Happy Girl Winter: How to Overcome Seasonal Depressive Disorder
How Using a Menstrual Cup Reconnected Me with My Body and Period as a Non-Binary Person
For the past ten years, I’ve accepted periods as a part of my life. I kept track of it in my calendar and was happy to pop a pad in without a second thought, cooling the cramps when they came. But things began to change when I began dating my partner, who is passionate about the environment and has gotten me hooked on everything from composting to sustainable products. I decided to buy a period cup, for its one-time cost and ability to be washed and reused every month…
‘Nobody Deserves To Be Convinced Into Silencing Their Body’s Pain’: My Endometriosis Story
My periods were hot red pokers when I was 16. Until I went on the pill for acne, as my doctor recommended, and it all went away: the pain, the symptoms and the bleeding. I was twenty-three when I decided to come off the pill. The first period after I did was a grasping-the-toilet, puddle-on-the-floor, call-my-mum …mess. I suppose that was the beginning. The first sign. But it was just period pain. Right?
Pain, Pills and Coils: My Contraception Quest
The types of contraception I have tried are clearly not suitable for my body. But what do I do now? Do I try another method, like a different pill or a hormonal implant, and just literally hope for the best? All of these are significant invasions of our bodies, and only because they work – meaning they keep us from getting pregnant – do we seem to have given up looking for alternatives…
‘Powerful, Connected, Grateful: How I Learned to Love My Period
‘They’ve Changed My Life’: How Period Knickers Helped Shed My Monthly Shame
Even into my twenties, I’d look in reflections to check for leaks, wearing black trousers on my period or wearing a pad days before I was due, just in case. It took two months and a pep talk from an ad on Instagram to find the courage to try period knickers. I wouldn’t reach for them automatically – the idea of free bleeding into knickers is too daunting – and until my friend mentioned them, they hadn’t been on my radar...
What is Free Bleeding and Why Are We Afraid of It?
For those who don’t know, the principle of free bleeding is simple: a person menstruates without using sanitary products (i.e. tampons, pads) to collect the flow. Those partaking in free bleeding intentionally claim that it’s a movement that aims to alter stigmas behind ‘period accidents’, protest extortionate prices of period products, and highlight environmental issues caused by disposable sanitary products…