Nepal, Oct. 4 -- The first time it happened, Reshma thought she was going to die. And now, it was about to happen again.

It had already been a month. They had told her it would happen every month, but a month seemed like a long time. Enough time had passed that she thought she had forgotten about the pain. At least somewhat. But pain like that is hard to forget.

The first time was sudden. All of a sudden, there was a knot in her stomach. Her lower stomach. It felt like there were hands inside, and those hands were grabbing at her guts. Pulling, prodding, and rearranging them. In fact, even tearing them apart. Her entire stomach slowly began to feel tight, and it kept tightening as the day went by.

What was more embarrassing was being p...