Reprinted and adapted with permission from Sweet Secrets: Stories of Menstruation by Kathleen O'Grady and Paula Wansbrough (Sumach Press, 1997). <http://www.sumachpress.com/sweetsec.htm>

More Menstrual Facts

What to Do…

… with used pads when you're visiting a friend's house?

Put it in the garbage. There's no need to be ashamed: bleeding is natural. However, you may feel more comfortable if you fold the used pad in half and wrap it in some toilet paper before putting it in the garbage. Don't try to flush it down the toilet!

… when you get bloodstains on your underwear or pants?

Rinse the garment in cold water. If it's still stained, apply laundry soap to the stain, scrub lightly and soak it for a few hours in warm water. Rinse well.

…when you get your period but don't have a pad or tampon handy?

Toilet paper or facial tissue stuffed in your underwear should hold you over for a bit. Unfortunately, since it's not pinned down, the paper may slide out of place. If you're at home, you can pin an old facecloth to your underwear until you can get to a store. If you're in a public place, ask another woman for help. Every woman has been in “menstrual need” at least once in her life and chances are she'll be more than happy to do what she can to help.

Bloating

Bloating is a condition that's caused by water retention. Before your period, hormone changes may cause your body to hold back some of the water you would usually pee or sweat out. If you're bloated, your breasts may be larger and tender, your pants may be tighter than usual around the waist and rings may not fit on your fingers. Even your feet can bloat!

To keep bloating down, limit how much salty food you eat. Salt makes your body retain water and if you cut back on salt, your body will naturally release water.

What's PMS?

PMS stands for pre-menstrual syndrome. A “syndrome” is a bunch of health signals that alert you to the changes taking place in your body. Signs of PMS come on the days or weeks before a woman gets her menstrual period, and end when she starts bleeding.

Not all women experience PMS, although many may sometimes feel a few of the signs associated with PMS. And not everyone can agree on just what PMS is. We also aren't sure what it is caused by.

However, most people agree that when a woman is experiencing PMS, she feels awful. Some PMS symptoms include very painful cramps, backaches, headaches and/or stomach aches, mood swings, dizziness and feeling very tired.

If you feel many of these PMS symptoms, you may want to talk about this with your parents, doctor or health care practitioner. There are lots of things they can do to help you if they are mature enough to understand how much pain you're in.

You also may want to get in tune with your menstrual cycle by charting its patterns on a special calendar. Watch your diet, making sure you eat less salty and sweet foods, drink less cola and coffee, and don't smoke, because these things seem to make PMS worse.

Reduce the stress in your life by exercising daily, getting plenty of sleep and taking time to relax. Try to express your feelings, particularly your angry ones, more openly – don't let all the negative stuff stay bottled up inside you. Some women find that if they leave their feelings unexpressed, their PMS is more difficult.

Do I Smell?

Menstrual blood doesn't smell until it is exposed to air. Even then, the scent is not strong unless you go unwashed for a couple of days or leave your bloody pads sitting in an open garbage for a week! Because we have so many folds and crevasses in our vulvas, be sure to wash carefully. Take the time to enjoy a nice, long bath.

Some dogs notice the smell of menstrual blood and will go nosing about in open bathroom garbage pails if they smell a used pad or tampon. Yeesh! If you have a nosey pooch, make sure you have a bathroom garbage with a secure lid.

There are menstrual products with perfumes. However, these perfumes may cause irritations and allergic reactions in your tender vulva. Some women choose to use douches after they menstruate. A douche consists of a bag of scented liquid and a tube that is stuck up the vagina. The liquid is squeezed through the tube into the vagina. People believe that this washes the uterus and vagina, but actually infections have been linked to douche use. Douching is completely unnecessary because our vaginas clean themselves and douching will interfere with this natural process. Douching will not act a birth control method either.

Each woman has her own natural scent depending on her body chemistry, mood and diet. It's ok to like your body odour!

Do Men Have Cycles Too?

