India, Sept. 2 -- It started, as many modern health panics do, with an algorithmically timed eerie coincidence. Just hours after I hung up the phone with my sister - complaining about getting a second agonising period in a mere 14 days, complete with pain so severe I could barely move - my Instagram feed made me feel like I was in a digital matrix. Also read | Severe period pain every month? Doctor explains what your body could be trying to tell you

Content creator Crista posted an Instagram Reels on August 9, simply titled 'Weird global period drama', asking women if their cycles had been strangely off. She wrote in her caption, "I don't know what's going on, but thousands of women reporting missing or delayed periods in the same months...