Menstruation - Blog Posts
Once a month
They tell me it’s a woman's dream/an ancestral right passed down from mother to daughter
A fever lights beneath my skin/red orchids stretching and blooming on my shoulders and back
The great goddesses would smile and kiss my head for this/but I wish they would take it back
The moon with her eternal smirk dances with me/i feel just like the tide, thrown from side to side
My body shakes like a kicked dog/the tremors spread and the entire world seems to quiver as well
I do not feel like myself/ my mother fixes my clothes and tells me that's just how it is
I want to kill myself mother is that just how it is too/it’s not real, it’s just like a dehydration mirage in the desert she tells me
I wail and mother laughs at my dramatics/does she delight in the shared suffering we now have?
I want to cut open my stomach to strangle the snakes writhing in it/mother tells me she's afraid of snakes
I come to my father on my knees like a begging man/this is a woman’s matter he says as he turns his head
When I cry about my miserable existence asking for it’s justification/he says the same as my mother, it’s not real
There is not enough air in the world/but my “sisters” tell me to just breathe, like telling a dead man to still love
I take the tablets/the pills/the capsules/the pellets/the medicine/and I weep like i’ve never known tenderness
I tell God i’ll finally go to church if he takes the pain away and when he doesn’t/i say i’ll start worshiping Satan
I feel like a melancholic girl from the 1800s/banished to the countryside for hysteria
I wish I was hysteric/i wish someone could give me a prescription of living on the land
The little control I still have/i wrestle with like I’m a child trying to keep my favorite toy
The moon waxes and wanes as a crawl on the floor/a wounded bleeding animal
This is womanhood they say, this is punishment/take it back take it back take it back
The resentments and bitterness slip past my lips like puke/isn’t this beautiful, don’t you feel beautiful
I do not want this girlhood, this femininity/give me barren fields and an empty life
I sit with my “sisters” as we talk about Aunt Flow/in this we are a witch covenant bound only by mutual pain
I wish I could give away this regift of living as it was regifted to me/but there is only one way to do that
I feel bruised, achey, and weak/i wish someone would hold me
But mother says it’s natural/and father says to toughen up
I am already so small/why must you make me smaller?
Someone tear my uterus out and give it to those in need of one. This shit does nothing but cause trouble.
What do you mean that for a week before I bleed, I get to have extreme anger and mood swings, borderline hospital trip worthy thoughts, extreme nausea, dizziness, migraines, and more
THEN I bleed nonstop for a bit over a week while still feeling a lot of those symptoms.
Get this thing out of me I don't want children, my family genetics are too fucked and I'd probably traumatize it. I have no use for this organ and the torture it brings get it out of me.
They need to have a human body update that makes ovulation and the menstrual cycle optional. I'm not gonna be using it, I don't want children, so what's even the point anymore?
Being on period:
Abdominal cramps because uterus shedding it's lining. Abdominal cramps because constipation because uterus shedding it's lining. Blood sugar always low, no amount of food can fix this. Boobs hurt. Dysphoria increase, need to bind. Boobs hurt more. No energy to do shit, but going outside helps so like...
Anyway I feel like bad. Please gimme a hot water bottle.
Having a PMDD-esque period in sync with the depersonalisation and derealisation episode is really milking my bpd this week and it's only my first day.
More horrors to come tomorrow!
TW: afab anatomy/periods, fear and non agere
I'm so so scared right now my period skipped a week and when I think I have it it's dark and I don't know it's just freaking me out but I don't want to go to a doctor about it cuz I'm scared and I don't know what to do right now im bawling my eyes out bc im scared... I just want to be tiny and curl up into a ball and have the fear melt away... No I don't know if I have any underlying health conditions and I don't mess around I'm only ever with my partner so I can't be pregnant that's not my worry I just don't know what's going on right now and I'm afraid...
