Planned Parenthood Saved Me

Planned Parenthood is dedicated to women's health. We're posting stories from women whose lives were saved or changed because they had access to affordable healthcare like cancer screenings through Planned Parenthood.

A quick note, too-- we'd really love pictures of you holding up your stories, or just pictures of you that you'd like to include.

(Not affiliated with PP, by the way. We're just big fans. Questions? Get in touch with @deanna on Twitter.)

Pinkwash *this.*

Planned Parenthood Saved Me

When I was in college, and without insurance, I began to have extremely heavy periods.  I was bleeding for 10 days straight, such heavy bleeding that even the heaviest pads would last only a couple of hours, and the cramps I had for the first two days were debilitating.  I began to have dizzy spells, and had trouble concentrating during those times.  Then I started to pass out occasionally.  When I passed out walking across the quad between classes, one of my classmates carried me to the university clinic (which at that time consisted of a nurse who gave out aspirin and band-aids), and waited with me until I gained consciousness.  He was a gem!  I related to the nurse the trouble I was having, and she called the Planned Parenthood chapter in the nearest larger town.  Those wonderful people came and got me and took me to their clinic.  They had tests run on me and discovered I was severely anemic, and that if I didn’t control my periods, I could die.  So they put me on the Pill.  My periods never became normal, but the time was cut in HALF, and my flow lessened quite a bit.  I still had bad cramps, and they were the ONLY people who listened to me about the cramps.  Every other male gynecologist I talked to told me that I “just needed to take a couple of Midol and get used to it because I was a woman.”  25 years later, when I had my tubes tied, the surgeon told me that I had the worst case of endometriosis that she had ever seen.

Thank you Planned Parenthood!  You have my lifetime support.

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