5 Period Myths That Moms Can Bust
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A woman’s body goes through several stages of changes right from birth. If you’re a woman, you definitely must have faced a storm of thoughts, confusion, and nightmares when you were a girl and had just stepped into the puberty world. You were restricted to do so many things while you were on your periods that it must have almost felt like a curse for you, right? Especially in countries like India where a girl stepping into the puberty world is celebrated like a festival, there are also a zillion other things that become taboo for her. And puberty is a topic that isn’t discussed as freely as it should be by parents to their children, be it their daughter or their son.
It’s a natural body change and we still have no idea why it is spoken about in whispers and not openly. If you have a daughter who’s reaching the puberty age, she too must have been having a zillion thoughts in her head. She knows her body is changing, but she doesn’t know what the change is all about. And as a mother, it’s your responsibility to make sure you give her all the period gyan and don’t let her feel or go through what you had to when you were a girl. Time is changing now and people are open to having talks about periods. Therefore, it’s better if you break it down to her before someone else does. So that tomorrow if her teacher tries to teach her what periods are all about, she can proudly say that she knows about it already and that her mumma taught her! Here’s a low down on all the period myths that you need to break down about to your daughter. Read on.
MYTH #5
Periods Are Very Shameful
It’s true when people say that periods are nothing but a humanitarian crisis. In fact, in 2014, the United Nations declared the problem of menstrual hygiene as a public health issue (1). It’s only when we stop thinking of periods to be shameful, gross, and dirty, it will never be seen as a humanitarian crisis. For that, we have this history of shamefulness and embarrassment to overcome. We don’t have to whisper for a tampon or a sanitary pad because periods don’t fall into a category of “outside ordinary.” It’s a normal thing. The least that you, as a mother, could do is to ditch this stigma and talk about it openly and with pride to your daughter. Let her feel beautiful about it.
MYTH #4
Period Blood Is Dirty
Teach your daughter that having periods isn’t dirty because period blood clearly isn’t a way for our body to flush the toxins out. Tell her that it’s an evolved form of vaginal secretion — there’s a bit of uterine tissue, blood, mucus lining, and some bacteria too. Also, the period is extremely different from the blood that moves around in the veins of our body. It’s less concentrated and has fewer blood cells as well.
MYTH #3
Period Pain Is Normal Pain
You know for a fact that period pain is real and nothing like the other pains that a human faces. Then why on earth would you tell your daughter otherwise? Women at times take off from their work, remain on the bed the entire day because of the severe pain they suffer from. So, tell your daughter the real part of it and teach her to take care of herself when she will face it. This will help her in dealing with what might be in store for her.
#MYTH 2
You Should DISMISS Your Feelings
It’s while on periods that a woman’s body is going through a lot of changes. The days that lead up to menstruation is what we call ‘PMSing’ — it’s the time when the estrogen levels plummet and it’s also the time when progesterone levels increase sharply.
And while estrogen is known as the happy hormone, progesterone is linked to the part of our brain that sprouts fear, anxiety, stress, and depression (2). The hormonal effects on our moods are quite complicated. This is bound to happen every single month to your daughter as well. Teach her to embrace whatever she is feeling and not suppress it.
#MYTH 1
Hormones Define Only A Woman
This one might be a little tricky for your daughter to understand, but she needs to know! She should know that hormonal changes aren’t applicable to a woman alone, even the boys in her class are going through it. Men too face acne problems and emotional outbursts which are all a result of the changes in hormones. It’s a different thing that women don’t go around calling men problems as “hormonal” whereas men love calling that to a woman.
After saying so much, we know as a mother you still have one primary question of when to start to open up about puberty to your daughter. Consider looking for signs like underarm hair, budding breasts, a sudden increase in acne, etc. These are the clues that’ll help you realize that your daughter is reaching the doorstep of puberty. An introductory chat about menstruation will benefit your daughter in the long run. Don’t you agree to this?
