How understanding my cycle empowered me

For many women their extent of knowledge about their monthly cycle is not much more than, “I bleed once a month... if I’m not pregnant.” That was about as much as I knew once, but over the last five years I’ve learned a lot more about my cycle, and what I’ve discovered has changed my life for the better. This is the story of my cycle self discovery.

At sixteen I was prescribed the birth control pill, and I used it constantly for 10 years. I didn’t question anything about it; it was prescribed by my doctor, everyone I knew used it and it performed its function beautifully. It was easy because I never had to think about it. What I learned in recent years, however, is that not thinking about your cycle is doing yourself an incredible disservice.

After getting involved in feminism in my early twenties, I started to hear about alternative choices for birth control and sanitary products. The first time I stepped outside the Tampax box was when I tried the Diva Cup, which is an alternative to tampons and pads. The Diva Cup is a small silicon cup that you insert into the vagina to collect menstrual blood. The cup is reusable – you simply tip, rinse and reinsert as needed. Prior to using it, I’d never had any cause to take note of what was going on during my period. After using the Cup, I became comfortable inserting and removing it with my fingers and I could see the colour, consistency and amount that was normal to bleed each cycle. It doesn’t sound like much, but it was interesting and exciting for me to gain a better understanding of my period.

The Diva Cup

When I told other people about the Diva Cup I often heard, “Gross! I don’t want to stick my fingers up there and get my hands dirty!” It saddened and frustrated me that women could be so afraid of their own bodily fluids because tampons have allowed us to become so detached from our menstrual blood. I started to realize that women in general are poorly educated about their own cycles and about the variety of menstrual products and birth control methods that are available.

The next big leap for me was when I learned about a natural method of birth control that involves charting your cycle and making observations about your vaginal discharge in order to determine your fertility. I met with a Fertility Management Practitioner and learned how to observe, chart and interpret my menstrual cycle to determine when I’m fertile and infertile.

Prior to this discovery, I had no idea that women’s bodies give them direct and obvious signs when they’re fertile. I was outraged that I’d never been taught that in Sex Education. Learning how to chart and interpret your cycle using the Justisse method is effective, free and incredibly empowering. I won’t deny that in order to chart your cycle you need to be dedicated, organized, and practice charting for about 6 months before you get the hang of it. It’s not easy at first, but it’s so rewarding.

Now I intimately understand every phase of my cycle. I’ve been off hormonal birth control for almost two and a half years and I feel great. Many women are unaware of the potential side effects of hormonal contraceptives, including anxiety, depression, decreased sex drive, weight gain, intense mood swings and more.* Not only do I understand my cycle better, I feel that my sexuality is truly mine because it’s not influenced by external hormones. Since going off hormonal birth control, I’ve felt more confident and open about my own sexuality. It’s good to know what my natural rhythm is, because the more I understand about my body, the more I know what’s healthy and normal for me. Knowledge is power, especially when it relates to our own health.

I’m grateful for the inventions of tampons and The Pill and the many freedoms they have brought women, but we need to be aware of the other options out there. All women deserve bodily autonomy: the choice and resources to have children (or not), to have an abortion (or not), to choose our sexual partners, to choose when to have sex and so much more. In order to make those choices, we should know more about our cycles, but no one is going to spoon feed that information to us. You have to be responsible for your own reproductive health, and although that’s not easy, it’s empowering to take that responsibility into your own hands. I recommend it to everyone – so, what are you waiting for? Get out there and learn about your cycle! It’s probably some of the most useful and practical knowledge you can obtain.

*Reference: Coming off the Pill, the Patch, the Shot and Other Hormonal Contraceptives by M. Lalonde and G. Matus.

Your Birth Control Options
A great little video by Dr. Betty Dodson and Carlin Ross - two very cool feminist sex educators.

A tampon ad that's actually kinda cool

Kotex recently launched a new ad campaign for tampons. It's actually kinda smart because it pokes fun at the way that tampons have been advertised for the last few decades. It parodies the ridiculousness of the "blue liquid" that's always used in maxi pad commercials, as well as images of women exercising in white spandex (you know, cos their tampons are so good they don't have to worry about leakage!)

