What can help if I might feel like I want to puke during my really bad cramp stage?

Feeling a bit sick can actually come with period cramps because the same natural body chemicals that make your uterus squeeze can upset your stomach too.

When cramps get super intense, your whole tummy area can feel pretty miserable. To help right now, resting in a comfortable position, taking slow sips of water, and keeping things quiet can take the edge off. 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 for period cramps.

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 a grown-up starts them as soon as the cramps start and keeps them going for the first two or three days. Once your periods come when you expect them, a grown-up can start them a day or two before your period is due.

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. Also, tell a grown-up straight away if you're being sick, can't eat, have a fever, the pain is on one side (especially low on the right) or keeps getting worse, or you have tummy pain and feel sick without a period.

If you want an easy way to see what symptoms usually pop up around your period, you can track daily things like cramps in the Soso app.