How do periods make you feel?
- A couple of days before: emotional, teary. During: bloated, hungry, ugly, wondering if I smell.
- Knackered, angry and generally grim.
- Tired, hungry, mood up and down, pain for 1 day.
- Generally lethargic, unmotivated even if I have things on another day I really want to do, in pain if I am having tummy cramps.
- Exhausted, sore and leading up to it very easily made sad.
- Gross and grim most of the time, always low energy.
- I feel a lot of pain, discomfort and fatigue.
- Groggy and sorry for myself.
- Empowered. Sense of sisterhood.
- What don’t they make me feel?! The week leading up to it I’m more sensitive than normal, crying over small things, easily agitated, and just overall a feeling of tiredness.
- Definitely a bit ‘off’ but nothing too drastic.
- Icky, cry easier.
- Bad cramps, and I get spots and bad mood swings before.
- Really tired and painful. My back and tummy hurt like hell. I don't even wanna wake up.
- Tired, bloated, slow, moody, useless.
- Anxious, stressed, irritable, bloated and sad.
- The first day can be really painful, and my first reaction is often annoyance. Periods are messy and expensive and get in the way. But also for me if I didn't come on my period, something might be wrong with my body so I try to be grateful for them too!
- Gross.
- Emotional!
- Tired, irritable, anxious.
- Inconvenienced!
- Normal.
- Crap. Mood swings & painful cramps lead to fatigue and a low mood.
- Periods make me feel womanly in a way, it is very painful on the first few days and sometimes I feel nauseous and lethargic, but I also feel like ‘hell yeah, this is what it’s about’. This is probably a weird way to view it but also kinda accepting and celebrating this painful experience as something only those with vaginas will ever feel and there is beauty in it.
- Bloated, painful, headaches, sometimes emotional.
- I enjoy the routine of it, as it assures me I'm healthy and that I'm not pregnant! But the pain is not great :( and can sometimes be a big distraction in my work.
- Tired, uncomfortable, self-conscious.
- Generally fine, I know that my mood can be a bit erratic in relation to my hormone cycle. So, as long as I stay aware of that, I feel in control. I don't have as bad symptoms as others.
- Like I’m getting a flu after spending a whole day lifting pianos up four floors for a whole day. Also I get bloated.
- About a week before it comes my breasts hurt – it’s as if they’re about to explode. A few days before, I start feeling like I’m getting the flu, then come the cramps that feel as if someone is pulling my uterus out of my body – and at the same time it feels like my back has been bitten. After the pain, I usually feel like I’m peeing myself and I need to run to put a stop to it. Luckily, the pain usually lasts one or two days.
- Exhausted, nauseous on Day 1-2, sluggish and sometimes bloated.
- Pre period I feel anxious, eating carbs and chocolate. Periods make me feel free. It's trickier every time you go pee too.
- Deep pain, quick tempered, exhaustion but my system feels a little bit cleaner – also handling pain teaches me a lot.
- Constantly burdened, embarrassed for coming across as lazy when actually I just can’t think or move.
- I feel very anxious the days before my period. Not because I'm worried about it, but I think naturally the hormones in my body make me a bit low. I don't have many physical symptoms, but I'm definitely quite tired during my bleed.
- F***ing awful.
- Emotional and very tired.
- Crap, bloated, grumpy.
- It’s a rollercoaster!
- I’m disorganised. So it always catches me off guard, despite being 37 and having had periods now for around 23 years. So a quick trip to boots to fork out a fiver on a new box of tampons. Having periods is inconvenient!
- Up and down, anxious, depressed, in pain.
- Irritable, bloated.
- Tired, sometimes in pain, sometimes emotional, but often relieved because the bloating and emotional load pre period is worse than the period itself.
- Sad, stressed, in pain, bloated, bloated, constipated, nauseous, but sometimes also horny.
- TERRIBLE, hence I'm on the pill and skip them frequently 🙃
- Tired, pain, icky, sometimes relief.
- Most of the time very fatigued, cramps, headaches and migraines, a bit down, anxious, more irritable, muscle pain, nausea, stomach and intestines don't feel great, sometimes throwing up, skin issues, skin is much more susceptible to pain, sensitive breasts. When I'm stressed the symptoms are increased. This all occurs around a week, sometimes two, before my period starts. Especially the fatigue and nausea. I'm more hungry then too – I crave hamburgers/red meat (I hardly eat meat usually) or paté, things with liver. I guess it's about iron. The migraine is usually the aftermath.
- The first day is horrendous pain that I have to manage, over the other days the pain gets less. I feel extremely tired, dizzy and sick at the start.
- Tired! And the days are less convenient to me, I can't plan everything like usual.
- Depressed, irritable, numb.
- Bloated, hungry and fragile (emotionally).
- Tired, grumpy, achey, slow, sometimes sad.
- Tired, irritable, emotional, awful pain.
- Emotional, fatigued, low mood, low self esteem, bad memory and disorganised. The build up (week before) also makes me super emotional and want to cry all the time.
- Tired. Sore. Tender. More sensitive.
- The extremes of every emotion in rapid succession and also some physical pain.
- Irritated.
- Like a bloated noob with little control over my body.
- I’m quite lucky that I don’t feel much pain. However, I do become a bit anxious and panicky for two days – I know by now that I need to bench my thoughts for two days and wait for it to pass. In winter, I often need to sleep more during my period. I have friends who are in absolute agony for a few days and can’t move without taking the strongest of painkillers, so periods are a very individual experience that are different for every woman.
- Incredibly tired. Also in the run up, pretty cross. Mostly at inanimate objects. But not just a little bit annoyed, if I were to walk into a table my immediate response would be to want to smash it up with an axe and probably tell it to "go away" in no uncertain terms.
- Grumpy, angry, mood swings.
- Kind of fine, maybe a dull ache in my lower back – but I know that’s extremely lucky. Which is mad. Sometimes a sense of release, a little less sociable. It actually makes me feel really attractive! Understanding more about my entire cycle has helped, and eating with it has tamed the hormone imbalances big time.