Palestinian girls and women are forced to use tents as pads. People boost. Donate if you can
(I don’t own this picture btw) DUDE IM ON MY PERIODS AGAIN TWO TIMES THIS MONTH WHATS GOING ON
Imma be real as a mentally ill woman one of the hardest things is that being on my period makes it extremely hard for me to stay emotionally regulated and yet men will use that as a reason to further discredit me and every other woman
Something I think about a lot is how women, myself included, have been afraid of being pregnant even when we haven't had any sexual contact with a man. To me that says something but I'm not entirely sure what
Distro Sisters is working hard to organize the immediate distribution of necessities like Plan B, menstrual hygiene products, prenatal vitamins, food, water, and more to our homeless and transient sisters around the world! We have plans to create self-sustaining housing communities by 2037 to eliminate reliance on public assistance programs.
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hey so it’s march now aka the beginning of endometriosis awareness month and i feel obligated to remind you that debilitatingly painful periods are not normal. if you or someone you know is ending up sick or bedridden every month, you are not crazy and deserve medical attention from someone who will take you seriously
I got my period cramps and Jesus they hurt this month I wish that they would go away and plus I’m ovulating which makes me cramp more too. My body hurts so bad
why do I always start my periods while I'm sleeping 😭
at this point I need to get waterproof bedding :(
“Advice” for Women Suffering Period “Discomfort” with Commentary (or How I Learned to Want a Menstruation Hut)
Source: “Can’t Sleep While You’re On You’re Period? Here’s Why from The Huffington Post
Your body temperature rises over the course of your menstrual cycle
Your core body temperature rises between a half and a whole degree during your period. This can be a problem because an evening drop in body temperature is one of the main biological triggers that makes you feel sleepy.
How to fix it: Make sure your bedroom is cooled to optimal sleeping temperature: about 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit. ….[Trick] your body into drowsiness with a warm bath or shower, because moving from warm water to your cool bedroom will make your body temperature drop. And consider sleeping with fewer covers.
Take a warm, soothing, comforting shower then expose yourself to un-comforting cold. Just stop feeling so icky; just take off the blanket and the other blanket and the other one.
Mood swings make you feel anxious or depressed
Period-related mood swings are very normal; hormones like estrogen and progesterone drop right before your period, making you experience negative emotions more strongly. And anxiety and depression make it tough to fall asleep at night.
How to fix it: First, just being aware that some of your mood swings can be attributed to hormones can help ease the problem, by untangling your mind-body matrix. So consider tracking your period with an app or on a calendar. During your period itself, you can try deep breathing, meditation or yoga to relax and unwind before bedtime.
NO FUCKING SHIT! Mood swings make you feel anxious or depressed or both! But just think it away. Simply tell yourself, “eh, I’m on my period. That’s why I’m moody. Ok. Back to being well-adjusted.” Let me just set up an app or calendar so I can have alerts for these miserable days. Being aware will make it all better.
Then take your period achy body and contort it into positions that might not feel natural to your inflexible corporeal self. Obsess further on the negative thoughts that will send you spiraling into a deeper depression.
Nausea, indigestion, and other stomach issues make it tough to fall or stay asleep.
You may have noticed digestive upsets during menstruation such as indigestion, nausea or diarrhea, all of which can disrupt sleep.
How to fix it: Although you may be tempted by ice cream, chocolate or other comfort foods…[avoid] heavy meals before bedtime. Instead, try one of these snacks that can actually help you sleep, like toast, trail mix or plain rice.
Yummmmmmmmmmmy! Browned bread, nuts and raisins or the stuff my raw fish lays on in my sushi instead of creamy ice cream or sweet, comforting chocolate. Why does anyone suffer from period pain when these delicious foods are available? After all, these are same tasty foods that are recommended to people who are nauseous or have diarrhea.
Cramps, headaches and muscle pain can make it hard to get comfortable.
This one’s a no-brainer: For many women, periods = pain, whether that’s through cramps or generalized muscle pain. Left untreated, this pain can make it hard to get comfortable enough to fall asleep.
How to fix it: Try changing your sleep position, adding or subtracting pillows, or using a heating pad to relieve pressure. You can also pop a mild painkiller like Tylenol or Advil to relieve discomfort. But, Dr. Duncan cautions, don’t overdo it: If you regularly take Advil or other painkillers, you can actually experience withdrawal when you quit, which can make the problem worse. “Know your own body,” Duncan says.
