Celebrating
your period
The 28th of May is
International Menstruation Hygiene Day. You may be asking: what’s there to
celebrate? Periods are inconvenient, messy and painful. They come with PMS
(Pre-Menstrual Syndrome), pimples and mood swings. They’re uncomfortable, you
have to wear pads or tampons, they hurt and they have a particular smell. I
look forward to the day when I don’t have periods anymore.
True. All true.
But, think about it. Period blood
is the blood of life. It’s not the blood of war, trauma or death. The blood of
the womb gives life to a fertilised ovum (or egg) that becomes an embryo, and brings
New Life after nine months.
Ask any woman struggling to get
pregnant, the joy when her womb finally accepts life, nurtures it and gives her
a child. Ask any woman keeping her fingers crossed that she did not get
pregnant, the relief of seeing her period! Ask any young girl the surprise of
blood on her panties when she has her first period. Ask any older woman the
relief when her periods finally stop.
The demise of mankind won’t be a
bomb or a meteorite, a virus, volcano or even global warming. It will be the
interference of science with the natural rhythm of menstrual cycles. Already
there is evidence in first-world countries where women, after using hormonal
contraceptives since first becoming sexually active in her teens, are
struggling to get pregnant and have to pay for expensive artificial methods
(that may or may not work) to do this.
Periods that are ‘regular’, pain-free, and last 3 – 5 days are the sign of a healthy body and a healthy
lifestyle. Periods should not be so painful that women have to miss work (or
school), so heavy that pads are soaked through within two hours, and so
irregular that they’re always unpredictable. When women have these symptoms,
they should be investigated – and not overruled by taking hormones to cover-up
the problem.
Today’s woman is taking a whole new
look at her femininity and learning to understand her body by reading subtle
signs. We are, after all, like the moon – constantly changing within an
algorithm of hormonal high’s and lows that create cycles and periods, lead to
pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding and finish with menopause and New Life when
baby days are over.
Let’s join hands today and celebrate our womanhood.
