A professor has compared period pain to the pain experienced during a heart attack. But we already knew that, didn’t we ladies?!
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John Guillebaud, a professor of reproductive health at University College London has told Quartz that his patients have described period cramps as “almost as bad as having a heart attack.” In the same article, the American Academy of Family Physicians pointed out that dysmenorrhea (what period pain is techincally called) interferes with the daily life of around one in five women. (Anyone else questioning how man flu is actually a thing, right now?!)
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Okay, so maybe we didn’t know period pain could quite reach the heart attack level of pain. But we’ve ALWAYS known it’s bad, and not something to be shy, ashamed or quiet about. Even though I’m betting many of us still soldier through it silently…
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Professor Guillebaud continued by saying that period pain needs to stop being overlooked. “Men don’t get it and it hasn’t been given the centrality it should have. I do believe it’s something that should be taken care of, like anything else in medicine,” he says.
And we couldn’t agree more. Even if it doesn’t come as a surprise to all of us women that period cramps are this bad, we still love that there’s a conversation happening. And hopefully more treatment options aren’t too far away!
Have you struggled with bad period pain? Do you have any tricks for coping with it?
