Hi Chanel,
did you always had painful periods, or is this something that's happening only recently? Some women tend to have more painful periods, with sharp, stabbing pains on the first day or two of their periods. This happens because your period blood basically comes from broken down uterus tissue - and for women who have thicker uterus lining this can be very painful. Usually it's common to have some milder pain, manageable with OTC painkillers. But if you usually don't have very painful periods, than it might be urinary tract infection together with your period that's causing this. You're more prone to get UTI around the time of your period, so if this is not something common for you, you might want to see your ob-gyn and find out what is actually happening.