When Niara Webb was 15 years old, she experienced period pain so debilitating that she passed out during a church service. When she came to, she was surrounded by people who thought she’d experienced a religious awakening. “The whole time I was just thinking, I just need some Advil,” she remembers.
Now 27, Webb has experienced what she describes as “horrible” menstrual cramps since she first started her period. “I just lived a life of my period cramps are just kind of bad, and that’s how it is,” she says. Her experience is common: Dysmenorrhea, or painful periods, affect up to 91 percent of individuals of reproductive age—with 29 percent experiencing “severe” pain.
Webb suffers from secondary dysmenorrhea, when painful periods are a symptom of another health issue, like endometriosis, adenomyosis, and fibroids. For Webb, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) was the root cause of her pain, a diagnosis she only received two years ago. Like many women who suffer from secondary dysmenorrhea, her painful periods have impacted her life. She recalls boarding a flight in such agony that she had “that movie moment of ‘Is there a doctor on the plane?’” shortly before she passed out.
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