Men DO have cycles (though they don't menstruate). Like women's menstrual cycle, men have cycles that are created by the production of hormones. The sex hormones estrogen, progesterone and testosterone are found in both women and men's bodies: however, women have much more estrogen and progesterone, while men have much more testosterone. Sex hormones move through the body in a particular pattern or cycle. However, while a woman's cycle happens over a month or so, a man's cycle happens every single day!

Many young women think that men don't have as many things about their bodies to worry about as women. That depends on your perspective.

During puberty, it takes some time for a boy's body to get used to the new flow of hormones. Boys going through puberty may ejaculate (release sperm from their penis) when sleeping, which is called a wet dream. Some boys find this a very shameful experience, as if they wet the bed, but it is quite natural and a sign of maturing into manhood.

Young men also experience sudden erections, where their penis may stick straight out, and this may cause embarrassing moments. They often feel that they must shave their facial hair every day even if they don't need to, and many are very concerned about their penis size or their height or muscles. Puberty is a very confusing time for boys too!

Anemia

Anemia is a condition people get when they don't have enough of the mineral iron in their bodies. An anemic person feels very tired and looks pale, may have memory problems, dizziness and headaches, and may be short-tempered. Heavy menstruation or simply not getting enough iron in your diet can make you anemic.

To prevent anemia, eat plenty of foods that have iron, like lean meats (liver), leafy vegetable greens (spinach), whole-grain breads and dried fruit. Some women find that they need to take iron pills to prevent anemia. You can find iron pills at any drug or health food store, but you should check with your health practitioner first.

If you already take a multi-vitamin, this probably has all the iron you need for a day. Check the label and be cautious about how much iron you take! Sometimes iron can make you constipated. Eat lots of fruit and drink lots of water to cure constipation.

The Chlorine Report

Most tampon and pad makers bleach the cotton they use for their products with chlorine to make them whiter. This process is very bad for the environment. It's possible that chlorine and other chemicals found in pads and tampons might be bad for your sensitive vulva too, although we don't know for sure because good studies have not yet been done. You can find unbleached tampons and pads at health food stores and some grocery stores.

Can You Really Flush Tampons Down the Toilet?

While most tampon manufacturers claim that you can, it depends on the plumbing. Some toilet pipes, particularly in old buildings, are narrower than others and tampons get stuck easily causing backups. Tampons are also bad news for septic tanks, so don't flush them if your home or cottage has septic plumbing. If you have doubts, wrap the used tampon in toilet paper and throw it in the garbage. Most public washrooms have a special litter bin for your menstrual pads and applicators, usually found right in the stall next to the toilet.

It's important to remember that pads and plastic tampon applicators cannot be flushed down the toilet. Pads plug up plumbing. (How embarrassing when the toilet overflows!!) Plastic tampon applicators look small and harmless but they can be very dangerous for wildlife. These applicators pass easily through sewage waste disposal systems and end up in our oceans and rivers where birds and animals mistake the plastic for food. Plastic cannot be digested and often hurts an animal's digestive system. Millions of birds and thousands of animals die each year from eating plastic.

Tampon Users Be Aware

Tampons are convenient and some women just love them. However, there are health risks involved. If you use tampons or are thinking about it, here's some important stuff you should know.

*Some plastic applicators have been known to pinch or cut the inside of the vagina. Paper applications won't do this, although they may not be as easy to insert.

*Tampons that are too absorbent scrape your vagina when you pull them out and can damage your vagina, or they may absorb all your vagina's moisture and cause sores. You can tell a tampon is too absorbent if it's hard to pull out, if it comes apart when you remove it, or if your vagina feels dry and sore. To avoid this, use the lightest absorbency you can, change your tampon brand, vary tampon use with pad use, or stop using tampons altogether.

*Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) is a rare but very dangerous illness. It's thought to be caused by a bacteria that infects the vagina. Most cases of TSS have been associated with tampon use. The material used in some tampons, especially the high absorbency kind, are just the sort of home this deadly bacteria likes.

The symptoms of TSS are high fever, vomiting, diarrhea, sudden low blood pressure and a peeling, sunburn-like rash. Women have died from TSS. Teenage girls have the highest risk of getting TSS because your young bodies can't fight the bacteria as well as fully matured women's bodies can.

