Menstrual Period Pain

One thing I adore about blogs is the surprise of the journey. I start reading one of my regular B sites, BuzzMachine, and I end up discovering two new great G ones: Amy Langfield's New York Notebook and Eurotrash (via another nice B site Bruner Blog).

The reason I mention the blogger's gender is not sexism (well, maybe it is a bit, as you'll see shortly). Rather, it's because I think all the G blogs I discovered are written by the "cream of the crop": intelligent, funny, very talented, well-read women. However, even among this select group, I noticed a puzzling trend: period pain (dysmenorrhea) seems to be accepted without question.

Think about this for a moment. What other type of monthly, often disruptive pain do you put up with without a peep: bladder, stomach, head, ankle? I think not. Yet, when it comes to period pain, people seem to take it for granted. [Of course, by "people" I mean women; if men had to put up with it, they'd 1) drop like flies, and/or 2) move into their doctor's office. (/sexist comment)]

Granted, maybe I'm surprised by this acceptance because of my unique perspective. In my world, all the women already know that painful periods are not a given: if you're my patient, I tell you, and if you're my friend, you already know (most of my friends are medical people). But, still, I find it hard to understand:

Why do women think period pain has to be an integral part of their daily life?