I sometimes have really, really bad cramps and incredibly heavy bleeding. 

I'm talking, soaking a maxi pad in 20 minutes and my whole body going stiff from a cramp shooting through to my back like a knife. 

Yeah. For a brief moment I considered calling in to work. But I thought "they are all women. They are going to think I'm stupid and making an excuse" so I went to work anyways. I was in pain, I felt disgusting. My entire body was hurting and at some point I had to sit down and just cry. I just walked into the office and hid and bursted out in tears and sat down while having a really bad cramp. I thought I was going to be in trouble because I needed to be workingw but I couldn't help it. My boss spotted me and asked me what's wrong and I told her what was happening and that I was really embarrassed over the way I was acting. She said "girl I know how it is" and handed me ibuprofen and naproxen and let me sit until I felt better. Then everyone was asking why I was crying and was offering me medicine, women carry so much pain relief with them😂 Someone made me coffee too. That didn't turn out how I expected it to lol I thought I was going to be given grief for dying over period cramps infront of all women because I know that not everyone has really bad cramps like that. After the medicine kicked in I felt a lot better and I could finish my work day. Everyone was saying "you look better do you feel better?" Like everyone was super sweet about it.  Maybe I'm just emotional but I'm really happy about the way everyone responded to me and understood. I didn't think they would understand.