Check out the commercial and see what you think!

Monday's Show - A Menstruation Special!

Join us on Monday evening for our "Menstruation Special" - a discussion about our menstrual cycles, PMS, birth control, ovulation and so much more!

Jennie Thunder interviews Megan Lalonde - a fertility expert and student midwife - who sheds light on our menstrual cycles, which is something that most women know surprisingly little about. For example, did you know that when you're on hormonal birth control (such as the pill, patch or injections), you don't have an actual period? You have a "withdrawal bleed." Learn about this and so much more by tuning in on Monday night from 8:30 to 9:00 pm on CJSW 90.9 fm!

This interview will also be podcasted, so if you miss the live show, be sure to check out our podcast. It should be available by Wednesday January 27 at the latest.

If you are interested in learning more about women's fertility, menstrual cycles and other related things, check out Justisse Healthworks for Women. You can contact Megan or find a Justisse practitioner near you by checking out the Practitioner Directory.

Thoughts and Theories on PMS

While searching the internets for resources on menstruation, I got to thinking about some of the stigmas attached to the notorious beast we call Premenstrual Syndrome. There is such an unfair amount of negativity attached to the time of month when a woman's body prepares to discard of yet another unfertilized egg. It seems -at first glance- to be such a simple process but as I intently watched numerous You Tube versions of high school sex-ed videos, I suddenly began to appreciate how magical the whole thing is. I'm certainly not the first feminist to report this sort of realization, however, this particular height of awareness is new to me even though I've seen the videos hundreds of times before and have read the text books and the pamphlets just as much.

It occurred to me just how uncool it is that we take this science for granted, going so far as to mock and even shun it (...remember the PMS Buddy?). So many of us have at some point or another been struck with a totally justified fit of sadness or irritability, only to have our peers tell us that it must be that time of the month; as though strong emotions are abnormal and should only appear when an individual is on the brink of psychosis which -as we have all been led to believe- is the first cousin, possibly even the long lost twin sister of premenstrual syndrome.

As I watched more and more adorably animated menstruation videos, I started to assess what this scientific ritual indicates: how closely the hormones that control our levels of estrogen, serotonin and other fascinating chemicals work with the female reproductive system. I was intrigued by how this relationship seems, in my mind, to have so much to do with the emotional sensitivity best displayed by mothers to their children. I thought about how much of a requirement it is that a woman should have intense emotions (she should be empathetic, she should have an animalistic quality about her when she feels the need to protect the things that matter to her) and I thought about how these emotions are intensified during this time when the body prepares to end the last phase of its cycle and start afresh. Maybe I'm a closet hippie and that's okay, because I think its vital for women to share these kinds of thoughts and discoveries. Instead of feeling gross and ostracized by this thing we've been given very little control over, why don't we embrace it and marvel at the sheer biological intelligence of it?

I think the fact that women have been somewhat naturally engineered to produce high levels of these chemicals should be admired. It's science's way of telling us that we've been biologically entrusted with this responsibility of nurturing and protecting ourselves and our families. Of course, this does not go to say that men cannot have any of these qualities as well. As a matter of fact, I think the men that possess more of these qualities than others are nature's special ones; the true fathers among men.


I'm not saying PMS and menstruation are tons of fun, (I'm not that fond of the days I've spent crying over untied shoe-laces), but instead of being taught to feel ashamed and instead of writing the whole thing off as a simple annoyance, we might consider using premenstrual time to be extra sweet to our bodies. Whether we plan on having children or not, we've been handed a big task and it can be worth feeling connecting to!

Shopping Sprees Linked to Menstural Cycle

The BBC reports that in the 10 days before a woman's period begins, she is more likely to go on a spending spree.

"Psychologists believe shopping could be a way for premenstrual women to deal with the negative emotions created by their hormonal changes."

Almost two-thirds of the women studied said they are more likely to buy things on impulse or overspend during the later stage of their menstrual cycle (also known as the luteal phase).

Maybe this explains why I haven't been able to stop thinking about new jeans over the past week, and "Aunt Flo" is due in town any day now...