizing period leave is as important as empowering women with the right kind of sanitary napkins.
It’s time to accept that the pain is not a way to get out of working for five days a month. That periods are painful, and downplaying the pain will not make us women strong but make us feel weaker. Period.
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