I used to get horrible, terrible cramps. I spent hours curled up in bed, or lying in a hot tub, only moving to refill the tub with hot water when it cooled off.
I had my daughter and nursed her for 8 months, and didn’t have a period for those 8 months. Since it’s come back, I haven’t had a single cramp. My period comes and goes with no pain. I don’t know what caused that, but I’m not complaining.
I’m 6 ft, usually about 155/160 lbs, but am currently carrying about 30 lbs more than that.
Bad but not really debilitating cramps for the first day or so, easily calmed down with a couple of Tylenol, reduction of salty foods and an increase in fruits and veggies.
Height: 5’ 3"; I wear L or size 14 but I do have a lot of muscle weight from yoga, Pilates, exercise bike, etc.
I’m an odd example, I lost about 70 pounds over the past year or so, going from over 200 lbs to my now 145ish. I’m 5’6". When I was heavier, the first day or so was always uncomfortable, but never serious. I could function, but I was tired, had minor cramping, a lot of gas, and usually some diarrhea. I couldn’t put a tampon in for a couple days because I was so sore.
Now my periods completely sneak up on me, and I have absolutely no discomfort like before. I’m un-sore and perhaps a little bloated, but who isn’t? It’s a major relief… but some people are saying that they had it worse when they were skinnier, so I dunno, maybe it’s like a bell curve and if I lost another 40 pounds, I’d be hurting again 
I have endometriosis, which means I had some of the most agonizing cramps you can imagine. My mother has it too, and says she’d rather give birth once a month and go through it. I’ve never had a child, so I can’t agree, but I know I’d rather be set on fire than go through that pain again.
Depo-Prevera helped me immensly. I don’t have periods any more, so, thus, no pain. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
I’m 5’4", 110 lbs.
I used to have killer cramps from jr.high til about twenty-three. Lower back cramping, full-on uterine throbbing that made using tampons a nightmare for the first few days because everything was just bone-deep sore. Either I grew out of it, or having a baby changed things, or going on/off Depo did the trick, now at 34 I have very little cramping even when I’m not on the shot. Since all those possible causes happened in the same time frame, who knows?
I did have a ‘tipped uterus’ whatever that means, can they untip eventually? My current OB-GYN has never mentioned it.
5’9" hourglass and squishy
Mrs. Vorlon had issues with the new and improved 3 week bleed cycle, and after the MD’s hemming and hawing, decided to get her girly bits toasted with boiling water, AKA Endometrial Ablation.
Worked like a charm. With one small problem—they started her blood thinners up too soon.
The medical profession moves real fast when you say things like “Passing softball sized clots”.
Once that fire drill stopped, all was calm, no periods since. No cramps, just the standard bloating/iratibility on a roughly lunar cycle,
However with such parts toasted, we were told no more kids. Just to make sure, snipping took place at the same time. The risk of etopic pregnancy is very much higher after toasting.
Mine are pretty bad. Advil is the only thing that dulls the pain. The one perscription my doc put me on made things worse (bleeding ulcers, full-body aches in addition to the usual hot-poker-in-belly feeling). She told me to stick to the advil. The pill (Yasmin) helped a little, then I told my doc to let me take it three months at a time. I just finished my second period this year (omg bliss).
5’4", curvey and squishy but not overweight.
5’1", 105 lbs. non-crampy. Of all my friends, I have the least intrusive cycle.
I’m a bony one. My cramps range from fetal-position-agony to quiet-moaning-at-my-desk.
Starting from age 10 until age 26 I spent two days every five weeks vomiting.
Now I’m on Depo, and even some major health scare wouldn’t get me off this shot. I used to live in dread and I was really irregular so my dread would last for weeks. Lovely.
5’6" and average (younger) to overweight (now).
My cramps vary from month to month, but they’re usually only the first two days, ranging from mild sweaty cringing discomfort to vomiting and writhing on the floor. They’re usually worst on the front parts of my thighs and my lower back. In an easy month, I can take a few Advil every few hours and be almost comfortable, if still bitchy. The bad months usually require a day off work, stationary-cat-warmth on the lap and some walking around in a circle.
My body type is short (5’0" when the wind is right) and chubby-but-not-quite-officially-fat, of the squishy/curvy variety. My idea of athleticism is walking all the way across the parking lot from Blockbuster to the ice cream store, rather than taking the car.
My cramps are usually the absolute worst part of Aunt Flo’s visit, but on months where the cramps are light, I’m usually at a There-Is-No-Draelin-There-Is-Only-Zuul level of bitchy, along with enough bloating to make all my pants uncomfortable and a marked propensity towards tears for no good reason (a hairdo mutiny or the “Do it again, Daddy” Oreo commercial will do it to me every time).
