Periods

Menstruation: the periodic discharge of blood and mucosal tissue from the uterus, occurring approximately monthly from puberty to menopause in non-pregnant women and females of other primate species

Periods. A woman's (and men's, depending on who they hang out with) nightmare. For around three-five days every month blood exits a woman's body causing side effects such as cramps, hormonal problems, bloating and the constant smell of fish. Not to mention that there is the part where you are uncomfortable when blood drips out of your hole before it is caught on some uncomfortable tube wrapped in some sort of cloth where it gets shoved into their vagina, or the diaper like thing that gets attached awkwardly to their underwear.

This is a topic that has annoyed me greatly for many years. A woman's menstrual cycle. Everybody and their dog knows that every month for the age of about 11 to a certain age, once a month for about a week, a woman's body goes through the process of disposing the blood lining of her uterus when an egg has not been fertilized. It is a natural process that we women cannot stop. But the yet, the first time I ever heard it being spoken about was in sex ed in year 7. Isn't this something I should have been warned about before it happened? My own mother never talked to me about it until necessary, but when men talk, in great detail, about 'hitting that', or whatever other degrading way of putting it, it is fine.

Why is it that women have to stop themselves from telling someone the reason they are moody once a month, or why they have cramps, or why they can't go swimming, or why they just want to stay home and do nothing all day. Why is this?

Menstrual taboo is (obviously) when people refuse to talk about anything concerned with menstruation. And I do understand how in some societies this is considered 'unclean' and I can respect that. Some figure it is too embarrassing to talk about. I can respect that too. But how is it that if we even hint about it being 'that time of month' we are instantly shut down?

It is found that nearly all girls believe that they should not talk about their menstruation with boys, even their fathers. Why is this? When has it become normal to refuse to talk to anyone about the going ons of our own bodies? When has it become so taboo that instead of just asking someone in the family to buy pads or tampons (or 'feminine products' to not offend the male readers) women have to go out, while in pain, pretending that blood is not currently flowing out of their vagina, only to buy a two boxes of pads/tampons.

I find it so annoying how men find it disturbing that women can talk about their periods so freely within each other, but yet they seem to find it fine to talk about their many sexual conquests and how they can just scratch their balls in public. No, just no.

I find it such a double standard where men seem to talk about anything they want, what they did, who they did and where they did it, but we, as women, have been metaphorically backhanded when we talk about that time of month where we just want to sit at home, eating fatty food, with a some crappy show on the TV. No matter what you think, THIS IS NOT A HAPPY TIME FOR US. Sure it gives us an excuse for the fatty foods and watching those movies you secretly want to watch but fear you would get ridiculed if you did, but with the consequences of having this dreaded week (tiny pitchforks continuously stabbing at your stomach, hormones on crack, being a balloon in a fish market, and don't forget about the fact that there is a possibility of your own blood seeping through your clothes) can you really blame us?

So next time you want to pour your insignificant problems like your boss yelling at you for "no apparent reason" (hint: if he/she is yelling at your there probably is a reason) or the traffic you had to go through just to get somewhere, think about the fact that each month our own bodies HATE us.

And no, I refuse to be sorry if I complain to my friends about the dreaded time of month that constantly threatens to torture me.

So yes. I am a woman. And I refuse to let it be a secret. For around five days each month, I bleed from my vagina. And there is nothing anyone can do about it. So shut the hell up.