Women spend a large portion of their life dealing with period pain.  They are told to toughen up. This message not only minimizes the struggle and pain that women go through monthly, but it also normalizes something that isn’t normal at all. It is teaching women to ignore their pain and continue through their day  like nothing is wrong.

      Many men don’t know enough about the menstruation cycle. According to happiful.com,  “10 men (14%) have never had a conversation with a woman about periods, a quarter believe you have to remove a tampon to urinate and 11% of men still believe that a woman can absolutely not get pregnant whilst on her period.”

     The lack of proper education for this topic can be blamed for men not knowing enough about the menstruation cycle. 

     Fifth grade is when health class starts. The teachers mention periods but not nearly enough. They cover the basics that only include the fact women will be bleeding for a week every month until they reach the age when menopause starts. 

     The education system needs to go more in depth about the period cycle and not just only teach girls about it, but boys too. Boys need to have an understanding of what a period is. They need to have an understanding of what it does to women’s bodies. And they need to understand that it is not only just physical annoyance/pain but also mental annoyance/pain. 

     Plannedparenthood.org explains that a female’s period can include “Cramps (pain in your lower belly or lower back), bloating (when your belly feels puffy), breakouts (getting pimples), sore breasts, feeling tired, [and] mood swings (when your emotions change quickly or you feel sad, angry, or anxious).” That’s not even all of it. 

     Depending on how bad the cramps are, they can even hurt their legs, or they can even hurt so much that women can’t even eat food because they will feel like throwing it all back up.

      According to webmd.com, some women even describe contractions as strong as menstrual cramps. 

There should be no room for people to say women are “weak” after enduring all of this – and monthly.

         Not only do women have to put up with all the physical and mental pain a period brings, but they also have to deal with the expenses. A regular box of tampons cost about $8 and that contains 36 tampons. According to tampax.com, six products a day is normal.

      So let’s do some math. 6 tampons a day, times 7 days (how long a period regularly is) equals 42 tampons a week. So one box isn’t even going to cut it, so let’s say a woman buys two boxes to have enough. $16 times 12(periods in a year) equals $192. That’s not even including the pads that are also being bought.

      Men will never understand what it is like to be a girl with the organs girls have but they understand what it is like to be human and what pain is like. All that women are asking for is to maybe show a little empathy towards women when it is that time of month.