If Shakespeare were a woman, one of his tragedies would have been about the menstrual cycle that we, women, need to face each month. It’s rather astonishing that very few female authors have ever mentioned it, it being such an integral part of a woman’s life.
Even when comparatively more controversial subjects like same-sex relationships, child sex, and religion, have been explored; very few mentions relating to menstruation are ever made. That implies, half of the people in the world remain conveniently ignorant about the ways a woman’s body and mind alter during periods.
I get mood swings. Yes, almost an existential crisis. It begins with a recap, of everything that has gone wrong since the day I was born, the ways I could have been better, and the crappy future. Then comes the irritation phase, how everything is everybody’s fault.
Ultimately, comes the blaming phase. I tend to blame myself at the end, how everything got screwed up because of me. When the cycle ends, the ‘normal me’ comes floating back into the body. And, I go back to being the ‘angel’ that I am.
It took me a while to acknowledge that the hormones are getting the better of me. Initially, I believed I was bipolar. I took tests online where I was diagnosed as mildly bipolar. Later, after mulling over this for a while, I decided that I should even check on my mind when the hormones aren’t running high.
I turned out fine, then. Hence, I have concluded that I might be a hypochondriac!
(These are serious illnesses that need to be diagnosed and treated well. Here, I have used the concepts to add humour. I apologize, if you find it offensive.)
Another dreadful occurrence is the period cramps! The best analogy I read somewhere was that it feels like someone is constantly drilling your uterus. And it is genuinely that way. I know some girls who experience horrifying bouts of such cramps. Some of them get so immobilized, for a couple of days, that they need to lie on the bed and rest.
I’ve stayed in hostels, so I know! I got lucky that way, it’s only mentally unhealthy for me.
What I have learned through my experiences is to keep hydrated throughout, it helps with the cramps.
The first thing we’re taught when we get our periods is how to hide it!
Once I was out with my friends when the topic was struck in the car. I was a little surprised to know that all of us went through similar mental experiences during periods. None of us ever showed it, so nobody had ever guessed. We all were used to keeping it all in our heads while running through life as usual.
Nobody should guess, right? That was what we have all been taught since the first time we got periods – how to hide it.
I know, if all of us start behaving exactly how it feels, there’d be a law and order situation. Just imagine, one-sixth (roughly) of the women population acting like Zombies every day. So, keeping within the boundaries of civility, if we could just talk it out sometimes, it’d be great. If nothing else, the female community would love the camaraderie.
Everything I have said above is, but, just a tiny fraction of all that happens. 500 odd words cannot sum up the inconvenience faced by us. There are women in this country for whom period woes are the least of the troubles. Yet, trouble it is. To just think of the ways they handle the mental and physical changes during menstruation! Our maids, farmers, daily wage labourers – do not have the convenience to tend to an existential crisis. It is a privilege of sorts, to have such mental woes in our country.
The only way we could make it easy for them, for all of us, is to bring it all out in the open. If everybody knows everything there is to know about menstruation, life would become simpler.
We bleed red, not blue. The commercials are wrong!
Image credits: Brown Girl Magazine, Dazed, Callie Gibson