Sorry, I've got my exclamation point this week

I have always wondered why they call it a period. I know it refers to a "period of time" but, as a grammar & language geek, I think about it in terms of punctuation. More accurate would be a comma, a dash, an exclamation mark. Definitely not a period.

Maybe for some women it is a period. Just one spot of blood and then you're done. Maybe for some it is like ellipses, a few days of drops and then none. For some people it might be a long dash or a short hyphen. It could even be a colon or semi-colon, split up but short in duration. For me, probably an exclamation point.

One day to announce itself, and then the rest of the week to plague me. I would hate to see a question mark.