#MyPeriodStory
Coming from a conservative family, I was, from a young age, used to hearing the ladies around the household talk to their friends over phone or to the women in the neighbourhood in hushed tones about something that was usually dismissed as “a woman thing” by them. Of course, it was only when I was older that I got to know that menstruation is not a woman thing. Transgender men can also menstruate. I can recall my mother scolding my elder sister sometimes to clear all the used sanitary pads before any male member of the family noticed. I, being young as I was, did not understand what the fuss was about.
It was at the age of twelve, when my school organised a workshop related to the importance of menstrual hygiene that I first heard of periods. I can vividly remember even today – I still like to have a good laugh at it – when, at the workshop, Mrs. Spencer was telling us what a sanitary pad was. She was in the middle of explaining how to position a pad on your panties when my curiosity took the better of me. “If girls use a pad, what do boys use?” I had asked her. The lovely old lady that she was, she had smiled at me and said, “That, I don’t think will be a necessary piece of information right now, madam.” That workshop had left me completely bewildered. When I later asked my mother more about periods, she told me the basics and also that I’d get to know better once I started menstruating. What she had told me cleared my head a little, but with that sprang up another bunch of questions in my young mind. Even so, I didn’t press her for further details. The mere concept of periods terrified me then. I didn’t understand why it happened so suddenly, or why no one had told me about it, or why it didn’t happen to everyone.
So rightly has it been put by Judy Grahn – “Menstrual blood is the only source of blood that is not traumatically induced. Yet in modern society, this is the most hidden blood, the one so rarely spoken of and almost never seen.” Periods were not always and, despite the efforts, are still not considered a normal and natural process by society. From not touching pickle to not entering places of worship or the kitchen, periods have often been associated with numerous stigmas. Ancient practices, some for the benefits of those menstruating, were twisted to become rituals. But studying in a convent exposed me to a more open-minded environment. It was there that I learned that periods are natural and nothing to be afraid or ashamed of.
My periods came with physical changes and frequent mood swings. It was quite eerie for me at first. I did not understand what was happening with my body. But with time, it managed to become a part of my life. And now, I wake up sometimes on a lazy Sunday or a hasty Monday to find my pyjamas and bedspreads stained with blood. So my cycle continues, with incessant bleeding on the first two days, my pad going miraculously dry on the third day, and then bleeding again for the next couple of days.