diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.1.0.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.1.0.rst
index 721bcb0758992..34164a7cfdd5d 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.1.0.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.1.0.rst
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ Deprecations
 Performance improvements
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
--
+- Performance improvement in :meth:`PeriodIndex.get_loc` using input from user  (:issue:`29038`)
 -
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/pandas/core/indexes/period.py b/pandas/core/indexes/period.py
index 123353b620bfa..77d3a03039676 100644
--- a/pandas/core/indexes/period.py
+++ b/pandas/core/indexes/period.py
@@ -598,11 +598,9 @@ def get_loc(self, key, method=None, tolerance=None):
         TypeError
             If key is listlike or otherwise not hashable.
         """
-
         if isinstance(key, str):
             try:
-                asdt, parsed, reso = parse_time_string(key, self.freq)
-                key = asdt
+                key, parsed, reso = parse_time_string(key, self.freq)
             except DateParseError:
                 # A string with invalid format
                 raise KeyError(f"Cannot interpret '{key}' as period")
@@ -613,6 +611,7 @@ def get_loc(self, key, method=None, tolerance=None):
 
         try:
             key = Period(key, freq=self.freq)
+            ordinal = key.ordinal if key is not NaT else key.value
         except ValueError:
             # we cannot construct the Period
             # as we have an invalid type
@@ -620,18 +619,13 @@ def get_loc(self, key, method=None, tolerance=None):
                 raise TypeError(f"'{key}' is an invalid key")
             raise KeyError(key)
 
-        ordinal = key.ordinal if key is not NaT else key.value
+        if tolerance is not None:
+            tolerance = self._convert_tolerance(tolerance, np.asarray(key))
+
         try:
-            return self._engine.get_loc(ordinal)
+            return self._int64index.get_loc(ordinal, method, tolerance)
         except KeyError:
-
-            try:
-                if tolerance is not None:
-                    tolerance = self._convert_tolerance(tolerance, np.asarray(key))
-                return self._int64index.get_loc(ordinal, method, tolerance)
-
-            except KeyError:
-                raise KeyError(key)
+            raise KeyError(key)
 
     def _maybe_cast_slice_bound(self, label, side, kind):
         """
diff --git a/pandas/tests/indexes/common.py b/pandas/tests/indexes/common.py
index afc068d6696ef..d2328c1b41381 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/indexes/common.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/indexes/common.py
@@ -340,7 +340,7 @@ def test_memory_usage(self, indices):
         # RangeIndex, IntervalIndex
         # don't have engines
         if not isinstance(indices, (RangeIndex, IntervalIndex)):
-            assert result2 > result
+            assert result2 >= result
 
         if indices.inferred_type == "object":
             assert result3 > result2