Category: Periods

Repose: taking a back seat in the front row

~ womeninlivingness

I have recently completed a program called Stillness and Cycles with Sara Harris from Follow Your Flow. It was 6 weeks of finding out everything and more about our cycles. Each week we attended a presentation, discussion and an Esoteric Yoga session, charted our cycle every day, learned about the cycle on a physical and energetic level, and kept a daily journal of body awareness and observations of each phase.  

The program has taught me about repose, and I have had a physical taste of what that really means.  Continue reading “Repose: taking a back seat in the front row” →

No periods… a message from my body

~ womeninlivingness

Six years ago the doctor asked me if I wanted anti-depressants and suggested I saw a psychotherapist for eating disorders. I’d had some big life changes and reacted with a huge amount of emotional turmoil and stress. I lost about 12kg and went down to 42kg within a few months. My periods stopped and I had no energy or enthusiasm for anything in life. 

I thought I didn’t have an eating disorder because I wasn’t obsessed with my weight or my body – I just didn’t care, about myself or anything else. I shut myself down as a woman, to myself and the world, and gave up. Continue reading “No periods… a message from my body” →

My journey with Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome

~ womeninlivingness

Since my early twenties I have had severely irregular periods and could go three to six months, sometimes longer, without any.   

I was overweight, moody and had excess facial hair. 

I felt uncomfortable as a woman. 

I was diagnosed with Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and so began my journey with ‘fixing’ my periods.  Continue reading “My journey with Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome” →

Amenorrhea – Where do you look when your periods stop?

~ womeninlivingness

Amenorrhea is the absence of menstruation  

In 2014 I moved to London and my periods stopped.  

Within a couple of months the stress I had placed myself under to get a flat and job resulted in me eating very little and dropping from 50/55kg to 41.7kg.  

Prior to 2014, my periods came every month. I rarely had any symptoms in the week leading to my period, but when it came, it was nothing short of horrendous.  Continue reading “Amenorrhea – Where do you look when your periods stop?” →

The True Purpose of Periods

~ womeninlivingness

What is the true purpose of periods? Many of us have reduced our idea of periods to mere function, a messy inconvenience whose only useful purpose is to reassure us that we are not pregnant, but there is so much more to our monthly menstrual cycle, which we are ignoring to the great detriment of all of us.

I recently read an article (1) by a physician on the benefits of taking the oral contraceptive pill continuously, rather than allowing for a monthly bleed, as has been done in the past.

Continue reading “The True Purpose of Periods” →

Premenstrual Syndrome – Prozac or making new Choices?

~ womeninlivingness

Many a conversation amongst women has been about Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS). PMS is fairly common although exact statistics are hard to find as some symptoms of PMS are unreported. Women’s Health Concern (1) state that “One in three women suffers discomforting symptoms in the days before their period. For one in 20 the symptoms are bad enough to more seriously affect their lives.” Premenstrual Syndrome can have various symptoms (2) including irritability, tiredness, depression, mood swings, night sweats, bloating, anxiety, breast pain.

Continue reading “Premenstrual Syndrome – Prozac or making new Choices?” →

My Journey with my Periods – Discovering Cycles 

~ womeninlivingness

It has been nearly 7 years since my first period at the age of 13 and since then I have been on an amazing journey in my relationship with myself as a woman. During those years there were many changes taking place – it is generally known and accepted that puberty is a big time for teenagers as their physical body and hormones shift, but with the support of Esoteric Women’s Health and Universal Medicine practitioners, this time has been far more than a biological change for me – it has been an amazing journey where I have blossomed from a girl into a woman. Continue reading “My Journey with my Periods – Discovering Cycles “ →

Me and my Menstrual Cycle: Connecting to my Body and Myself as a Woman

~ womeninlivingness

I am a 43 year-young woman and for most of my life I have had no relationship with my menstrual cycle. At some point, I found out that there was such a thing as ‘menstruation’ and at the age of 14, wearing white pants on that particular day (how convenient…), it started for me in the toilet at school. I had my first menstruation and I had no idea what to do. I felt awkward and embarrassed, especially because it was on a day that my father picked me up and suggested we go for a long walk with the dogs. That was the longest walk of my life. I asked my two older sisters for support and I was introduced into the world of sanitary pads. And having my monthly period.

And so my life continued…

At the age of 16 I had my first boyfriend and my mother suggested taking the pill. Not because I had difficulties with my period, but for birth control. After that, for many years to follow, and having several relationships, I took the pill, had my monthly ‘fake’ menstruation, put in a tampon (so much more convenient than those big sanitary towel ‘mattresses’), and I lived my life; A life without any connection to my cycle, my body, my uterus, my ovaries, my breasts, my menstruation, my ovulation – in other words, to the fact that I was a woman, with a menstrual cycle.

I never took a moment to ask myself what it actually means to be a woman, let alone what it means to live as a woman.

Continue reading “Me and my Menstrual Cycle: Connecting to my Body and Myself as a Woman” →

Dysmenorrhoea (Painful periods) and the Joy of Coming back to Me

~ womeninlivingness

Dysmenorrhoea is a medical term used in association with periods to describe frontal low pelvic pain.

Soon after my first period started I began to get severe pain most, if not every month. Usually within 3 to 4 hours of starting I would be on the floor with sickness and diarrhoea from the contractions in my womb. It would only last a few hours but the intensity was crazy.

I would make noises like a woman having a baby; I would scream, shout, swear and I would roll about the floor like a possessed (mad) woman. I could quickly go from feeling boiling hot and sweating to freezing cold and hugging a hot water bottle – this between hugging the toilet and hugging a sick bowl. Continue reading “Dysmenorrhoea (Painful periods) and the Joy of Coming back to Me” →