Heavy periods, the last challenge of the liberated woman?

When I'm on my period, I feel like an outcast - "an out-of-caste individual, whose touch is considered a defilement." I have what we call heavy periods, even very heavy.

The taboo of heavy periods

I call them Niagara Falls. And even this little comparison expressed in a light tone (wrongly) in front of my darling made me say “you don't have to give me the details”. He is otherwise a very understanding and mature being. Niagara Falls is pretty though, luckily I didn't say "it's the Placenta Falls".

I manage not to see him during the disembarkation, his look mixed with embarrassment, disappointment and disgust when I explain to him the reason why we won't have fun this evening makes me want to leave him.

I'm also not going to have my bikini line waxed because I'm afraid of becoming a dark story in my beautician's repertoire. You know one of the anecdotes she tells you when you ask her, what's the worst thing that happened to you in institute? “the girl, she had her period and…”

I stopped being honest about my constant trips to the bathroom when I forgot to take tampons. To a simple “I have my period”, my best friend replied “you don’t have to tell me everything”. And yet, I told him much more intimate and colorful things, which always made him laugh.

 

Strategies to avoid blood stains

Because of this wonderful character trait of my period, abundance, I have multiplied the survival strategies.

I've tried developing a bionic ability to feel a spot on my back, but the results are inconsistent. So, I leave after everyone, to the office, to the restaurant, etc. I'm always last when I have my period...

I also decided to use my bag as an anti-shame protection. I carry it over my shoulder, the way Amazons carried their archers, to hide my behind. Unfortunately, it doesn't hide the chair, sofa or car seat I just marked my territory on!

I also invent various stomach illnesses to justify my cramps and my trips to the toilet. Everyone ended up thinking that I had chronic gastrointestinal illness or an occasional cocaine addiction.

Nothing helps, regularly, I get up and a stain appears on the cushion, the chair, the sheet... And I literally want to sink into a hole. The last time this happened to me was at home on the sofa bed in my studio. I was drinking an aperitif with a new acquaintance. I never saw her again...

The period panties: finally liberation!

Let's be serious for a minute. Ultimately, disaster doesn't happen as often as I fear. But that's the saddest thing, all these moments when I am in fear, restraint, strategy and shame for nothing.

When I have my period, I am no longer in the present, I don't listen to what people tell me, I don't go where I want, I only think about the stain, I am obsessed with the stain. But since I discovered period panties , I have been a liberated woman.

I use it with a tampon on my high tide days and I no longer hesitate to accept a friend's offer to take me back from the evening in his car with beige seats... I know that thanks to my new ally , leaks are a thing of the past!

By Sophia