D-day (or P-day?)

Well, it's pretty much here. The day every month where I get to find out if my efforts to beat endometriosis have worked. This month it's not looking good. While I don't have my period yet, I've had some pretty awful cramps/tenderness since last night, and I started getting rumblings on Thursday. Thankfully they are not the worst I've ever had, but they are definitely bad enough that I can't walk and just need to lie here holed up in bed with a hot water bottle and painkillers. I've definitely noticed the fatigue this week too. To be honest I barely have the energy to write this, but my brain is so restless that I'm worried that if I don't have some outlet, I'll get down. (Handy that I have nothing planned this weekend because my trip to Sydney was cancelled due to my friend that I was going to visit being sick.)

I have actually been exercising quite a lot this month (weekly: 2-3 sessions of Bikram yoga, 2-3 runs & a 40 min each way walk to work, along with a one-off weekend of skiing) so I was hopeful that it wouldn't be so bad, but alas, endometriosis seems to have a mind of its own, and even when I do all the things the research says you should do (including taking my supplements and eating well), it doesn't always work. I've definitely found that (after giving myself enough rest and pacing myself) exercise and eating well (inc cutting out wheat and other inflammatory foods) has its benefits for endo - for me I rarely have the random spasms in between periods that I used to get and I only really get severe fatigue on the week preceding my period. My moods are definitely higher and more stable too in general, but this tends to go out the window in the week preceding my period too.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be male (or someone with easy periods) and not have to deal with the mood swings, the fatigue, the blender in your belly. I wonder what would happen if they had to experience what I experience for even one month.