It's NOT a Curse

Aunt Flo...Mr. Monthly...periods...menstruating.
Inconvenient at times, sure. Annoying, yes. Even painful at times. But being a woman and having a period is not a curse. (& I've had my fair share of bad periods!)

This topic has become very dear to my heart. I always get into discussions about it with someone I am very close with. It seems to me that the way we feel about our periods (and consequently deal with them) stems from the way we are taught about them.

Think back to your first period. Think even further back to the time you had "the talk" about what a period is and why we get them.
Were you even taught that there is a reason behind it? Or were you just told "women get periods on months they don't get pregnant"? It sounds caddy, but believe me, I know girls who were told that.

Women from generations past (many) grew up at a time when you didn't talk about these things. For whatever reason, it was considered inappropriate and dirty. I see it in my own mother, who is in her late 60's. Her mother never really explained the menstrual cycle to her, and growing up it seemed she never was comfortable discussing it with me or my sisters. I remember times she didn't even want those "feminine products" out in the open (unused and unopened, of course).

I consider myself fortunate to have gained a deeper understanding on how the female body works. When you come to learn and understand why our bodies do what they do, it makes more sense. I gained a lot of patience with my body when I learned the reasons for its actions, and I also learned better ways to cope with the annoying aspects of it all.

I attribute 99% of that to us learning NFP. In the course of learning Natural Family Planning, we not only learned to identify ovulation and times of fertility, but we also learned why there is bodily mucus, why the body temperature rises...as well as how to identify an imbalance of hormones within your own body. (For example, after my miscarriage we were able to look back at our charts for a short post-luteal phase, which can indicate low levels of progesterone in the body). I could go on and on, but this post isn't intended to only promote NFP. (if you're interested, though, let me know. I'd be happy to discuss it more!)

I find it sad how many girls are growing up to view their cycles as a curse. It's not that I particularly enjoy my period, mind you. But it's that the periods are apart of being a woman. Womanhood, and all it embraces.

I worry for young, impressionable girls growing up today. They're constantly bombarded by commercials and advertisements for some form of the birth control pill which can take your period away. Does that really sound healthy? There is no natural way to do that! With the media alone they are being sent the message that having a period is a bad thing. "You don't want it!"

What triggered this post, you may ask? This article on yet another form of birth control that will "eliminate periods". Eliminate them! Sure, take these artificial hormones in the shape of a pill, but then years later wonder why you're hitting early menopause, or why you can't conceive your own child, or why you're at higher risk for cancer.

I was grateful for the article, because I learned of a great organization, The Red Web Foundation. From the article, "...some women question whether monthly periods should be rejected wholesale as a matter of convenience. Instead, women should embrace the natural cycles of their bodies, they say.
"Do you really want to do that? Do you really want to not have a period?" said Anna Yang, director of the California-based Red Web Foundation, which promotes a positive societal view of women's menstrual cycles. "The reality is, this isn't happening to me. It's part of me. It's a very natural thing."

As you can imagine, I am so impressed with this organization. They are "dedicated to supporting a positive societal view of girls' and women's bodies and menstrual cycles from first menstruation (called menarche) through menopause."

It's the same way I feel. It's the way I hope to teach it to my daughter, should we ever have one. It's the way I hope my nieces learn about it, so they maintain a positive outlook. It seems to be the natural, most sensible way to view those cycles we go through as women.

We're not cursed because we're women and get periods. If we're cursed in any aspect, it's because we remain uninformed on why our bodies do what they do. We're only cursed if we buy into the media and marketing aimed at us.
We'd be putting a curse on ourselves if we deliberately chose to hurt our bodies. Let's not do that. Let's embrace what it means to truly be a woman.