The Menstrual Cycle

While menstruation is as old as human life, there is still an immense lack of academic research and essential information on the topic. We live in a patriarchal society invested in oppressing people with reproductive organs. Due to most early history being written by men, it is crucial to note that the history of mensuration has not been well recorded as the subject was not deemed important or relevant. This has lead to prevalent fears, myths and taboos about periods and their impact. A famous example of this from the Middle Ages in Europe  is “if cows were milked by maids on their period the cow would be slaughtered through fear of contamination” (The Vagina Museum, 2022).

To this day there is still a conditioned cultural silence in the Western World surrounding menstruation, which has created a society where people who menstruate are facing yet another system of oppression because of how their body works. This has caused deeply ingrained feelings of cultural embarrassment and shame, generating suffering and having detrimental effects on our mental health and wellbeing.  Founder and CEO of Bloody Good Period, a UK based charity aiming to achieve menstrual equity, Gabby Edlin declares that we are not born with this shame, it has been normalised - “we want to get rid of that shame, because periods are normal and healthy.” (Edlin, 2022).

The Inner Autumn 

At any given time “800 million people are menstruating around the world” yet “1 in every 7 women feel uncomfortable talking about menstruation” (The Vagina Museum, 2022). The average menstrual cycle lasts around 28 days, mimicking the four seasons of nature where the cyclic changes can have a significant effect on mood, immune system and sensitivity to the outside world.  Menstruation refers to the final phase of the cycle, when bleeding begins, however this literature review is interested in the luteal phase which occurs on average, two weeks prior to bleeding. This is when the commonly dreaded premenstrual syndrome symptoms (PMS) manifest themselves.  The term ‘menstruality’ has only been around since 2001, when New Zealand psychotherapist Jane Catherine Severn realised  there was no appropriate name given to  “a woman’s Inner Intelligence” (Red School, no date). That is the “holly intelligence that holds the blueprint of who you are and your highest potential” (Pope, Hugo Wurltzer, 2017, pxiii)  - the energy within a menstrual cycle.

After a substantial search for information on the Inner Autumn through various sources and mediums, including books, articles, journals, film, art and fashion, it became evident that it is undoubtedly a topic which is not only barely researched, but it seems like hardly anybody is discussing it. An exhibition on the history of period in The Vagina Museum in London had a limited amount of placards on myths, period product evolution and a declaration from The Body Shop’s Menstrual Movement which aims to eliminate period stigma. Though somewhat radical, the space could have been utilised with a deeper level of research not purely on the subject of menstrual blood itself but looking deeper into the stigma surrounding discussing pain, anxiety, depression and the whole wide spectrum of emotions which the Inner Autumn brings.

Stigma and Shame

As previously touched upon, “superstitions concerning menstruation have stood the test of time and persisted in popular knowledge well into the age of medical science”  (Louise-Newton, 2016, p113). 

This lack of discussion is dangerous as it can lead to misinformation, in effect leading to misdiagnoses. In a study on Psychiatric Symptoms Across the Menstrual Cycle in Adult Women, published in 2022 it is said that “anxiety, stress, and binge eating appear to be elevated more generally throughout the luteal phase” (Handy et.al, 2022).  Beginning with the title, there are various limitations to this study despite being published by a peer-reviewed journal by Harvard Medical School. The findings here are highly presumptuous, suggesting that women who menstruate “may also have difficulty with emotion perception as evidenced by neural differences in brain activation compared to men, which could make them vulnerable to depression at this time” (Handy et.al, 2022).  The piece fails to acknowledge the important fact that menstruation is an individual, subjective experience. It can be argued that this is again due to the deeply ingrained stigma of menstruation, starting from the first menarche, where  “a woman’s feelings about menstruation are shaped by how she came to know about it” (Louise-Newton, 2016, p102). Newton continues by analysing that “the girl that felt shame by her changing body” (Louise-Newton, 2016, p104) is often left with brief ‘instructions’ from her mother on how to put on a menstrual product. From the author’s primary research, it is evident that the majority of participants received limited to no guidance on how to manage the prementrum.

This lack of knowledge from mothers is not surprising considering the fact that “doctors learn very little about menstrual products in training” (Gunter, 2019, p143), as pointed out by American gynaecologist Dr Jen Gunter. This essentially links back to the lack records on menstruation history.  The author of The Vagina Bible has dedicated years on research on menstrual products and their effects on women’s health, writing a detailed chapter on Menstrual Hygiene. Although incredibly bold and liberating however, the book offers merely three paragraphs on the menstrual cycle itself, focusing on technicalities of what happens in the body rather than exploring the neurological, emotional side. The generalisability of much published research even by female researchers/ authors is problematic because it offers an inaccurate exploration of the menstrual cycle, and lack of examination on the effects it has on the psyche.

The topic of menstruation is taking a small step forward, however we have a long way to go in order to uncondition our society on how to embrace the Inner Autumn. We need to remember that “it shouldn’t be an act of feminism to know how your body works” (Ted, 2020) and when we cannot discuss what is happening to our bodies, we cannot break the stigma. 

Edlin, G (2022) Bloody Good Period 

Gunter, J (2019) The Vagina Bible, Piatkus

Handy et.al (2022) Symptoms Across the Menstrual Cycle in Adult Women

Louise-Newton (2016) Everyday Discourses of Menstruation: Cultural and Social Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan

Pope, A & Wurlitzer, H, S. (2017) Wild Power. Hay House, UK