From Good Morning America:

Heide Spence, a mother of two, said she does not remember a time in her life since getting her first menstrual cycle at age 10 when she did not suffer from painful period complications.

"I wouldn’t have a period for months at a time and then I would get one and it would look like a crime scene because it was so much blood," Spence, now 40, told " Good Morning America." "I would travel to work with a change of clothes because I would go from home to work 15 minutes away and would have bled through an overnight pad."

Spence, of New Jersey, said she was told by doctors over the years that her symptoms were nothing to worry about, or that one heavy period was just the result of her not having a period the months before.

Being a young, single mom on Medicaid at the time only made things harder, according to Spence.