Not All Periods Are Created Equal

I’ve had several conversations this week with organisations about their upcoming International Women’s Day workshops.

And every single one of them has asked the same thing.

Can you include a section on menstrual health conditions?

Friends, that makes me very happy indeed.

They didn’t want a performative workshop about cycles. They didn’t want productivity tips dressed up as well-being. They wanted information shared across the whole organisation to explain why not all periods are created equal.

They know they have members of staff quietly struggling with far more than “a bad period”, and they want those people to feel seen and understood.

Even better, they want everyone else in the room to understand why this can have a real impact on how someone works.

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The Gender Pain Gap

The gender pain gap is real.

It is still difficult to be taken seriously by GPs when you present with pelvic pain, heavy bleeding or severe mood shifts. Symptoms are regularly dismissed as stress, anxiety, low resilience and “just hormones.”

Diagnoses for endometriosis, PCOS and the like are notoriously slow.

The more language we have for what might be happening in our bodies, the better positioned we are when something shifts.

And although many of you are already well clued up, there is still a huge amount of stigma and misinformation floating around.

The last time I shared a post about endometriosis on LinkedIn, I was trolled. A woman commented, telling others to take paracetamol, put their big girl pants on and stop making such a fuss because childbirth is worse.

It made me sad for two reasons.

One, nobody writes something like that unless they were brought up in an age or environment where pain wasn’t something you were allowed to experience openly. Where discomfort equalled weakness. And where you kept quiet so you didn’t “bother” anyone and could carry on being a productive member of grind culture.

And two, comments like that keep the stigma alive. They reinforce the idea that all menstrual experiences are broadly the same and that the only appropriate response is to get on with it.

That simply isn’t true.

So let’s have a clear recap together about what some of these conditions actually involve, and why they are so often missed.

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Endometriosis

Endometriosis is where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows elsewhere in the pelvis, including the ovaries, bowel, bladder or elsewhere in the abdominal cavity; it can even reach the lungs.

It responds to hormonal changes across the cycle, which is where the pain and inflammation come in.

For years, I ruled it out for myself.

My periods are not painful. I wasn’t missing work every month or chugging painkillers, so I assumed it couldn’t possibly apply to me.

What changed, slowly, was my ovulation.

Every month, I started getting a sharp, localised pain on one side that made walking uncomfortable. It would last a day, sometimes two, then disappear.

I assumed it was my Ulcerative Colitis flaring until, after tracking it for a while, I realised it was happening consistently at ovulation.

We talk endlessly about period pain in relation to hormonal conditions, but we barely talk about ovulation pain.

Ovulation is a major hormonal event. It is inflammatory by nature. If endometrial-like tissue is present where it shouldn’t be, ovulation can aggravate it.

Other common signs include…

• Heavy or painful periods

• Pain with sex

• Bowel or bladder symptoms that worsen around your cycle

• Fatigue that doesn’t quite make sense

• Difficulty conceiving

Diagnosis is often slow. Many people are dismissed by medical professionals and told it is just “women’s problems”, IBS, anxiety, or that they simply have a low pain tolerance.

I consider myself very cycle aware.

I understand hormone phases professionally and personally.

I still missed it in myself for a long time, because we are rarely given the information we need to join the dots.

Which is precisely why I do what I do.

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Adenomyosis

Adenomyosis is often described as the cousin of endometriosis, but its impact very much stands on its own.

It causes tissue similar to the lining of the womb to grow into the muscle wall of the womb itself. That can mean…

• Very heavy bleeding

• Intense cramping

• Pelvic heaviness

I’ve spoken to women who thought flooding through protection every hour was just their normal. They had nothing to compare it to.

When something has always been your baseline, you don’t automatically question it.

Heavy bleeding is often minimised. It gets brushed off as “part of having a period” rather than investigated as a symptom.

As I’ve said many times, period pain is common, but it is not normal.

Bleeding that interferes with your ability to leave the house, sit through meetings, or sleep properly is not trivial.

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PCOS

PCOS, as the name suggests, involves cysts on the ovaries, but that isn’t the complete picture. It is about how hormones are regulated across your entire system.

• Ovulation can become irregular or stop altogether.
• Periods can be unpredictable or absent.
• Hair growth can change.
• Skin can change.

And, distressingly for many, weight can shift in ways that feel completely outside your control.