I have cramps during the first 1-2 hours of my period, if I’ve been exercising. The more exercise I’ve been getting, the greater the chance of cramps and the greater the chance they’ll be bad. I’m talking “lets crawl to the kitchen for an ice cream scoop to scoop out my uterus” bad. The kind where it would be very lovely to pass out, but my body won’t let me pass out because it’s expecting me to be able to do something about the cramps. The kind where demerol doesn’t even make a dent. The kind where it’s physically impossible to straighten out. The kind where the muscles involved are sore afterwards. I think everyone gets the drift.
I’m petite, curvy, and about the right weight for my height. I’ve had no pregnancies, and perhaps the only thing regular about my period is that there is no regularity. Four weeks between cycles, four months, eh, my body doesn’t care. It’ll do things on its own schedule.
(The above is the situation without being on the pill: with the pill I may be a bit bloated and uncomfortable, but that’s usually about it.)
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5’7" and a seriously fat hourglass [56 40 59]
prior to tubal ligation I was on ortho-novum 1/80. made me regular, medium flow for 7-9 days, light cramping for 5-6 days.
tubal ligation at 21, absolutely no regularity, periods range from 4 days to 10 days, heavy flow the entire time, cramps that are worse than labor each day. [and by heavy I mean I can blow through a super tampon/16 gms fluid in 1 hour]
Of course a year after ligation I was bitching to OB-GYN about it, he said that it was one of the lesser possible side effects to ligation. sigh but at least [so I thought] I didnt have to worry about pregnance, so the irregularity didn’t really bother me. I could go for 8 months with nothing, then 3 months like clockwork. Though I would have preferred no cramp increase…
Since I start my day with 1600 mg motrin, and still get the cramps there isn’t much I can do except take to my bed with a heating pad, ginger ale and ice tea and saltine crackers to keep me from yarping up the iced tea or gingerale…
1. Do you have cramps during your period, and if so, how bad are they?
Yes. About every other cycle I get horrible curl-up-in-a-ball-and-whine cramps, and feel dizzy and nauseated. The other months aren’t too bad. Nothing a few Motrin can’t handle.
2. What’s your body type (thin, fat, short, tall, athletic, curvy, squishy, etc.)?
5’1" 95-100, athletic
My mom has the same problems I do. She’s about 5’3", curvy, wears a size 8. I’m not sure how much she weighs.
Yep, I get them bad. I went on birth control pills at 17 because I’d miss school they were so bad. I’d be dry heaving, unable to walk. The BCP’s helped a lot but I still get them pretty severely most months. I’ve just learned to bear it and love my heating pad. Prescription painkillers don’t really seem to help.
I am very tall and very thin; the BMI charts call me “anorexic” which I am not, but I’m 5’8" and weigh between 100-110 (I don’t weigh myself, so I dunno).
My cycle used to be fairly irregular, ranging from the “standard” 28 days to 3 months between periods. The longer the wait, the worse the cramps were on the first day, and possibly the second. Mood swings were minimal. My breasts generally were the weathervane: the worse the pre-menstrual bloating, the worse the cycle was going to be.
The nature of my cycle is changing, in that regularity has increased quite a bit, I’m down to a 4-6 week spread now. However, the girls ache like crazy for a good week beforehand, and the severity of the ache does not vary one iota. I am increasingly cranky then too, I find.
My body type is short and curvy, and not so very athletic.
Bolding mine.
Everyone but me seems to understand what you mean by ‘squishy’? From a man’s viewpoint, all women are squishy. That’s what makes you lot so delightful.
What is meant by ‘squishy’ when referring to a woman’s anatomy?
I love you. 
I used squishy to refer to muscle tone. I have nil. So what body fat I have is very soft. When I was younger, and actually exercized, I was fairly firm. You could poke my tummy and get some resistance. I have met some very firm women, and some very squishy ones. 
I don’t have bad cramps during menstruation. However, I get really achy around ovulation.
Pear shaped part squishy part athletic (trying to get rid of squish). I retain water like nobody’s business during menstruation and usually gain 1 or 2 pounds that week.
Pre-pill: 22 day cycle, horrible passing-out-throwing-up-doubled-over, lay on floor in bathroom waiting to puke cramps the first day and a half. It would always start at 10:30 in the morning so I’d already be at school. I missed a couple of finals that I had to make up because of it. On the pill: period very regular, little to no cramps. It was like magic. The couple of times I’ve been off the pill since then (including now), I get some cramping, but it’s not as bad as it was when I was in high school.
Body type: 5’6, very muscular, low body fat when not on the pill. I’m curvy, but mostly because of my structure, not because of fat. When on the pill, I have boobs and hips and look more like a girl. Right now I’m losing 10 extra pounds that the last pill I was on gave me, and I’m doing pretty well in getting it off. After it’s gone, I’m going back on a pill I like. I think the times in my life when I had the lowest body fat (HS, and 6 months a few years ago when I was running every day and not on the pill), I had the worst cramps. They’re the least bothersome when I have more body fat.