A painful period

I have a high pain threshold… usually.

I barely even flinch getting a tattoo. I got 300 steroid injections - 30 at a time - into the crown of my head when I had alopecia at the age of 7 and I didn’t even cry. I fractured my wrist doing gymnastics and I didn’t even realise for two weeks until the bone started knitting back together at a funny angle and created a lump. Even when I first got put in the ambulance after the motorbike accident, I refused pain relief.

Then I occasionally get a painful period and I can’t even stand up from the pain.

I am crippled.
Literally bent over in the worst pain imaginable.

I never take pain relief (or medication generally) but when I get a painful period I am popping paracetamol and ibuprofen like sweeties because taking them both together is the only thing that, sometimes, helps.

Sometimes, even they don’t touch the sides.

I know how to look after my body during my bleed. I rest as much as possible, I stay hydrated, I drink ginger tea by the bucket load and my hot water bottle is permanently attached to my body. I stay lying down because, clearly, I can’t stand up.

But sometimes, nothing works.
The pain presides.
It controls me and it controls my life.

Period pain is NOT normal.
Just because it is common, doesn’t mean that it is normal - and yet we have been brought up to believe that it’s something we have to put up with. Part of life.

Some pain immediately before and during your period IS normal but not if that pain is to the extent that it disrupts your daily activities.

I never had a painful period, ever.
Then I got put on the contraceptive pill when I was only 13 or 14 to ‘help with acne’… When I tried to come off it, the pain from my periods was what encouraged me to stay on it - for the next 15 years.

I HATED having a period.
So I took the mini pill which stopped me from bleeding altogether.
As I lie here writing this, wrapped in a blanket bundle in child’s pose on my sofa with a hot water bottle glued to my belly at 20 past midnight because I can’t sleep from the pain… it’s easy to see why I might have resorted to that.

But now I know better.

Now I know that simply resting on the first day of my bleed just isn’t enough to prevent the pain.

The pain is a reflection of my whole menstrual cycle.

I have not been looking after myself and that’s been so heavily reflected in not just this cycle but the last THREE!

I was so excited to start bleeding again because WOOHOO I was back to my usual 26 day cycle. My last cycle was the shortest cycle I have ever had at only 21 days and the cycle before that was one of my longest at a whopping 30 days!

But the pain. Oh WOW the pain.
This is one of the most painful periods I’ve had for a very long time…

I fully appreciate that some people have various conditions that can affect their menstrual health but I also believe that our periods are an indicator of our overall heath - a fifth vital sign, some would say.

I believe this because I’ve seen it.

I have been tracking my cycle for almost 4 years now and I can almost predict when I’m going to have a painful period because I know when I’ve not been able to listen to my body and honour what I need, when I’ve not been looking after myself properly.

The last three months have been especially stressful - between moving house, big financial changes and preparing for a very emotional TEDx talk. I have felt overwhelmed. I haven’t been sleeping very well. I’ve been eating a lot more sugar and shit. I’ve felt dysregulated.

What do all of these things have in common?
They are all causes of inflammation - poor sleep, stress, poor diet.

No surprises there then that inflammation can cause, or worsen, period pain.

So here I am.
Learning my lesson - again!
That I need to look after myself ALL of the time and not just on Day 1 of my period…

I literally teach people how to hack their cycle to prevent this from happening and yet I am only human and occasionally I forget to practice what I preach.

So hopefully, if nothing else, you can learn from my mistakes.

Work with your WHOLE menstrual cycle.
Listen to your body.
Honour what your body needs.
Pay attention.

It’s the ‘simple’ things that are sometimes the hardest to maintain. But, if you can reduce your inflammation, you can hopefully also reduce your pain.

Take back control of your cycle so that it stops controlling you.