I was working for NPR and I was leaving the job to go take another job and it was around

2005 and they gave me like this going away party and there was a card and one of my colleagues

on the card said we're going to miss how she really blames literally everything on how

bad her periods are.

Hey y'all and welcome to UnLadylike.

I'm Caroline.

I'm Kristen and that was Shereen, Marisol, Miraji you just heard.

For voice sounds familiar it's because she co-hosts the acclaimed NPR podcast code switch

which is all about race, identity and culture.

But today Shereen's here to talk periods, bad periods.

Like we're talking crime scene in the bed, both usely bleeding and moodiness.

It was incredibly moody.

It wasn't until she was 32 that Shereen discovered she didn't just have bad periods.

She had endometriosis.

And oh what now you ask?

Shereen hadn't heard of it either before she was diagnosed.

So quick anatomy lesson.

And demetrium is the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus.

And over the course of the menstrual cycle it thickens.

And unless pregnancy happens that thickened endometrium sheds and exits the body in the

period flow.

Endometriosis is a chronic disease where tissue that looks and acts like that endometrial

...