Is it still normal?

Im 15F, and I apologize in advance if this post ends up being long. I hope someone can listen atleast.

It’s always difficult to talk about this topic, whether it be online or offline. I try to avoid these conversations, because every time I bring it up, i’m always told that the things i’m feeling and going through are “normal” and just an unfortunate thing that every woman has to go through.

Over the past 5 years, where i’ve been learning and growing older, I still have yet to learn about one thing. I’ve always looked around in gym classes and wondered why other girls were able to do this and not me. I felt like I couldn’t properly function with my period. I knew something was wrong with me, but I didn’t know what it was.

My friends often pointed out that nearly every gym class we had each month, I would either skip or sit out. I just couldn’t bear doing anything on my period. Whether that be school or just going out of the house to do something, I felt like I couldn’t do it.

Nearly every period, i’ve had the nastiest pains that just weren’t curable with a pill. Often this pain would be cramps on my abdomen and lower back, and moments of unbearable rectal pain. With that, i’ve had heavy flows for most of my life and painful bowel movements.

These cramps don’t just happen during my period. Often before or when I ovulate, I get cramps aswell followed up with painful acne. I have fainted a total of 4 times from heavy blood loss, which have definitely been a scare for both me and my parents. I have visited my family doctor for this, but I was just prescribed iron supplements.

Even after all these years, these symptoms have just been marked off as “normal.”

By the time I turned 14, I started to become anxious whenever I knew my period was gonna come. I can’t remember just how many times i’ve cried because of it.

Now at 15, I feel like no doctor will ever want to assess me until i’m maybe an adult. My mom has always made me believe that this is all normal because she has cramps too, but I don’t think this is normal. I never have, and i’ll always try to stay silent about it. But it really sucks when a period can affect your life this much.

I don’t know if this is a normal period or endometriosis, and I fear i’ll never know unless I reach out for help.