But, you can protect yourself: change your tampon every four hours or less, use a tampon with a light absorbency, and use pads when you can.

Alternative Menstrual Moments

Less than a century ago, pads were home-made from cloth and attached to the underwear with safety pins or tied to a cloth belt. Blood stained pads were soaked in cold water, hand washed and hung to dry. This way, the cloth pads could be reused for each period. Your grandmother likely used cloth pads for her periods when she was a young girl.

Then came the “throw-away” pad. This was something that had to be bought at drugstores or pharmacies, and in the early days, was stored behind the counter (like prescription pills today!). There were no fancy adhesive strips (the sticky stuff that attaches the pad to your underwear) on the earliest disposable pads. Instead, women had to buy a special elastic belt that went around the waist and had attachments at either end to hold the pad in place. Your mother and your aunts maybe used an elastic belt and pad when they were younger.

Today we have a huge assortment of store-bought pads and tampons that we can choose from. But history has come full circle. Now, some women aren't happy with the menstrual products that are available at the drugstore. They're concerned for the environment, for their health and for their wallets! Here are some alternatives to typical store-bought pads and tampons.

*Your grandmother will think you are crazy but cloth pads are back in style! They're so cheap compared to store-bought paper pads and they're much better for the environment.

You can find them at health food or environmental stores. Or you can make your own pads with terry cloth towels or the absorbent cotton fabric used for diapers. Use Velcro fasteners or pin the pad to your undies. When you remove it, soak the pad in cold water, then put it in the washing machine with your other clothes for a final wash.

Like regular pads, cloth pads should be changed frequently. Keep a special bag in your purse or backpack to hold a spare pad and the used pad if you are changing it away from home. Cloth pads are ideal for those who don't have a heavy menstrual flow. If you have a heavy flow, a cloth pad may be used with a tampon.

*The Keeper: another alternative method is called The Keeper. This is a small cup made of soft rubber that is inserted like a tampon into the lower part of your vagina to collect your menstrual blood. The cup should be emptied regularly and cleaned in warm water. Go to your local health food store for details.

Moon Movements

The words “menstruate” and “menses” come from the Latin word mensis, which means “month.” The ancient Romans, whose language was Latin, based their months on the moon's cycle of twenty-eight days. Women were thought to have a special relationship with the moon because their menstrual cycle followed a pattern similar in length to the moon's phases.

Many other cultures have also noticed that the moon's phases and a woman's menstrual cycle are sometimes the same. In different folk stories, mythologies and religions, the moon is thought to be female. From ancient times right up to the present day, women have named their menstrual flow “moontime” or “moonflowers” to show this relationship between the moon and a woman's body.

Stories are told that women were able to control the time of their bleeding through prayers to the full moon. Some women in ancient times believed that they had spiritual power when all the women of their community were able to menstruate at the same time. If a woman menstruated out of time with the other members of her group, she would sit in the light of the full moon to bring her cycle back into synchronicity with the others. Some women still practice this ancient tradition today.

Studies done by scientists show that ancient cultures knew what they were talking about. These studies show that menstrual cycles are indeed affected by the amount of natural light a woman experiences. However, it seems that many women have lost their relationship with the moon because they live in cities that are brightly lit at night or because they stay indoors much more than women of earlier societies. Even so, a woman may still find that her periods follow the phases of the moon.

Some scientists are unsure about a connection between the moon and a woman's body. But is it really so surprising? We humans, like plants and animals, have a relationship to the planet that we live on. The moon's phases affect the ocean tides. Wouldn't these phases also affect our bodies?

Watch a calendar of moon phases to see what pattern your cycle follows. Then you might be able to tell when your period is due just by looking at the night sky!

A Remarkable Fact

Women have an organ that's for pleasure only. It's called the clitoris. This tiny bud-shaped organ is located outside of your body at the top of your labia. You can barely see it when it isn't aroused, but you can probably feel a warm, pleasant sensation when you rub this area gently. Experiment! Very few other animal species (and only females!) have a clitoris – just a few kinds of monkeys and humans are lucky enough.

Copyright © 1997 by Kathleen O'Grady and Paula Wansbrough