Just for a moment, if you will, close your eyes and take some deep long slow breaths. Now with your eyes closed, I invite you to travel back to the tender young age of when you received your menarche (first period). What did you look like? What did life look like? Who were your friends? What were your interests? Most importantly, did you know what a period was? Did you know what a menstrual cycle was or understand the menstrual cycle phases? Were you given education on menstrual products available to you and how to use them?.
For me and many others, I did not understand the how and why behind the female body bleeding every month. I didn’t know the menstrual products available to me nor how to use them, I had no idea about the menstrual cycle or basic female anatomy. When I was pregnant with my second child and knew I was having a girl, I knew that I needed to change that. So, in my early 30’s I set out to educate myself so that I could educate her. And thus, the journey back home to myself, my womb, my power began.
Over the years I’ve spoken with many women who have shared their menarche stories with me, expressing what they thought and what they were told (or in most cases what they weren’t told). Stories ranged from thinking their period was a one-time event that wouldn’t return, to thinking they were literally going to bleed to death, not understanding what the hell was going on. Others didn’t know how to open or use period products and had no idea that urine came from a separate hole, not from the vagina.
There is a classic old-age misconception that the female reproductive part ‘the vagina’ is in fact the external female anatomy part ‘the vulva’ – which it is not. They are two very separate parts of the female anatomy that do two completely different things, the vagina being internal within the body and the vulva being on the outer body. Isn’t it crazy to think growing up we could be watching a gruesome horror movie with blood and guts and then flick to an ad where we see a blue liquid being squirted on a menstrual pad, what’s the message there? So, using a red liquid was too gruesome because it reflected the colour of a woman’s menstrual blood? Which is the very reason for the menstrual product in the first place. I mean, make it
make sense!
Imagine a world and education system that actually educates young girls on what puberty will look and feel like for them in their female body. Imagine being able to learn the full educational spectrum of the menstrual cycle and how each of the four hormonal phases can govern the life of the female body and deeply affect the mental physical, emotional and even spiritual bodies on a week-to-week basis. Better yet, being given positive tools on how to work with those phases. Imagine knowing that the menstrual cycle is so much more than a period once a month and that ovulation is a key player to a healthy cycle.
Imagine being given an abundance of education around the menstrual products available and how to use those products. Well, that’s exactly what I do and there are a growing number of women doing the same. This is critical knowledge & wisdom needed for our next generation of girls and for our menstruating women today, this work and knowledge can quite literally be life-changing, it most definitely has been for me.
SO WHY IS THIS EDUCATION SO IMPORTANT FOR OUR YOUNG GIRLS COMING OF AGE?
Well firstly, it reduces fear and scarcity, the more we know the more we are prepared right?
By providing a full spectrum of education on female anatomy, female puberty, menstruation and the menstrual cycle as a whole to our young girls during this crucial changing time in their lives, we can empower them to make independent decisions that can significantly influence the trajectory of their lives. This opens up a wider gateway for young girls to ask questions and to reach out for help with any concerns or changes they are experiencing in their bodies. This can also support them in making better-informed decisions over their own bodies as they grow. This can include better informed decisions on sexual partners too. Education is absolutely key and the more we know the more informed we are to make good decisions.
The legend Jane Hardwicke Collings once said “If you reject the menstrual cycle, you’re rejecting your body and if you’re rejecting your body, you are rejecting yourself”. A huge piece of this education is that it supports body and self-acceptance, a wonderful way to affirm identity and belonging in one’s own body, a belonging to the female body, a belonging to a sisterhood, a belonging to our natural cyclical nature and not only accepting change and transformation but embracing it.
When we understand the menstrual cycle as a whole, we understand how ever-changing each hormonal phase or inner season really is.
Ariana-Rose Te Awe Awe
Arina-Rose is a menstrual educator, cycle coach facilitator, and founder of R&R Balance - Go with your flow, People's Choice Awards winner, Frazer Coast, QLD. Her products/services educate, celebrate and inspire young girls coming age. Teaching them how to understand the female body and work with hormonal changes and experiences.