When it comes to headaches, a small amount of caffeine can be helpful, but overdoing it can have the opposite effect. To make sure you’re tired enough to fall asleep, Duncan recommends cutting caffeine out altogether in the afternoon.
Can’t sleep? Toss and turn. Move the pillows around in various places in and around under and between body parts (Are you still trying to sleep with the blankets on? Tsk. Tsk.)
Take a painkiller…but wait, not too many. You don’t want to make your period give you withdrawal symptoms or liver damage now do you?
Didn’t we mention earlier that your period will make you tired? Okay because don’t try to use caffeine to help you get through your day if it’s already the afternoon.
And for pain, wait, I have the blanket off to keep cool, but should I use a heating pad?
Your cycle actually causes insomnia
During your period, your body’s levels of the hormone progesterone drop dramatically. This can make it hard to sleep because progesterone is a “soporific” hormone, meaning it has a mild sedative effect. (Higher-than-usual progesterone is also why you may feel sleepy the week before your period, during PMS.)
The fix: Again, Duncan recommends avoiding caffeine for several hours before bed because it will exacerbate the issue. And the week before your period, recognize the fact that increased progesterone increases your need for sleep, and try going to bed 30 minutes earlier. Or take a 20 minute power nap, suggests Duncan. You can also keep a sleep log or make a sleep schedule to regularize your bedtime, and note any fluctuations in sleep behavior for next month.
Duncan suggests one thing that can blunt many of these symptoms: any type of hormonal birth control (like the pill or a certain IUDs). “Any hormonal birth control decreases the fluctuation in estrogen and progesterone that is responsible for nearly all of these symptoms,” says Duncan. “So an added benefit of these forms of contraception can be better sleep!”
While you’re deep in the pit of despair from depression and bawling uncontrollably because your crush doesn’t exist in real life or simply because you dropped your child off at school, or you yell at the CVS cashier because he’s trying to save you money on your feminine hygiene needs, sure, take a moment to just be logical and recognize that your progesterone is increasing and you should take a nap or go to bed early.
So what if you’re a single mother who has to work 2 jobs or stay up late grading papers or have a child who broke out in hives – forget all that. Throw in a power nap that you usually askew on non-PMS or period days simply because you don’t need it, not because you have absolutely no free time. Do laundry or power nap because I’m on my period? Shower or power nap because I’m on my period? Leave my child unsupervised because I need to get to bed early?
Go on the pill? Bitch, this is all happening and I’m already on the pill!
Isn’t there just a magic pill? One thing I can take to help to make this all go away?
Painaway Advertisement
Having a period is a natural thing. Didn’t mother nature make sure there were things in nature that can help relieve this. What about supplements? Hold on. Let me try another source.
Source: unknown
So, shit, being on my period, my memory is impaired, and I forgot to keep track of where the following information on supplements came from. Being certain I will be busted for plagiarism will give me something to fixate my sharpened anxiety on as I lay awake from insomnia.
A number of supplements have been shown to help ease PMS symptoms by improving metabolic function and hormone metabolism. Here are the superstars:
Magnesium citrate or glycinate — Take 400 to 600 mg a day.
Calcium citrate — Take 600 mg a day.
Vitamin B6 — Take 50 to 100 mg a day along with 800 mcg of folate and 1,000 mcg of vitamin B12.
Evening primrose oil — Take two 500mg capsules twice a day.
EPA/DHA (omega 3 fats) — Take 1,000 mg once or twice a day.
Taurine — Take 500 mg a day to help liver detoxification.
A good daily multivitamin (all the nutrients work together)
Herbs and phytonutrients can also be very helpful. Here are the best studied and most effective:
Chasteberry fruit extract (Vitex Agnus-astus) can help balance the hormones released by the pituitary gland that control your overall hormone function. Studies of over 5,000 women have found it effective. Take 100 mg twice a day of a 10:1 extract.
Wild yam (Dioscorea villosa) and cramp bark (Viburum opulus) can help regulate cycles and relieve menstrual cramps.
