Silent suffering: When menstrual pain is dismissed as normal
Most girls get their first period in their early teens. For Stella Nakato, it came at just twelve years of age—and with it, a level of pain no child should have to endure. What followed was not just early puberty, but years of excruciating menstrual pain that was repeatedly dismissed as “normal.” We begin a three-part series examining the silent suffering caused by painful periods, the condition known as dysmenorrhea, and the devastating cost of misdiagnosis. We start with the story of Nakato, and later, Grace Nagawa—two women whose lives were shaped by pain, silence, and a health system that didn’t believe them.
