Were you even taught about periods?

How did you learn about periods? School? Family member? On your own?

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Do you remember learning about periods? Whether about your own or in general? I’ve been asking how people were taught about their periods, what was explained to them, what they learned from their parents and from schools, and the answers are varying in nature. What’s the most aggravating though is the misinformation that I’m hearing as responses and seeing online. Disgusting is among the other list of words I'd like to use but hey, we'll go with that for now.

Let’s start with what people are hearing or learning from their parents. For some people - it’s nothing. They are being taught and told absolutely nothing. Listen, we can’t exactly blame them. It was and still IS for some, taboo to talk about your period/a period/any bodily function. It’s not something we can blame people for when they weren’t taught or told about their own body. In the last 40-50 years, things have changed so much in society - even in the last 10 years! Talking about periods is still not quite there yet.

No matter where you look, periods were always perceived as disgusting, embarrassing and unwanted.

It’s just so sad to me that people, especially people I know, didn’t have the opportunity I did to learn about their body and ask questions openly and without judgment. Personally, my mom was the person I could go to. If she didn’t know the answer, she would find out. She would never judge me and always reassured me that asking about my body is normal. A parent should never make you feel guilty when asking about your body. That being said, so many folks over 50 were told not to discuss their body in public and passed that on to their own kids. Not only that, periods were always seen as a nuisance, as gross. No matter where you look, periods were always perceived as disgusting, embarrassing and unwanted. In films, in the media, etc. Either they were something people had to deal with or something people ignored and companies decided to run ads of people on their period playing tennis and being super happy. There has always been misinformation and misrepresentation of periods, and what it’s like to have one. I want to end that, I want to help end that.

Listen up: periods are not gross. Period is not a dirty word. Your body literally needs to have a period. What isn’t normal is pain. Is being told that your pain is normal. Is being cast aside and written off because you want to talk about your period, or learn about your own damn body. I sound like a broken record repeating that it’s perfectly normal to ask about your body and that we should be taught more, but this has really got to start changing. We deserve to know what is going on with our bodies. Our youth deserves to know what the hell is going on with their bodies. We all need to be able to have access to proper, and correct information so they can stay healthy and give their body what it needs.

What if someone doesn’t know pain isn’t normal and doesn’t go for a diagnosis for years, and they end up having endometriosis? Or PMDD? Or PCOS? Or an extremely painful pelvic floor condition? I’m not saying schools need to teach absolutely every condition, but they need to teach the basics! How to have proper hygiene. What periods ARE - why they happen! What a “regular” period is supposed to be. The effects of hormonal birth control, proper and improper diet, different hormones that you need to keep track of, different period products you can use and their varying effects and risks on your body like toxic shock syndrome! I sure as hell didn’t learn about TSS in school. My doctor didn’t tell me about TSS either yet he had no issue prescribing hormonal birth control - the one that got recalled. It’s all so messed up! Somewhere people stopped caring about health and started focusing on money and that didn’t change when it came to health, especially women, women+ and those with uteruses’ health.

People need to learn their bodies are changing much much younger.

Misinformation is also something we need to touch on. The amount of misinformation out there is nauseating. I have a series of videos where I review things people have been told about periods and I did it with humour, because at some point, you have to laugh about it. But honestly, it’s maddening. I’ve seen so much worse. I read recently that this person was told by their HEALTH TEACHER in school that people who menstruate have to avoid iced items and cold drinks because the blood can become chunky - what? What. The. Actual. Fuck? There’s so much more online that I'm not mentioning! It’s also extremely aggravating to see what partners ask of their menstruating partners. Someone asked if they could delay their period because it was annoying. What the f are these morons being taught? And where are they learning it?

This is why we need a better educational system when it comes to health! And it needs to happen much younger. People need to learn their bodies are changing much much younger. The issue is so many adults, especially conservative ones, assume health education is sexualizing kids. But it’s absolutely not! It’s teaching kids about their bodies, what to expect when they’re changing, and how to deal with it. It’s teaching kids about puberty, periods and hormones. It’s also teaching about empathy - not only those who menstruate should be taught about periods and menstruation. Everyone should be. Everyone should be told what periods are, how often they happen, what could be needed during periods, what to do if someone around you has one, how to help, and so much more.

We need to learn about our bodies and we need to make sure others are learning about their bodies too. So if you have questions, ask. Research, read, learn. It's time we take our power back and if the educational system insists on staying so behind - we have to do something about it. Let's change how things are done.