A Period Cramp Simulator Experience
By: Isabella Quintero and Emma Travers
As women, we experience countless times of discomfort throughout our adolescent and adult years. Through this discomfort, we are also expected to carry out everyday tasks like working, going to school, exercising, etc. Recently, we’ve noticed that the women’s reproductive system is not very well known across those who don't directly experience it, or witness someone going through it.
Emma and I decided this month to educate the men in our lives, those who we see every day at school, and have them try a period cramp simulator. They will not be experiencing the exact feelings of what it is like to be on your period, and we recognize that every woman experiences this in different ways, but this experience is meant to open their eyes even just slightly to what it may feel like to be in discomfort and pain for an average of one week out of each month of the year for the majority of one’s life.
As they go into this experience, they will have filled out a survey clarifying what they already know, what they expect, and then we will find out more of their thoughts on women’s menstruation as they do everyday tasks with the simulator on. Afterwards, we will dissect how they feel post-simulator, and how their experience differed from their expectations. This experience is meant to be educational, but also a fun experience with some of our friends!
Bella and I both tried the simulator to discover if the pain felt like what an actual period would be like. We tested out every setting included on the device on every level to decide which level would be most like what we were used to feeling. We had different opinions on what it felt like and how similar it was to our cramps, which would make sense because everyone experiences periods in different ways. However, we both decided on the setting we felt most reflected the feeling of period cramps.
While the pain we felt with the simulator was real, and felt as if it were real cramps, the cramps we actually feel are pretty different. Regardless, we felt that it was a similar enough feeling that we could have the boys try this level and feel at least the gist of what it would be like to feel that discomfort for an extended period of time.
When asked pre-simulator what they know about periods, a few of the boys’ statements were as follows:
“They happen for a week every month, and it is part of the menstrual cycle.”
“They apparently hurt.”
“They cause immense pain and cramps, and it sheds the uterine lining.”
According to the Cleveland Clinic , “A menstrual cycle begins when you get your period or menstruate. This is when you shed the lining of your uterus. This cycle is part of your reproductive system. A typical cycle lasts between 24 and 38 days.”
The boys’ answers were largely accurate. We then wanted to ask what they thought this experience would help them learn. They said:
“I want to see how it feels.”
“A better understanding of the pain level.”
“How to better understand what women are going through. And how to be better aware of how I treat women on their period.”
“That women can handle pain but not accountability.”
Emma and I compiled some highlights of this experience into a video, showing these boys across different time periods, who all generally do the same kind of tasks, using the same setting on the simulator device.
Click here to watch our video!
On a scale of 1-5, (1 being "this is gonna be lightwork. Why are girls always complaining?" and 5 being "oh my gosh this is gonna be awful"), the majority of the boys believed that the pain they’d experience would be at a 4. After the simulator, their average went down to a 3.
After asking them what they thought about the feeling, they expressed that it did hurt, but it felt more like an artificial pain, and felt more uncomfortable rather than painful. Given that we have no way of actually having them feel what we feel, this was the best possible way. However, after thinking about having this feeling for more than the tiny increments of time that we had them test it out--like a whole week--they expressed that it would feel much worse.
Post simulator, we asked each participant how they would describe the feeling of it. Some of the responses were as follows:
“The best comparison I have is to a cramp from running or post-vomit experience.”
“It just felt like something was vibrating on your stomach--it didn’t necessarily hurt but it just felt super weird and uncomfortable.”
“Like a pulsating feeling in my abs and then it felt like the cramp you get after doing sit ups but a constant cramp.”
“An ab cramp that was constant and pulsing.”
In the original survey, 75% of the participants noted that they see an individual (sisters, moms, or girlfriends) on a daily basis who experience periods. This 75% went into this experience pretty much expecting a lot of pain, while the other participants that don’t regularly see an individual who experiences this went into this thinking they wouldn’t feel anything.
After having experienced the simulator they were asked how this has changed their perspective of what women go through. The consensus of that question being that after a week of dealing with the cramps, among other symptoms--headaches, nausea, back pain, overall pain throughout the body, etc-- that it would be really annoying and painful.
Overall, this experience taught both Bella and I a lot about how women are commonly perceived, but it also gave us the chance to teach the men in our lives the reality of periods. It gave the participants a better understanding of what most women go through, and hopefully makes them even slightly more empathetic in the future towards the women in their lives.
