Male Doctor Likens Period Pain To Heart Attacks, Women Everywhere Say 'Duh'

When we say we feel like we’re dying during our periods, believe us

You know that painful thing ladyfolk have been complaining about since the dawn of time? Turns out we can all breathe a sigh of relief about the pain we endure from our menstrual cramps, because that pain has finally been validated.

By a man.

John Guillebaud, a medical doctor and professor of reproductive health at University College London who initially spoke with Elle UK about the topic, is a solid source of information who is just doing his job. He even likens menstrual cramps to being “almost as painful as a heart attack.”

Which, yeah…we know. THANKS BRO.

But why did it have to take a dude to say this for it to be validated?

When I was a teenager, I endured countless eye rolls from gym teachers during “that time” and have always been hesitant to mention my discomfort from cramps to anyone of authority. I’ve also got PCOS — which means when I actually get my period, they can be painful AF. In fact, I wasn’t even sure I was IN LABOR because the contractions that were filling my lower back with the kind of searing pain that didn’t feel all that dissimilar from periods past.

Thankfully, the women of Twitter delivered when it comes to appropriate rebuttals and reactions to this story.

Ask any female who has had to leave school or work because of awful cramps, and she’ll probably tell you all about the elaborate story she had to concoct just to get an administrator or supervisor to allow her to go home for the day. But thankfully, we can now feel secure in complaining about our pain because a man has officially made it A Thing.

While pain is subjective to each individual who experiences it, I feel confident I’m not making a sweeping generalization by saying period pain is the absolute pits.

Add in common medical conditions like endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), fibroids, pelvic inflammatory disease, and other menstrual disorders and it’s a goddamn miracle women don’t completely lose our shit every single month.

So yeah, we know all about how serious cramps are. We didn’t need it mansplained.