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Periods usually come once a month and they generally suck. They're painful, uncomfortable, gross, and their presence (or absence thereof) can herald a string of problems.
But for American woman Ronny Maye, the above is the understatement of a lifetime.
Writing for Insider, she detailed her awful, terrible mega-period that lasted 83 days and sent her to the hospital.
She said it was what she imagined it felt like if her water broke while she was pregnant.
"When I looked down at my seat and the floor, I was standing in a small pool of blood," she wrote.
"I made it to the bathroom and got cleaned up as quickly as I could, but by the time I walked the 60 metres or so from the bathroom to my desk, blood was cascading down my leg again.
"In the 10 minutes it took me to drive home and get upstairs to my bathroom, there was a trail of blood following me."
Ronny described the extreme efforts she went to to control the monstrous amount of blood coming out of her.
"To control the bleeding, I put in a tampon, lined my underwear with an overnight pad and a standard pad, then nestled into a second pair of panties. Within an hour or so, I had gone through a box of tampons and a pack of pads."
FYI, male readers, that would take some women months to go through that sort of stock.
But back to Ronny.
She assumed the bleeding would slow down as it is always worse on the first day.
She sought medical attention twice and was rushed to hospital by an ambulance the second time she asked for help.
In the emergency room, a male doctor accused her of making up her story.
"I vividly recall him asking me, 'Are you sure you're bleeding as much as you say you are?'"
What he had failed to notice was that she had a drip in for dehydration, the bedding had been changed multiple times in the three hours she had been there, and nurses had already administered certain medicines to try and stem the bleeding.
She'd also had a blood transfusion.
Doctors tried to send her home, but she refused to go.
"I adamantly requested to be admitted overnight for observation. Overnight turned into a weekend stay," she wrote.
She also had an IUD placed inside her uterus, which is a contraceptive device that controls periods.
Ronny eventually discovered she has Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, which is suffered by up to 20 per cent of women across the world, according to the National Library of Medicine,
That's right, nearly a quarter of the women you know likely have this condition.
So, fellas, don't dismiss how terrible a period can be.
If Ronny had gone home that day, she would have died.
So, please. Just listen.
Featured Image Credit: Axel Bueckert / Alamy
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