Menstruation - Tumblr Posts
psa to people who menstruate
- The reason you get extra hungry before and during your period is because your body is physically burning more calories, sometimes as many as 300 more per day for the duration of your period, with an elevated BMR (base metabolic rate) in the days before it starts. So no, you’re not being weird or gross or undisciplined if you want to eat a bunch of chocolate - your body is just burning the same amount of calories you’d expend in 25 minutes on a crosstrainer to shed your uterine lining.
- This is especially important to remember if you’re already, for whatever reason, eating fewer calories per day than it takes to maintain your current weight, which is about 2000 for an adult, though it can be dangerous to have much less than 1300 per day. Think of it like this: if you’re eating 1600 calories a day out of a potential healthy 2000, and your body suddenly wants an extra 300, you’re not craving 1900, but 2300, which is the difference between wanting a chocolate bar and a slice of toast, and wanting an entire extra meal. So, I say again: DO NOT feel bad about wanting to eat more during your period. Your body is working hard, and needs fuel!
- Paradoxically, despite the rate at which you’re burning calories, you’re also retaining water, which can make you both feel and weigh as heavier. Speaking personally, I’ve noticed my weight fluctuate by as much two kilos (4.5 pounds) before and after a period, rising before and during, then dropping sharply afterwards. So if you’re struggling with body image or weight issues, this is a suboptimal time at which to get on the scales: the result you’ll get will only reflect a temporary reality, not your actual progress, and is therefore unhelpful.
- If, for whatever reason, you’re self-conscious about easing your cramps with a hot water bottle where other people can see it, whether at home or work, consider using a plastic soft drink bottle filled with hot/boiling water. Even if you put it openly on your lap, instead of tucking it under a shirt or into a front hoodie pocket, it will just look like a regular bottle of water, and any relief is better than none!
- No, it’s not weird if you shit more during your period than usual, either. The hormones your body releases that make your uterus to contract and release sometimes end up in the bowel, particularly if you happen to produce a lot of them, which means that bowel contracts and releases, too.
- If anyone tries to make a dumbass sexist joke about your being more [insert stereotypically negative feminine quality here] while on your period, you can tell them that actually, menstruation raises testosterone levels, not oestrogen. (Telling them to go fuck themselves with an angry cactus can also be therapeutic.)
- The cramps and lower back pain often experienced during menstruation, when the uterus expels its contents and your hips shift slightly wider to accommodate it, are a microcosm of what happens during actual labour. So yeah: it can hurt!
- That being said, we’ve culturally accepted the idea of massive period pain as normative to such an extent that many people don’t realise their pain is a sign that something’s wrong. Despite how common they are, a lot of conditions like PCOS and endometriosis are poorly understood in terms of their etiology, which means it can be hard to get an accurate diagnosis. But if your periods regularly have you screaming, vomiting or totally incapacitated, get checked out: you shouldn’t have to just shut up and endure because it’s ‘meant’ to feel like that. It’s not, and there are ways to manage it.
- As well as being a form of birth control, you can take the pill to control or stop your period. When used to prevent menstruation, the pill tricks the body into thinking you’re already pregnant, which stalls your cycle (and stops you from actually getting pregnant). Though some people worry that it’s unnatural not to menstruate for long periods of time, or for your body to ‘feel’ pregnant for so long, it’s also important to remember that, after an actual pregnancy, especially if you breastfeed, your period won’t resume right away. This is called lactational amenorrhea, which can work as a form (though not, I hasten to add, a 100% reliable form) of natural birth control. Basically, it means your body is focussed on producing milk for an existing child, such that you can’t easily conceive another one until the first child is weaned. While this varies from person to person, the important thing to remember is that there’s ample biological precedent for stopping menstruation for long periods of time whether you’re pregnant or not, and that choosing to do so via the pill doesn’t make you unnatural, nor does it cause your body to do something it otherwise wouldn’t or couldn’t.
In conclusion: periods suck, but knowing how and why they work and how best to manage them can make them suck slightly less. So go ye forth, and be educated!
