they were dying during their first menstrual cycle. Others consider periods a wonderful secret, something every girl in the world

can understand.

 For me, periods have never been a good experience and during my first menstruation, I prayed that it would never happen again. It took away my freedom to run free and jump high. And I only hated it more with each cycle.

Problems during periods

There are basically three types of problems that occur during periods: amenorrhea, menorrhagia and dysmenorrhea. Amenorrhea is the absence of periods. There is no sign of a menustral cycle even when a girl is 15 or even years after having the first period. It also includes a several months gap after each period. Menorrhagia implies abnormally heavy bleeding during periods and prolonged periods that last more than seven days. Dysmenorrhea is a painful menustral cycle during which girls feel nauseous, have headaches, backaches, diarrhoea and severe cramps.

Girls face one of the three problems in a mild or severe form. This forces many girls to skip school or work during periods. There can be two reasons for their absence: they are either suffering from one of the above problems or they are bound by illogical tradition that one should not touch males during menstruation. My symptoms resembled dysmenorrhea. The first few experiences were not much trouble but I did not know anything, as I was just beginning to understand this new bodily phenomenon. Later, I experienced severe pain followed by nausea and vomiting. My mother always told me that the main reason for my problem was that I wasn’t healthy enough. I later found out that she was wrong.  

In terrible pain

During my periods, I would lie on the bed for the first two days and do nothing but sleep. Occasionally, I would vomit. I took medicine as prescribed by the doctor, which worked as long as I took it. But I skipped classes in school and college and spent half my day in the sick room and was even sent back home many times. I vomited in front of teachers, stained chairs, cried and threw tantrums but the pain didn’t go away.

 Fortunately or unfortunately, I began to have regular periods. But I didn’t sleep at night when it arrived and even my mother would keep awake to take care of me. I tried hot bags, hot water, tea with ginger and many other household medicines but to no avail. Whenever I would feel like vomiting, I would feel very hot, start sweating, my legs would tremble and if I were in school or college, I would be unaware of what the teachers were talking of and my temperature would fall below normal. Still, I tried fighting back but almost always ended up running out of the class or vomiting right on the spot. I was helpless. I couldn’t help but take analgesics every month. The pain was unbearable. To add to my woes, I always had periods on important days and couldn’t lay down and sleep. I often had to pull myself together and survive on glucose solutions.

Not normal

Still, many people keep say that it’s all natural. This does not make things any easier. There must be many other girls in our country who face similar problems. Therefore, until there is a proper cure, periods will remain a dreaded experience for many.   

Khanal is a student of St. Xavier’s College