Here, Zaynah shares her story as part of our “Just a Period” campaign.

I started my period when I was 11, it was very heavy and I kept bleeding through my pads and clothes.

At this stage, I didn’t know much about periods, so I thought what I was experiencing was normal. But when I would talk about periods with my friends, none of them were having the leaking issues that I was experiencing.

It made me feel like I didn’t know how to use a pad with the frequency of my change.

I was even asked by my parents about how often I was changing my pads, because the supply at home kept running out.

I kept thinking, “why is this happening to me?”.

In year 7, I was juggling so much. Should I be making friends? Should I be staying on top of my workload? How should I deal with the heavy periods and severe pain? There was a lot going on.

My period also restricted the activities that I would do at school, like PE, because, I feared leaking. At school, you can’t just get up and go to the toilet, I was so nervous during the school day.

My heaving bleeding continued for two years. I had anaemia and I ended up staying in hospital and needing a blood transfusion.

I was offered the pill to manage my periods, however I ended up having tranexamic acid instead. I took this medication for three years and it reduced my heavy periods, but that was replaced by bad cramping.

When I turned 16 and I was in my final year of secondary school, when I really needed to pull through, everything just kind of fell apart. I started to experience severe period pain and the heavy bleeding was back.

I started missing my school days. From January until July, there was not a week when I was in school for the full five days. This really affected me. It was my GCSE year and instead of revising, I was suffering with heavy bleeding and severe period pain. I tried to put the pain I was experiencing down to stress, but it was not.

I had a laparoscopy in June 2023 and was diagnosed with endometriosis and adenomyosis.

I am currently on the Mirena Coil and my periods are now irregular. I still experience severe pain and heavy bleeding, but I can manage it by taking pain killers, using a hot water bottle and sometimes using a tens machine.

My mum has been a great support to me through my period journey, by helping me research the conditions and as someone I can always go to for advice.

Looking back at my experience, I wish I had known more about endometriosis and adenomyosis. It can be quite isolating to be told about these conditions as you are being diagnosed, because you have never heard of them before.

I wish in primary school, when you have just learnt about your body and what a period is, they could define a normal period and more information on what is not normal.

When you start your period, you believe what you are experiencing is normal, when you may need further support and advice.

Recently, I was able to give advice to someone in my school, who was experiencing bad period pain, they are a dancer, and the pain knocked their confidence. It has been suggested that they may have endometriosis or PCOS. They came to me for support on how to deal with it and for more information.

I told her, “Make sure that you are in touch with your doctor and don’t let it go. Make sure you get your diagnosis, because if you get a diagnosis, it has a name. You know what you are researching. Also, don’t use Google to scare yourself by searching the symptoms, search for what you advised you may have. And remember to advocate for yourself.”

When you educate yourself and you can educate your family and friends. You are helping to raise awareness of the signs and can help someone that could potentially be going through the same condition. It is important to spread awareness, even if it is within a small space.

If you can relate to Zaynah's story, you could have a medical condition that needs treatment. Always see your doctor if you have any concerns.

Find more information and advice in our periods information hub.