“It’s just how your body is.” “It’s normal for your body to change after childbirth.” “You’re probably just going to have to live with it.” All these things have been said to me by doctors during my journey to get help for debilitating period pain.
Since giving birth six years ago, I find myself crippled in pain every month and my attempts to get help have so far been fruitless, so it was interesting, but not surprising to learn that Nurofen’s Gender Pain Gap Index Report1 found that despite women being in pain more often and more severely than men, with one in six experiencing severe pain every day, one in two women felt their pain was ignored or dismissed by their GP because of their gender. And when it comes to period pain, there is often the added barrier of feeling embarrassment, or the wide belief that period pain is “normal”.