Dandelion root can help with liver detoxification and works as a diuretic.
Isoflavones from soy, red clover, or kudzu root improve estrogen detoxification by boosting the activity of specific detox enzymes. They can be taken as supplements or consumed in the diet.
Flax seeds contain lignans that help balance hormone metabolism and block the negative effects of excess estrogens.
Chinese herbal formulas may also help. One of the most effective is Xiao Yao San, or Rambling Powder. It contains: Bupleurum Root (Bupleurum chinense), Chinese Peony Root (Paeonia lactiflora), Dong Quai Root (Angelica sinensis), Bai-Zhu Atractylodes Root (Atractylodes macrocephala), Poria Sclerotium (Poria cocos), Ginger Rhizome (Zingiber officinale), Chinese Licorice Root (Glycyrrhiza uralensis),and Chinese Mint Leaf (Mentha haplocalyx)
Replacing healthy bacteria in the gut also helps normalize estrogen and hormone metabolism. Take 5 to 10 billion live organisms in a daily probiotic supplement.
For intractable cases, I will occasionally use topical, natural bioidentical progesterone in the last two weeks of the menstrual cycle. The usual dose is ½ tsp (20 to 40 mg) applied at night to thin skin areas for the last two weeks of the menstrual cycle.
Oh, good, only 15 – FIF-TEEN! – supplements, herbs, and phytonutrients to take. Do I fucking use all of them? Where the fuck do I even get these?
Source: “13 Ways to Deal with Menstrual Insomnia” from Reader’s Digest
Adjust your pill times
On the other hand, if you’re already taking another medication that has drowsiness as a side effect, ask your doctor if you can take that drug an hour before bed instead of whenever you’ve been taking it. A side effect like drowsiness can work against you during the day, but you can use it to your advantage at night.
Oh shit! Which one of those 15 supplements will make me drowsy and which will keep me awake so I can follow advice about not taking medications that might keep me awake?
Watch out for wild cards
“Some women may have other conditions that worsen during their cycle,” says Dr. Moline, and any associated sleepiness may become exaggerated, possibly because of changes in blood volume. When blood volume increases, your blood levels of medication may drop outside the therapeutic window.
If sleepiness may become exaggerated then why is there insomnia still a symptom? As for the blood level thing, do I need to take extra doses of supplements for them to have an effect?
Kill the pain
If pelvic pain keeps you up during your period, talk to your doctor about taking an over-the-counter NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) like ibuprofen, plus a vitamin B complex and magnesium supplement. And don’t forget the old remedies of a heating pad or sex to relieve the pain. You can also often block the chemicals that produce pain with a daily aerobic workout.
Again with a heating pad but try to stay cool by keeping off the covers. Oh, aerobic exercise! Sure that’s what I’m motivated to do when it feels like my uterus is being inflated into an iron maiden, and I’m tired because the other source told me that I might be so tired that I should take a power nap. Should I schedule the aerobic exercise before of after the power nap that I squeeze in by avoiding eating or spending time with my child?
And kill the pain with sex? Well, I ruined that possibility while I was PMS-ing. The guy I might consider having sex with almost lost his head when I tried to bite it off after I misinterpreted something he said the other day. This was after I threw my drink in his face. After my PMS-yelling-and-sobbing-for-forgiveness fit, I did straddle him, but for some reason, he wasn’t interested in sex, then, so I’m not so sure he’d be willing now. Besides, I’m too damn tired to fuck because my god-damned period causes fatigue.
Pay Attention To Basics
Increase the likelihood you’ll sleep by creating a restful environment. Make your sleep area a comfortable, dark place in which you feel safe. Keep soothing teas and herbal hot packs within reach.
Wait, keep hot drinks and hot packs near me while I sleep when I’m supposed to try to keep myself cool, kicking off the blankets? What? I’m so fucking confused and more irritable from this advice than I was when I desperately began seeking advice for relief of this misery of menstruation.
