Heavy Periods, the Last Challenge for the Liberated Woman?
When I have my period, I feel like an outcast - "An individual outside the caste, whose contact is considered a contamination." I have what is called heavy, even very heavy periods. Fortunately, I have my menstrual panties for very heavy flow.
The Taboo of Heavy Periods
I call them the Niagara Falls. And even this little comparison, expressed lightly (wrongly) in front of my boyfriend, earned me a "you don’t have to give me the details." Otherwise, he is a very understanding and mature person. Niagara Falls are pretty though, luckily I didn’t say "it’s the placenta falls."
I try not to see him during the flood, his look mixed with embarrassment, disappointment, and disgust when I explain why we won’t be having fun tonight makes me want to leave him.
I’m not going to wax my bikini line either because I’m afraid of becoming a grim story in my beautician’s files. You know, one of those anecdotes she tells you when you ask, what’s the worst thing that ever happened to you at the salon? "The girl, she had her period and..."
I stopped being honest to explain my constant trips to the bathroom when I forgot to bring tampons. To a simple "I have my period," my best friend replied, "you don’t have to tell me everything." And yet, I’ve told him much more intimate and vivid things that always made him laugh.
Strategies to Avoid Blood Stains
Because of this wonderful trait of my periods, the heaviness, I have multiplied survival strategies.
I tried to develop a bionic ability to feel a stain on my back, but the results are inconsistent. So, I leave after everyone else, at work, at restaurants, etc. I’m always the last when I have my period...
I also decided to use my bag as a shame shield. I wear it crossbody, like how Amazons carried their bow, to hide my behind. Unfortunately, it doesn’t hide the chair, the couch, or the car seat where I just marked my territory!
I also invent various stomach illnesses to justify my cramps and trips to the bathroom. Everyone ended up thinking I had chronic gastro or occasional cocaine addiction.
Nothing helps, regularly, I get up and a stain on the cushion, the chair, or the sheet appears… And I literally want to sink into a hole. The last time it happened was at my place on the sofa bed in my studio. I was having drinks with a new acquaintance. I never saw him again...
Period Panties: Finally Freedom!
Let’s be serious for a minute. In the end, the disaster doesn’t happen as often as I fear. But that’s the saddest part, all those moments when I’m full of fear, restraint, strategy, and shame for nothing.
When I have my period, I’m not in the present, I don’t listen to what people say, I don’t go where I want, I only think about the stain, I’m obsessed with the stain. But since I discovered the period panties, I am a liberated woman.
I use them with a tampon on my heaviest days and I no longer hesitate to accept a friend’s offer to drive me home from a party in his car with beige seats... I know that thanks to my new ally, leaks are a thing of the past!
By Sophia
