Periods 101
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No shame. Period.
We’ve all felt the shame, sneaking out of a room trying to shove a tampon up our sleeve or hiding a box of sanitary products under other stealthily placed items in our shopping trolley. Many of us freak out when our bag falls open and I once had to leave a bus after accidently flinging a tampon at the poor unsuspecting driver while trying to extract my oyster card from my Mary Poppins-esque handbag. (I also flung a lip gloss at him but he seemed less shocked by that.)
But WHY are we still so ashamed? Menstruation is a fact of life, it’s why we’re all here. Wateraid estimates that at any given time, 800 Million people around the world are menstruating, and in a Marie Claire article from 2017 it was revealed that menstruators spend around ten years of their life on their period. With so many of us doing it, so often, why is it still such a taboo? Maybe it’s time to break the stigma and start being a bit louder about our periods.
I MENSTRUATE! AND I AM PROUD!
Here are a few reasons why menstruation’s great:
- It means you can have babies.
- It means you’re not having a baby just yet.
- It means your body is super clever and doing all kinds of badass shizzle while you go about your life, watch that Netflix show, go mountain climbing, base jump, ride a unicycle or read all those great books. (Please note, I am not advocating going base jumping or riding a unicycle. Thank you)
With the invention of great reusable products such as Mooncups, it feels like menstruators are taking charge and SMASHING THE PATRIARCHY. And, no longer will I hide my Mooncup under my bushel (metaphorically, obviously it’s in my bushel sometimes). Like Kat, I’ll no longer stay silent.
If you’re menstruating and you want to stay home and cry at movies, you should be able to talk about it. If it feels like a small army have taken to your uterus to bash about in there, you should be able to talk about it. If your periods make you really unwell to the point where you have to spend days at a time in bed, you should be able to talk about it.
It’s estimated that 1 in 10 women suffer from endometriosis, a hugely painful and debilitating condition and the more we talk about period related illnesses the more we can help each other through them and campaign for more funding to help research.
Let’s make period chat standard.
Kate Weston’s debut novel ‘‘Diary of a Confused Feminist’ is out now.