Stick with just a nibble
Menstruating women sometimes get so hungry they seem to eat every couple of hours. But eating heavily right before bed could leave you wide awake with an overly full belly. If you’re hungry close to bedtime, stick with just a bite or two of something light, like a few nuts. Find out the best foods to eat during your period here.
So this is even more restrictive than the other source’s advice. Just nuts. Not even the toast or rice. But like the other advice: No chocolate. No ice cream. No bag of chicharrones. No cans of frosting. What about all those 15 supplements suggested by that other source? That’s more than a nibble…
Channel your thoughts
Focus on things you love, like the flowers you might put in the garden next spring or remembering taking your kids to see the ocean for the first time. Trying to work out problems right now will only leave you wide-eyed and anxious.
Oh, my fucking god! Shut the fuck up! Fucking, fuck are you fucking kidding me? Flowers? Kids? Yes that is all those of us with a uterus love: Flowers and kids. Fuck! Are you fucking kidding me? Seriously? Fuck!
My advice: Menstruation Hut
I know, I know that the idea of hiding away women in a menstruation hut is a horrible, deadly reality for some women around the world, and the Red Tent effort to make the menstruation hut a positive experience by bringing women together in this small shelter is not my idea of a good time, even when not on my period.
However, my version of a menstruation hut would be to isolate myself for the safety of others and myself. No way do I want a bunch of other women in there bugging the shit out of me. It would be a place I could go to upon the onset of PMS and through the end of bleeding. I would need to have someone lock me in there, cut off my access to social media, stock it with lots of Kleenex, a heavy bag, a baseball bat, padded walls, a soaker tub and shower, comfort foods and sedatives, lots and lots of sedatives.
My menstruation hut could, hell, should really just be a state of unconsciousness. My worst PMS is usually on Saturday and I’m done bleeding by Thursday. So once a month, just knock me unconscious from Sunday to Thursday. And I, and the world, will be better for it.
Just a PSA
Pre-menstrual depression is always depicted as like "He He! I had a box of icecream bars and cried while watching the Titanic!" But in reality, it's more like, "I'm standing the edge of an abyss. There is nothing good inside of me, I'm filled with rage and desperation."
It's crazy that being told how to deal with that is never a part of anyone's menstrual sex education.
hey so it’s march now aka the beginning of endometriosis awareness month and i feel obligated to remind you that debilitatingly painful periods are not normal. if you or someone you know is ending up sick or bedridden every month, you are not crazy and deserve medical attention from someone who will take you seriously
YES U GET IT!!
i think we should advertise menstrual products to trans men the way we advertise deodorant to cis men. i think that would be really funny.
i think we should advertise menstrual products to trans men the way we advertise deodorant to cis men. i think that would be really funny.
I realized something. I think there is a point in my cycle where I loathe my face. Every other time I’m fine, I am quite pretty, it’s just a 5 day thing.
I WANT TO CLAW OFF MY FACE!!
Ed Recovery and Periods!!
I need help to try and figure out if the irregularities in my periods are because of my ed or not.
I also want to recover regardless of whether or not my periods are affected my the disorder.
I have to talk to someone who knows about at least one of these things since I cannot stand to even consider the humiliating experiences of making my parents take me to the doctor and all the 'told you so's'.
Thank you very much for reading through this
I want to be a kitten on someone's lap and keep them immobilized for hours.
That is all.
As you were, peasant. *shoos you away*
This post is for people who don't bleed on their period, but have the cramps and mood swings. This post is for people who don't have periods at all. This post is for people who only have periods once every year or few months.
You never HAVE to have a period for any kind of identity, whether that's being intersex presenting female, a trans woman, femspec, or even just a cis woman. You should never feel out of place because you don't have a cycle. It's not weird to not have one, it's not weird to have a bloodless one, and it's not weird to have one that fluctuates.
You're still valid.
Playing the monthly game : "Menstruation or Depression"!!!
Let’s admit for one second that when men say: « bEIng kiCkEd In tHe bAllS huRtS moRe tHAn perIOd », it is true - even if it has been proven wrong.
Do you fucking get kicked in the balls every months for like 30/40 years ? Do you get « pre kicked balls syndrome » ?
So with all due respect shut the hell up.