Kat D. • Connecticut • 14
I honestly don't remember much about it besides being in CVS. But I can tell you it was extremely painful and heavy to the point where I was throwing up and incapacitated. When I was about 12, I was taken to the hospital because of excruciating pain my lower left abdomen. I was taken in pretty quickly because they thought it was appendicitis, but an ultrasound showed a 2.5 centimeter cyst of my ovary.
My periods continued to be hell and rendering me to a crying ball in the nurses office at school or on the couch. I constantly had the pain of an ovarian cyst, which I was told either goes unnoticed or is as painful as childbirth.
I saw my doctor for a sore throat and I mentioned my painful periods, so she suggested birth control. My mom was very reluctant because at that time, I was about 13 and she didn't like the idea of a 13 year old on the pill. So yeah, birth control is so stigmatized that my mom didn't let me take something that could make my pain a lot better just because I was young.
I'm fourteen now and went on the pill last April because mom was getting tired of picking me up from school because I was in extreme pain and vomiting. It helped so much. I just wish that I could have done something before so I didn't have to go through all that pain.