‘Sorry I didn’t get the essay done, I was on my period’, wrote No Girl Ever to their supervisor.

I woke up on Saturday morning with the all-too-familiar feeling of nausea, an ache in my stomach, and a numbness in my right leg. Urgh.

“A series of delightful euphemisms flashed across my mind: the painters have arrived, I’ve fallen to the communists, Aunt Flo was most definitely in town”

I’d been pretty busy since arriving back: three birthday celebrations, a coursework deadline, and a family visit all in the space of just five days. Nobody needs reminding that the Cambridge work schedule doesn’t leave much room for life to get in the way, and predictably, I hadn’t found a lot of time to get on with my next essay. The first thing I noticed after staggering out of bed were the works of Rousseau looming ominously at me from my desk; I had four days to get through the texts and then plan and write the essay.

That would normally be just about manageable, especially given that I can usually get out bed and start working fairly quickly. But today, the second I sat down at my desk, my insides felt like they were burning up and freezing over all at the same time; my back hurt; my stomach panged; and all I wanted was to go to bed and not wake up for a few days.

Overwhelmed for a minute, I considered writing an unthinkable email to my supervisor – but shot that option down pretty quickly. Given that terms are at least eight weeks long, and women can expect between one and three periods in a term, I was pretty sure I could guess my supervisor’s reaction. Everyone else seemed getting on with it: why couldn’t I?

This is part of the problem – the only difference between a period and a stomach bug or bad cold is that the former is more predictable. And, as a result, we’re expected to deal with them.

But nobody’s talking about how hard it can be for people to carry on through their workload as if there isn’t a throbbing pain in their gut. There’s also a massive discrepancy in how bad the symptoms can be; I’ve got off pretty lightly in comparison to some of my friends who can barely get out of bed or move at the worse times of their cycle.

Just in case anyone’s wondering what I’m moaning about, the symptoms of one’s uterus dissolving and then exiting through their vagina can include back pain, chest pain, fatigue, a higher risk of anaemia, nausea, diarrhoea, constipation, abdominal cramping, and muscle aches, to name but a few. And that’s not even counting the emotional strain; I once burst into tears in the middle of WHSmith when asked if I wanted a receipt or not.

So it’s no secret that periods aren’t much fun. But in a place like this, they can be bloody debilitating (pun fully intended). Staying healthy – both physically and mentally – is already hard enough at Cambridge, and the difficulty of navigating our workload while in crippling pain can’t be overstated.

In fact, for some, the stresses of Cambridge can have the opposite effect; in 2017, a survey by the Independent found that over a third of female students had missed a period during term time, and of those 47% cited stress as a factor. Others simply cited changes in their periods; one respondent to the survey explained “I’ve been bleeding more than usual during exams, which I guess is also to do with stress? Much more irregular when in Cambridge.” It’s universally recognised that a disrupted menstrual cycle can be a clear sign of a hormonal imbalance.

So what can Cambridge - and other places of work - do to combat these problems? Periods aren’t an easy thing to talk about (just think about the number of euphemisms we have for the p-word). But an increased understanding of how difficult it can be to ‘get on with it’ is vital. On top of this, it would be an active sign of support to women in Cambridge if free sanitary products were provided across all colleges in the same way contraception is, and if there was a body we could turn to when we need advice about communicating these difficulties with supervisors.

Overall, we need to start having honest, frank discussions about the effect of the menstrual cycle on our university work. Period.