How brutal can your periods get

Periods can feel pretty rough with annoying cramps, tiredness, and mood swings, but they are not supposed to be truly brutal or completely take over your life.

What can feel rough

A lot of people deal with stuff like dull aches in their lower tummy or back, feeling wiped out, or getting annoyed at literally everything right before or during their period. The uterus is a muscle, and it squeezes to push out its lining. Stronger squeezes are what hurt, so cramps are definitely real.

If your mood feels really low, or feelings don't ease within a few days of your period starting or get in the way of school, friends or sleep, tell a grown-up.

There are medicines that help period pain, and a grown-up decides if you take one, which one and how much, for your age and weight. They tend to work best when they are started as soon as the cramps begin and kept going for the first two or three days. Once your periods come regularly, a grown-up may start them a day or two before one is due. A heat pad, or a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel that a grown-up fills, can help too, and in a few small studies heat worked about as well as medicine.

When it is too much

Pain should never be so bad that you just have to suffer through it. Tell a grown-up if the pain stops you doing normal things like school, doesn't get better with the pain relief a grown-up gives you, or keeps getting worse from one period to the next.

The same goes for the bleeding part. Most people bleed for 3 to 7 days, and a first period can be much shorter and lighter. Tell a grown-up if you need a new pad or tampon every 1 to 2 hours, your period lasts more than 7 days, you pass clots bigger than about 2.5 cm, blood leaks through to your clothes or bed, you miss normal things because of your period, or you feel tired or out of breath a lot.

If you want to keep track of how you are feeling each day and see what is typical for you, you can log your cramps and energy in the Soso app.