A lot of women themselves don't believe their pain is abnormal, though. Women are raised with the idea what periods are meant to be extremely painful and it's just a fact of life. Especially if their mothers, sisters or friends have debilitating periods as well, and that's their only point of reference so of course they assume this must be normal.

I still remember how shocked I was when my periods went from moderately painful to completely painless after a few months of whole food diet. I had no idea it was even possible to have a painless period. (Granted, I definitely did not have endometriosis which is a whole other animal and unlikely to get better without treatment).