Since she was 13, Adama Dauda, now 25, has struggled with intense menstrual pain which usually begins five days before her menstrual flow, and peaks three days into it. To her, each menstrual cycle brings as much difficulty as the last or even worse. But it was hardly ever bearable and the pattern was always the same.
First, there’s a throbbing in her abdomen, thighs and waistline; then an unexplained weakness follows, accompanied by dizziness, nausea, and body aches of an unusual intensity. She said she never spoke of her pain or attempted to seek healthcare because no woman around her ever did. Ms Dauda was raised in Rafi Zurfi, a remote community in Gwagwalada Local Government Area of Abuja .
She said women in the community spoke dismissively of menstrual pain, and that she had been teased a few times for acting too sickly for “mere menstruation.” But she knew her cramps were in some way very different from the others. “Unlike them, mine hurts too much,” she said.
When she began to use pain relief medication in 2021, it was as an act of desperation, an overwhelming desire to numb the pain that, at the time, was brewing uglier experiences. With an infant son, a husband and a local stall to care for, she could no longer afford to be incapacitated every month by her period. The pills did not stop the pain, she said, but it brought relief.
The cramping began three, instead of five days, before each flow, and ended one or two days into it. The pain, thus, became less .