A lot of these symptoms are not always understood, acknowledged or even recognised as connected.

In my work, neurodivergent clients with PCOS often experience layers of sensory load, executive functioning challenges and cycles of burnout.

Hormonal instability can make emotional regulation feel wild. It becomes difficult to separate what is neurological, what is hormonal, and what is environmental.

Our bodies operate as holistic ecosystems, where hormones, nervous system function, metabolism and stress load interact constantly.

What matters more is understanding your capacity, managing your energy, reducing overall load, and putting coping strategies in place that support your whole system rather than trying to fix one piece in isolation.

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Fibroids

Fibroids are non-cancerous growths that develop in or around the womb.

For some people, they are incidental findings on a scan. For others, they mean…

• Heavy bleeding

• Pelvic pain

• Bloating

A constant logistical nightmare.

One of my clients was living with both endometriosis and fibroids, and every period came with the same fear…

Where will I be? What products do I have? Have I packed enough? Do I have the right pain relief? And how much is this going to take out of my life this month?

We worked together for several years to track her cycle, manage her energy, and plan her capacity at work and at home while she waited for the NHS to give her the answers she needed.

But over time, the fibroid grew, and the endometriosis spread. There came a point where symptom management was no longer enough.

After years of not getting clear answers, she was eventually forced to go private for a full hysterectomy.

During surgery, they found a four-centimetre fibroid and endometriosis at the back of her womb, which had been obscured on previous scans because of the fibroid.

Surgery is not where everyone’s story ends. But being listened to, investigated properly, and taken seriously should not be optional.

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PMDD

PMDD stands for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder.

It is often described as bad PMS, which does not even begin to cover it.

In the luteal phase, after ovulation and before bleeding, those who experience PMDD have an extreme nervous system response to the hormonal shifts that naturally take place.

Hormones follow their usual pattern, but the reaction to them is heightened. It is a severe sensitivity to hormonal change.

That can look like…

• Mood swings

• Intense irritability or rage

• Anxiety that ramps up quickly

And drop in mood that can feel like falling into a black hole and is wildly disproportionate to what is happening externally

Some people describe it as feeling like a personality transplant for two weeks of every month.

Clients have told me it feels like watching themselves behave in ways they do not recognise while still being fully aware it is happening.

And it is not just emotional.

PMDD can also bring physical symptoms such as…

• Breast tenderness

• Appetite changes

• Sleep disruption

• Heavy periods

• Headaches

• Joint pain

• Bloating

The body and brain do not operate separately.

And if you have ADHD, the likelihood of experiencing PMDD is 3 times higher. Hormonal shifts can amplify difficulties with emotional regulation, focus and impulsivity. When executive load is already high, adding luteal phase instability on top can tip your whole system into overload.

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Why Tracking Matters

This is why tracking matters so much.

Knowing when your luteal phase begins, or when shifts typically start to take place, means you can plan your capacity, reduce load, and put coping strategies in place before you are already in it.

Although all of these conditions present differently, what they share is this... they can be very easy to miss if you have been experiencing symptoms for so long that they have become your normal.

And that becomes even harder when you have been consistently fed the message that you should push past pain and discomfort.

If you are told that cramping is just part of being a woman, that heavy bleeding is inconvenient but expected, that mood swings are something to manage quietly, then discomfort slowly becomes your version of normal.

Remember… period pain is common. It is not normal.

If your periods or ovulation are painful, heavy or consistently irregular, it’s time to ask more questions.

There is a wide spectrum of what is considered 'normal' across cycles. But common does not automatically mean acceptable.

Some people have lived with disruption for so long that it feels like their normal.

Others may have had steady cycles for years.

Either way, tracking matters.

👉 If your baseline has been skewed for a long time, tracking helps you see patterns clearly instead of second-guessing yourself.

👉 If your cycle has been relatively stable, tracking helps you notice when something shifts before it escalates.

When you notice something irregular or more intense than your usual pattern, you have information.

Information allows you to advocate for yourself rather than simply endure.

Mapping your cycle becomes part of medical advocacy.

It also changes how you manage your capacity day to day.

Capacity is not only shaped by workload and deadlines.

It is shaped by your physiology, too.

And when we bring that information into the workplace, we create cultures where people are listened to, believed, and supported rather than left to silently struggle.

Scroll down to get your free cycle tracker to understand your patterns today.