The number one womens health issue seems to be the different sorts of problems that come from having a menstrual period. While many women seem to skate through them each month with barely even noticing they are HAVING a period, for other women it is of nightmare proportions. The labor pain type cramps, the migraine headaches, and the heavy bleeding that makes you feel as if you are dying are all a part of it. There is nothing normal or natural about this and for so many women it happens every single month. It actually causes quite a few women to have to stay in bed a couple days every month.

It is hard to say why some women experience this particular womens health issue while others do not. Maybe it has something to do with genetics. Chances are if your mother and grandmother did not suffer through abnormal pain and discomfort each month, you will be spared as well. However, there is no guarantee of that. Doctors used to believe that complaints of excessive discomfort during menstrual periods were all in a woman’s head. She was making it up for various reasons. As time passed, though, it started to be a medically proven fact that many women do suffer from terrible menstrual periods each month.

The debilitating cramps were actually given a name: dysmenorrhea. This particular womens health issue was then treated by a number of different methods. Pain pills and hysterectomies were high on the list. It was felt that in women who were no longer interested in having more children a hysterectomy would solve all of their problems. While it may take away the horrible cramping each month there was the little issue of being thrown into a premature menopause, not to mention that if an organ is not diseased it should stay right where it is. A lot of women went along with this solution, while others chose the pain pills.

Another delightful part of the womens health issue of menstrual cycles is premenstrual syndrome, or PMS. At its worst, PMS can make a woman feel and act insane. The hormones are all over the place with over reacting emotionally to everything. There have actually been cases of women murdering their husbands during severe PMS episodes. These women were found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. Happily, there has been quite a lot of research done into this terrible phenomenon and some solutions have been found that provide at least moderate relief. Maybe in the future ALL women will be able to have “normal and natural” menstrual cycles.