Olivia Harris
Newcomer
3 messages
joined Apr 2010
Hi everyone... I suppose it’s time I finally shared my own experiences with menstruation, given that it has become such a defining, albeit miserable, feature of my life. Since my very first period, I have been plagued by these horrific, unbearable pains—pains so intense that, quite frankly, I am at my wit's end trying to cope. Every month, it arrives as a brutal package containing fainting spells, dizziness, chills, nausea, and tremors. It becomes physically impossible for me to move; I spend five days bedridden, barely able to make it to the bathroom more than four times a day. This was almost manageable when I was younger, but now that I'm navigating college, it's becoming catastrophic—I've even started dropping things because the pain hits so hard. Every single month, this cycle robs me of five precious days of my life, and I simply cannot live like this anymore.
I have tried every conceivable remedy to find some semblance of relief, yet nothing seems to work. I’ve cycled through Advil, Aleve, Voltaren, Motrin, and all that other useless junk that promises much but delivers nothing. I’ve experimented with herbal teas, various drops, staying active, using heating pads—you name it—but truly, I am out of options.
I even tried belly dancing, hoping the movement might help ease the tension, but even that was futile.
And while I am struggling through this agony, trying desperately to find a way to mitigate it, do you know what happens? Does anyone actually care how much this diminishes my quality of life? My doctor actually has the audacity to tell me that it’s all in my head—that I’m simply imagining the pain, and that if I would just stop thinking about it and stop connecting my periods to the discomfort, the pain would magically vanish. Oh, isn't that wonderful? So, on top of enduring these excruciating pains, I'm also being branded as delusional. Am I supposed to believe that I’ve spent my entire life hallucinating physical agony? Fine, whatever. Suppose I decide to follow her advice for one month—suppose I decide not to take any medication, ignore the pain entirely, and somehow greet my period with a smile? Ha! It’s clear she lacks even a shred of professional integrity if she can look a patient in the eye and claim their suffering is imaginary. I have collapsed in the middle of the street, unable to get up until someone helped me, all because my doctor insisted it was psychological. I could have died right there on the pavement if I had actually listened to her. And now, whenever people start pushing that narrative that everything is "psychosomatic," I feel like losing my mind. It’s obvious those people have never felt this kind of pain; they have no idea what I go through every single month.
If anyone out there knows of any strong medications I haven't mentioned yet that might actually provide relief, please let me know. Just please, keep in mind that these pains are genuinely severe, and most standard over-the-counter pills aren't even worth the effort. Thanks!