Period Power

PERIOD founder and Harvard College student Nadya Okamoto offers a manifesto on menstruation and why we can no longer silence those who bleed-and how to engage in youth activism.Throughout history, periods have been hidden from the public. They're taboo. They're embarrassing. They're gross. And due to a crumbling or nonexistent national sex ed program, they are misunderstood. Because of these stigmas, a status quo has been established to exclude people who menstruate from the seat at the decision-making table, creating discriminations like the tampon tax, medicines that favor male biology, and more.Period Power aims to explain what menstruation is, shed light on the stigmas and resulting biases, and create a strategy to end the silence and prompt conversation about periods.

"A must-read for anyone committed to gender equity. Nadya Okamoto educates and activates in her personal manifesto aimed at getting rid of the stigma around periods and beginning honest conversations. Her mission includes changing policies which cause menstruators to experience financial burdens and social separation based on a normal life cycle event for half of the world's population. It is well-past time to talk and act, and Nadya's book is a great anthem to organize the movement."

Auteur

Nadya Okamoto grew up in Portland and currently attends Harvard College. She is the founder and executive director of PERIOD (Period.org), an organization she founded at the age of sixteen, which is now the largest youth-run NGO in women’s health, and one of the fastest growing ones here in the United States. She is also the cofounder and spokesperson of Next Fellows (NextFellows.org). In 2017, Nadya ran for office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While she did not win, her campaign team made historic waves in mobilizing young people on the ground and at polls.

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PERIODa founder and executive director Okamoto offers a manifesto on menstruation which aims to explain what menstruation is, shed light on the stigmas and resulting biases, and create a strategy to end the silence and prompt conversation about periods. Illustrations.

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Period Power

CHAPTER ONE

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THE BLOODY TRUTH

Periods are powerful. Human life would literally not exist without them. They are what make reproduction possible and keep our wombs ready to bear children, if or when we choose to do that.

The common experience of menstruation connects people all over the world. Think about it: if you were assigned female at birth, most likely you will get your period on a monthly basis for around forty years of your life. It doesn’t matter where you are from, how you identify, or what access to resources you have. And if you don’t get your period during menstruation age, it means that your body is telling you either that you are pregnant or that your health needs attention. Though, it’s also important to know that when birth control is used without breaks, menstruation may stop as well.

To strengthen the way we advocate for periods, we need to understand what a period is in the first place. In the United States we still live in a culture where there is no expectation that we’ll learn about periods. Even when it is taught (in schools, by parents, by friends), it’s often taught in a way that limits our understanding of what we might call the menstrual experience.

Basic sex education—if available—usually starts in the final years of elementary school and continues into middle school. For those of us who have already experienced it, we might have cringe-worthy memories of our teachers holding up bananas or wooden models of penises to demonstrate how to properly roll a condom on. My favorite memory is of when my eighth-grade science teacher took a red condom, blew it up, and shouted, “See? It works for any size!”

My experience with sex education in elementary and middle school was in gender-segregated classrooms. Teachers often shuffle boys into one classroom and girls into another. In the boys’ classroom the health teacher might explain that the boys’ voices are going to get lower, their testicles will descend, and hairs will grow in unfamiliar places on their bodies.

In the other classroom the girls are learning about their bodies too. They will learn about their own hair growth, about the development of boobs, and about hormones and the new emotions that they might start to feel. This might also be the first time periods are brought up in the classroom. The teacher will hold up a tampon and pad and explain what products are available and the basics of how to use them. But the experience of actually menstruating will not be covered. You won’t find out what the blood will actually look like or what to do if you feel extreme pain while menstruating. The teachers won’t tell you what you should do if you stop menstruating suddenly. The option of using sustainable alternatives such as menstrual cups and reusable pads, rather than a typical tampon or pad, will not be discussed.

From the moment the classroom separates into boys and girls, the girls learn to feel shame about openly talking about menstruation, and this prevents future conversations and questions from surfacing. Girls learn that the topic of periods is something you either keep to yourself or you mention only to other girls, in private circles. And boys often don’t formally learn anything about menstruation. They are taught that it isn’t any of their business, that it’s weird to even be curious.

Menstruator or not, you still have to share spaces with many people who are. Everyone, regardless of sex or gender identity, should know what periods are and should feel comfortable talking about them—this is necessary in order to build inclusive and egalitarian communities. So, let’s dive in.

• WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PERIOD AND A MENSTRUAL CYCLE? •

“Period” and “menstrual cycle” are two terms that are used to indicate the time of the month when the body excretes blood, but the words don’t mean exactly the same thing. The “menstrual cycle” refers to the approximately twenty-eight-day process during which the body prepares for pregnancy. A “period” is just one brief stop in a much larger menstrual cycle.

The diagram above gives us a look into a menstruator’s pelvic area, right between the hips. The two ovaries hold the eggs, and the whole menstrual cycle is directed by two of our hormone friends: estrogen and progesterone.

At the beginning of each cycle, estrogen and progesterone trigger the creation of the endometrium, which is a lining on the inside walls of the uterus. Made of tissue and blood, the endometrium is spongy enough to make a perfect landing place for a fertilized egg. When pregnancy does occur, the uterus is often referred to as the womb.

Ovulation happens when a menstruator’s ovaries release a matured egg about halfway through a menstrual cycle. As you can see from the diagram, in order to get to the uterus, the matured egg travels through the fallopian tubes. The egg basically just sits in the fallopian tube or the uterus and waits, hoping to be fertilized by a sperm cell. Most of the time pregnancy does not occur, which causes the uterine lining to break off from the uterine wall and exit the body through the vaginal canal. This action is what we call a period.

• THE BLOODY TRUTH ABOUT PERIOD BLOOD •

When I first got my period, I was scared. I knew what menstruation was, but no one had ever told me how period blood would look, smell, and feel. So, here it is—the bloody truth in all its glory:

What period blood actually looks l…