I couldn’t help myself; I hope you don’t find this to be TMI or inappropriate, but I’ve been marveling at how having shingles is quite like getting your period. My fiance is recovering from it now and if it weren’t for the ugliness of the outbreak, I’d wish every man had to go through it just to understand what women put up with.

At first we thought it was a heat rash. I’ll spare you a look at how it looks now.

1. Shingles makes your back and belly hurt

Ah yes, that all-too-familiar feeling of a sore back, sore belly, and sometimes even sore other parts. Every month I get the pleasure of that achiness in my core muscle region and now he’s feeling it too. His back, his front, his sides… sore, sore, sore! In addition to the aches and pains in the muscles is the ache in the belly. Occasionally I’ve gotten it so bad that I can barely stand. His seem to keep him from standing too tall.

2. Shingles makes you feel weak

Shingles usually hits because your immune system was already weakened by stressors to your body, so you’re bound to feel weaker as your body fights it off and tries to recover from the stress that caused it in the first place. Similarly, I feel more tired and even lightheaded during my cycle. Perhaps I haven’t been eating enough, but lately I’ve had quite the case of vertigo.

3. Shingles makes you sleep and shower more carefully

Not only are the blistering rashes painful, as they heal, some of the fluid in the blisters is likely to ooze out (yeah, gross). You want to be careful showering so you don’t burst them all and get bad scarring plus more pain and you want to be careful sleeping since pressure on the blisters will cause them to leak more. Similarly, I’ve got to be more cautious with how I sleep and shower so I don’t make a mess too.

4. Shingles can give you a headache and make you feel sick

As if pain and achiness weren’t enough, you’re more vulnerable to getting headaches and flu-like symptoms. Of course this varies by person, but who wants to get sick sick on top of this illness? While my period usually comes and goes without incident, I’ve definitely had to deal with illness through some of them and it’s pretty miserable.

5. Shingles makes you grumpy

Ok, this might just be a byproduct of all the discomfort and pain, but I’ve definitely heard a lot more complaining, moaning, and groaning from him. Kind of reminds me of my moody self. 😉

6. Shingles can be eased with pills

You can take medicine to help you get over shingles, and of course you can also take medicine to ease the pain. Similarly, there are pills designed just for women’s periods and you can take pain medication depending on your need.

7. Nobody wants to know you have shingles

Or it will gross them out. Though, now that I think of it, maybe it’s more accurate that nobody wants to share that they have shingles. Like I said at the beginning, this might be TMI (too much information). People often skirt around things like menstrual cycles and other bodily functions. Shingles is kind of one of those things that people would probably just rather pretend you don’t have. However, I think it’s important for people who haven’t had chickenpox and weren’t vaccinated to know, though it only seems to matter with close contact. After all, you don’t want to catch it too! That’s not the same reason that people don’t want to know you’re on your period, but nevertheless they would rather not know.

So what do you think? Do symptoms of shingles remind of your own monthly challenges? Have you ever had shingles or known someone who has?