Disclaimer: This article is about periods, and it contains sensitive medical language and imagery. If you can't handle discussion of a legitimate biological process because you think it's icky or "none of your business as a man" then you should probably click away.

If you are worried you may have adenomyosis or endometriosis visit: Speakendo.com to take a short quiz. Then, make an appointment with either your primary care doctor or an OBGYN. Endo and Adeno are very similar but differ in the location of pain/rupture. Adenomyosis shares some characteristics with endometriosis, which is when the uterine lining grows in areas outside the uterus.

According to Health.com and reproductive specialist Dr. Hilgers:

"With endometriosis, you have [endometrial tissue] outside the uterus, like on the bowel, bladder, and fallopian tubes," says Dr. Hilgers. "Adenomyosis is a similar process, but within the uterus muscle wall."

You can be unfortunate enough to have either or both. Casual period cramps are caused by contractions of the uterus when the brain sends signals to dispel the lining after it realizes it will not be host to an embryo that month.

Period cramps and endometriosis are not the same, but they do coexist.

There are several treatment options to relieve symptoms, which you can scroll down to peruse. If you think your menstrual pain is rooted in another cause, refer to this list and call your doctor as soon as you can. I'm not a doctor, you probably aren't either, but we are responsible for finding out the biological meaning behind this monthly turmoil.

I have adenomyosis as it's been diagnosed by a doctor. It is the most painful thing I've ever gone through, much more excruciating than any broken bone or sprain I've had. Each month, I try to interact in society as if I didn't have a rusty dagger lodged in my lower stomach. Sometimes I cry or try and do yoga to relieve the tension but to no avail. Sometimes the pain is so deep I feel the need to scream. Many people have undermined my pain because they don't understand it. Men and women alike.

In high school, one of the secretaries overlooking the sick room advised me I'd better "get over it because I'm a woman." It is easy for someone to attribute your pain to their understanding of it. Although many women do have it Adenomyosis and Endometriosis are not normal. We are just now discovering how many women suffer in silence because people make them feel like their pain surrounding menstruation is taboo and dirty.

In high school, I seriously thought my appendix had burst during one particularly laborious cycle. I passed out from the pain and woke up to an ambulance. I felt devalued and confused when I got to the hospital and the doctors took hours to see me, and when he did he waved me off with a prescription for 600 mg Tylenol when I told him I was "simply on my period."

Enough is enough.

If you have serious menstrual pain, it should be considered a serious medical/physical concern: worthy of the same sympathy you would give to someone with a huge clot dripping gash in their abdominal.

A lot of the fear and stigma surrounding periods and their pain comes from social myth and the shaming of women. Yeah, it's gross and painful, and squeamish, but so is much of the media today. Imagine: the public is much more comfortable viewing a gory film such as Kill Bill, or Game of Thrones than discuss the logistics of the menstrual cycle, which doesn't even involve killing people!

People would rather laugh at bloody violence than educate themselves on the realities of living as a woman.

1. What is Adenomyosis?

This is not a curse bestowed upon women for Eve's sin. This is a biological dysfunction that is present because of no fault of our own. This is a genetic condition.

The US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health hosts many respected scientific studies and collaborations. It was first described by scientist McElin Bird as: "Adenomyosis may be defined as the benign invasion of the endometrium into the myometrium, producing a diffusely enlarged uterus which microscopically exhibits ectopic non-neoplastic, endometrial glands and stroma surrounded by the hypertrophic and hyperplastic myometrium". In other words, the pain comes from sloughing, tearing, ripping of uterine tissue (sometimes before endometrial lining loosening) and enlarged misplacement of reproductive organs.

In the article, the doctors discuss the common "cure" of hysterectomy. That's right, removing the entire womb is considered the most common treatment.

So... no, I don't want to come into work today.

Symptoms

*Mild to excruciating pain/cramps in pelvic, lower back, and abdominal area.

*Mood swings, agitation, or sudden drops in energy. Fatigue.

*Vomiting, diarrhea, headache, heavy sweating, anemia.

*Heavy to severe bleeding, clots, or tissue excretion.

*Unusually long (7+ days) cycle, or irregular cycles of time.

*Possible early onset of puberty

*Bloating, stomach-ache.

*Tightness/soreness of muscles along the pelvis, thighs, and back.

*May result in the appearance of cysts and fibroids of the uterine track.

*Intense Menstrual pain can signal to the body that there is something wrong with a woman's fertility. This is not always the case, however, according to NewsScientist, it is more common than you think. "The team identified 422 women who had been unable to conceive naturally after a year. When they were asked to score their endometriosis pain on a scale of 1-10, 289 of them rated it as a seven or higher," says Mathilde Bourdon from Descartes University in Paris.

Healthline.com suggests that Adenomyosis is caused by: "extra tissues in the uterine wall, present before birth, that grow during adulthood...or invasive growth of abnormal tissues (called adenomyoma) from endometrial cells pushing themselves into the uterine muscle."

2. Treatments/diagnosis.

Endometriosis and Adenomyosis pain can be widespread throughout the pelvic area, or it can be acute within the uterus — but it is always a fiery sensation of ripping and burning.

*To get a diagnosis, you must consult several healthcare providers. It isn't wise to rely on the information of one doctor alone, especially one not trained in woman's reproductive health, or one who too readily believes a woman's' menstrual pain is atonement for past sins. Ultrasound can help narrow the diagnosis and in some cases a biopsy is necessary. It's important to be honest about your pain levels, even when someone tries to tell you it's "normal" or "everyone goes through it." Everyone's experience with their period is different, and each should be handled according to the amount of disruption it causes in their life.

1. Hot compressor hot bath.

2. Sometimes exercise can relieve tension, sometimes it does the opposite. Low impact/ stretching seems to have the best results.

3. Ibuprofen, Pamprin, Midol, or Tylenol... Most doctors will not prescribe stronger medications due to addictive potential. (I disagree with the choice to withhold stronger pain meds to patients with endo. The pain I feel is worse than the aftermath of a wisdom tooth surgery in which you get strong pain medication, or the time I broke my finger, or the time I crashed off a cliff in an ATV, or the time I fell down the stairs... the point is the stigmatization and underestimation of a woman's pain is marginalizing.)

4. Sleep as much as you can! Drink as much water as you can.

5. New vibration technology claims to have a therapeutic effect on menstrual discomfort.

6. Hysterectomy.