Throughout history, menstrual pain and the people that it impacts have been under researched and underserved. This has created a culture in which people who have menstrual pain are unable to effectively access the support and treatment they need to lessen or alleviate their pain.

Across countries around the world it can take an average of 7 years from the onset of symptoms for women with chronic menstrual pain conditions to receive an accurate diagnosis, because this is culturally disregarded.

Today, individuals are better able than ever to access the knowledge they need to improve their understanding of their own selves, needs, and experiences when it comes to their menstrual pain because of the digital world.

People who menstruate and have menstrual pain have been able to build online communities to better support themselves and each other. There now exists entire worlds of information to be shared amongst people experiencing the same issues so that there can be collective learning and knowledge building. The creation of content that represents the shared struggles of those with menstrual pain fosters more journeys towards health and healing.

At somedays, we are committing to joining in this digital unification and striving to support all those who menstruate with living a more pain free reality. 

Whatever your favourite means of consuming information, there are resources available to you so you can better manage your pain. Here are some of the latest online resources to learn about menstrual pain management:

Listening 

• The Pelvic Messenger: A radio show that is devoted to promoting diagnosis, recovery and success in treating Chronic Pelvic Pain conditions.
• The V Hive: A podcast focused on women’s intimate health. With weekly episodes discussing all of the things you've always thought about, but never wanted to talk about.
• PERIOD Podcast: A podcast that is a space for menstruators and their friends to learn all about the biology and culture of the menstrual cycle. 
• The Flow Down: A podcast all about periods with goals of shattering period stigma, providing useful information about the menstrual cycle, highlighting diverse voices, creating community and having fun doing it.
• Heavy Flow: A feminist, body positive podcast about periods, reproductive health and health and wellness topics.

Watching 

• TED Talk: The Mystery of Chronic Pain: A presentation by Dr. Elliot Krane on how the human body can turn the sensation of pain into a disease of chronic pain. 
• TED Talk: Why can’t we talk about periods?: In this revelatory talk, Jen Gunter explains how menstrual shame silences and represses and ultimately leads to the mismanagement of pain. 
• Painful Periods, Dysmenorrhea, and Endometriosis: A video outlining the difference between primary and secondary dysmenorrhea, how to treat period pain, as well as signs and symptoms that period pain is something more serious.
• TED Talk: It’s Time to Talk About Women’s Health: A video where Cassie Dionne deconstructs why the subject of women’s health is one that is oftentimes considered taboo. She develops how symptoms like incontinence, pelvic pain or pain with sex are incredibly common but do not have to be a woman’s norm - there is help. 
• Painful Periods - How to Stop Period Menstrual Cramps: A video addressing how to stop period pain, best treatment for painful periods, best medication for period pain, as well as what is dysmenorrhea, adenomyosis, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, and more. 

Social Networks (Instagram/Blogs)

• My Endometriosis Team: My EndometriosisTeam is a social network for women living with endometriosis. It helps women get the emotional support you need from others like you, and gain practical advice and insights on managing treatment or therapies for endometriosis. 
• The Happy Pelvis: The Happy Pelvis is a resource to increase awareness, educate and support others who are going through their own pelvic pain or chronic illness journey.
• Endo Black Inc: ENDO Black is a safe space for women, to ask questions, to be encouraged, and to receive advice on how to manage their endometriosis. It is very important that women of color are aware of endometriosis and able to get help.
• Flow Days: A collective committed to sharing natural solutions to those suffering from menstrual pain that they might find helpful. Great for anyone that would like to learn more about how to treat endometriosis symptoms naturally.
• The Endo Health Hub: A place where women can share parts of their lives, connect and inspire each other. A place where people can share how Endometriosis impacts their life and still know they are so much more than their illness. 

Apps

• Clue: Clue provides (period, PMS and fertile window) predictions you can trust. It allows you to log your period flow, menstrual products used, sex, pain, moods, cervical fluid, symptoms, and more.
• Flo: Flo exists to empower women by giving them a space they can access the knowledge and support they need to prioritise their health and wellbeing. Their health assistant helps people get engaged in dialogues on different health topics to understand their body signals better.
• Cycles: Cycles is designed to help those feeling feeling in the dark about their own reproductive health. With personalized observations and a unique design bringing you and your partner together, Cycles knows how to make the most out of period tracking.
• Eve: Glow apps offers personal health tracking products that illuminate health through data, and empower people with new information about their bodies. It includes a daily “Cylescope” , daily sex quizzes, and a community of other users to connect with about menstrual pain.
• Myflo: My Flow is a new tracking system to help you find your FLO and resolve the confusion, mystery, and overwhelm out of navigating your 28-day cycle in every area of your life. It is also a period app that tells you what to do to be symptom free. 

Books

• Ask Me About My Uterus: Abby Norman describes what it was like to have her pain dismissed, to be told it was all in her head, only to be taken seriously when she was accompanied by a boyfriend who confirmed that her sexual performance was, indeed, compromised. She shows that women’s bodies have long been the battleground of a never-ending war for power, control, medical knowledge, and truth. 
• Wild Power: Wile Power establishes that the menstrual cycle is a vital and vitalizing system in the female body, yet our understanding of and respect for this process is both limited and distorted. As a woman you are coded for power, and the journey to realizing the fullness and beauty of that power – your Wild Power – lies in the rhythm and change of your menstrual cycle.
• Heavy Flow: Heavy Flow outlines that the fact is, women the world over are taught the bare minimum about menstruation, and the messages they do receive are negative: that periods are painful and gross, that they turn us into hormonal messes, and that they shouldn't be discussed. By examining the history of period shame and stigma and its effects on women’s health and wellness today as well as providing a crash course in menstrual self-care. 
• Seeing Red: Seeing Red explains how we’ve been lied to about periods. PMS, cramping, bloating, migraines, irritability, and anxiety may be extremely common, but contrary to popular belief, they aren’t normal. And they certainly aren’t “just part of being a woman,” despite the fact that this is what we’ve been told time and time again.
• Period Power: Period Power aims to explain what menstruation is, shed light on the stigmas and resulting biases, and create a strategy to end the silence and prompt conversation about periods.