Recently tweeted into my timeline: menstrual cramps can be as painful as heart attacks.
We've all heard of doctors taking women's pain less seriously. But this makes me wonder if the fact that menstrual cramps are considered just something you have to deal with make us underassess our own pain?
The first time I got menstrual cramps, at the age of 11, I was curled up on the floor unable to move. But it's part of being a woman, and everyone deals with it. So I eventually learned how to work through it. The pain was the same, but, in those horrible years between menarche and birth control pills, I learned how to stand and walk and pay attention in class and pull in straight As while experiencing that same pain that left my 11-year-old self immobile on the floor.
And because it's so ingrained in me that it's just part of regular life, it would never have occurred to me before reading this article to see medical attention for something that's "only" as bad as those menstrual cramps that left me immobile on the floor. Even if it was debilitating, I'd try to work through it, maybe take an Advil if it was particularly bad. It would never have crossed my mind that pain comparable to menstrual cramps could even be something serious!
Now I think back to all the times I've experienced something I didn't perceive as pain: "I wouldn't call it pain, I'm just weirdly...aware of it." "It feels like it needs to stretch, but when I stretch it, it doesn't feel better." "I can feel it pulsing. I wouldn't call it throbbing because that implies pain, but I can feel a pulse there." "My body is telling me not to move it that way, but it doesn't hurt when I do move it that way." "It's uncomfortable." I would never have sought medical attention, I would never have taken painkillers, because I didn't perceive them as pain.
But what if they were?
Just a couple of years ago, it occurred to me for the first time in my life to take Advil (which is an anti-inflammatory) for something (I forget what) that was inflamed. I perceived it as "uncomfortable", but would never have described it as pain. The Advil got rid of the inflammation, and the discomfort never came back. Prior to that, from the point of view of Advil = painkiller, I would have lived with the inflammation and discomfort for a couple of days, because I didn't perceive what I was experiencing as pain.
How much other needed, helpful medical treatment might I be missing out on because I wouldn't have characterized my experience as pain? And might I have characterized these experiences as pain if I hadn't internalized the idea that we're supposed to be able to cope with menstrual cramps?
1 comment:
You're dead-on.
I always took painkillers for menstrual pain -- at first aspirin, but in my 20s a friend told me Advil was much better, and from then on I always took Advil.
But in my late 30s, I had mind-boggling menstrual pain from fibroids. I suffered for months and months -- probably well over a year -- before even mentioning to my doctor! She immediately prescribed a stronger painkiller. It didn't occur to me to do this sooner, because I thought it was just pain I had to live with. And I *still* struggle with that attitude, about any health issue, and I'm sure it all goes back to what I was originally taught about menstrual pain.
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