Jessica Wynn

So some cramping is normal, but debilitating pain is also really common.

There was a recent study done by female doctors that shows menstrual pain can be as painful as myocardial infarction.

Yeah, indeed.

It hurts a lot.

Not every time and not every one, but women experience vomiting, passing out, inability to function because there are often underlying conditions like endometriosis or fibroids.

Again, the language about how complex female anatomy is matters.

It's not just cramps.

It's intense pain.

Endometriosis is when tissue similar to the uterine lining grows outside the uterus.

That can cause severe pain, heavy bleeding, sometimes infertility.

And about 1 in 10 women have it.

And it currently takes an average of 7 to 10 years for a woman to be diagnosed.

Because doctors just don't take women's pain seriously.

They say it's just part of being a woman or it's in your head.

Women's pain is routinely dismissed as emotional or exaggerated.

People are just living with it.

And it's well documented.

This is a systemic issue and it's rooted in centuries of medical sexism.

It's really bad.

And modern gynecology in the United States was literally built on experiments and torture on enslaved black women.