Here are some comics I made for this post. It’s a bunch of stuff about vaginas I wish I had known before it happened to me!
Palestinian girls and women are forced to use tents as pads. People boost. Donate if you can
Pre-menstrual depression is always depicted as like "He He! I had a box of icecream bars and cried while watching the Titanic!" But in reality, it's more like, "I'm standing the edge of an abyss. There is nothing good inside of me, I'm filled with rage and desperation."
It's crazy that being told how to deal with that is never a part of anyone's menstrual sex education.
When I was 17 my appendix ruptured because I thought I was just having period cramps and didn’t go to the hospital so don’t tell me PMS symptoms are no big deal
CONT the delivery of essential items into Gaza.
Ok people I need some help and opinions
So I’m working on a small design project about women health, mental health, and menstrual healthcare for whomsoever, and the impact on these during quarantine.
Please hit me up if you’d like to talk, have any ideas, wanna tell how you deal with this, like anything and everything works.
I dunno where to look for info and this is something I want to truly work on
Please help
@staff if the tumblr algorithm fucks me over again I’ll personally send death threats despite actually not hating you that much just saying I need help
Also it’ll be lovely if you reblog even if you don’t have an addition. The more people see this, the better.
As an animation student I don’t have much I can do in times like these but I wanna do what I can. Thanks to everyone who even reads this.
Palestinian girls and women are forced to use tents as pads. People boost. Donate if you can
for all my overacting,
should i validate myself this time?
that there is really something wrong with me
and not just because i am a girl and my boobs start to hurt
but so does my head
not just because my lower abdomen feels like being squeezed
but so does my heart
for all my overacting,
can this be recognized as something concerning
and not some mere monthly thing
because i am so sorry,
i cannot identify my emotion until i see a blood on my panty
i do not know the name of what i feel until being a girl names it for me
for all my overacting,
i am so sorry but i have been feeling this heavy even weeks before
I hate being a boy on his period.
I hate the hormones and the pain and the cravings and the dysphoria. It's all shit.
Why am I craving cheese? Why does it feel like my guts are tangled up in knots? Why do I even have to get a period? I don't want to birth children.
Fuckkkkkk
CONT the delivery of essential items into Gaza.
i would be totally up for going thrifting, getting brunch, fighting god, or wearing a slutty dress, but my tummy hurts
Palestinian girls and women are forced to use tents as pads. People boost. Donate if you can
i'm curious how many people also don't experience cramps as their main symptom, because back pain is the worst for me by far it's usually how i can tell my period is coming up too
Viktor X Reader With Periods
Watch this man learn literally everything about menstruation so he can better take care of you
He definitely tracks your cycle
He makes sure to have all your favorite foods at that time of the month, as well as any sort of anything that's good for cramps
Anyone who asks "are you on your period?" when you're upset is getting a cane to the knees
Viktor also knows exactly the right way to rub your tummy so the cramps subside
If it's really bad will beg you to see a doctor about it
You never have to remind him to buy menstrual products he just does
He might surprise you by coming home early to cuddle with you
He just lays down with you and feeds you chocolate while he strokes your cheekbone
If you get emotional he won't act like you're overreacting, he'll just comfort you and make sure you have everything you need
And you can expect 10 times the affection from him
He knows you need it
Overall he's just a complete sweetheart
I can’t believe I drew an elaborate comic about Pidge’s TMI
EDIT: I drew a [Part 2]
“So if little girls experience their menstrual cycle in 5th grade or 4th grade, will that prohibit conversations from them since they are in the grade lower than sixth grade?” asked state Rep. Ashley Gantt, a Democrat who taught in public schools and noted that girls as young as 10 can begin having periods.
“It would,” McClain responded.
Unbelievable. Link to article.
there's blood flowing in my legs
and I cannot feel my limbs
a river colored red that rushes with a pain
with a pain when I extend my ribs.
breathing hurts, and the mere thought of walking is unbearable
a pain like needles on skin
like the day you left me