There’s nothing funny about telling a girl “your period has started…it’s all over the back of your skirt! You’d better go the restroom…use your notebook to cover your rear as you go!”

A teen with irregular and heavy periods, I often experienced huge, embarrassing leaks.  And, for some reason a few of my friends thought it would be funny to play an April Fool’s Day joke on me.

I failed to see the humor in it.  There’s nothing funny about thinking you’ve leaked.  And, there’s NOTHING funny about being told you’ve experienced a HUGE leak that’s visible and needs immediate attention when you’ve not.

As we teach our girls how to deal with menstruation and to honor menstruation in others, let’s be vigilant in teaching them to be supportive, considerate and compassionate in their dealings with other girls.

A common question among girls is – “When will I get my first period?” Another is, “How will I know my period has started?”

And, with women it isn’t much different – “When will I get my last period?”, and, “How will I know when I’ve reached menopause?”

According to WebMD, a new method may help pinpoint a woman’s final period.

The formula is based on the changing levels of two hormones: estradiol, which is found in the ovaries; and follicle-stimulating hormone, which is present in the brain and gives instructions to the ovaries.

Estradiol levels fall and follicle-stimulating hormone levels rise as women go through menopause, the University of California, Los Angeles, researchers explained in a news release from the Endocrine Society.

Currently, doctors monitor women’s menstrual bleeding patterns to determine the menopause transition phase. However, this phase is an imprecise indicator of when the final menstrual period will occur, according to the authors of the study published in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Menopause brings change. A woman’s risk of heart disease and osteoporosis increase. The thought is that knowing when a woman can expect her final period will give her, perhaps, a 2 year head start on proactive intervention.

Do you think it would be period wise to know when to expect your final period?

What image comes to mind when I say the words flowing red?

Perhaps of flowing red hair?                       Or a flowing red dress?

What if I say I am flowing…?

Did the flowing red image in your mind disappear, to be replaced with another?

If you say of YOURSELF I am flowing…, what image does your mind call forth?

A flowing dress becomes art when captured with an eye for detail and by someone who sees beyond what is and beholds the beauty….

Yes.  The beauty.  Flowing is beautiful.

I challenge you to break the taboos that prevent you from seeing your flow as the beauty she is.

Be period wise.  Look beyond what is and behold the beauty of your menstruation.

Did you catch the article high school student Kira Gabriel wrote for her school paper on “Societal stigmas against acknowledging menstruation“?

She begins strong.

In its most recent issue, Seventeen Magazine ran a Tampax Radiant tampon ad that read, “New Tampax Radiant helps keep your period invisible. How you stand out is up to you.” The pseudo-feminist slogan implies that the only thing that can identify a woman on her period is her period.

And, she ends strong.

The current taboo against menstruation tells women that an essential part of their nature is disgusting and needs to be hidden. It is imperative that society accepts that, in order for it to continue, women must menstruate. Shaming them for it is a detriment to everyone.

Wow!

To read all that comes between the beginning and the end, please click on the link above.

My guess is you’ll be cheering and shouting and clapping just like I was when I read it.

Wish I’d written these period wise words!

What period wise actions are you taking to end the taboos of menstruation?

The latest pill popping craze among teen girls may well be birth control pills.

A Thomson Reuters study, released March 2011, reported that:

Eighteen percent of teenage women ages 13 to 18 filled prescriptions for oral contraceptives in 2009, a proportion that has steadily risen since 2002, the study found.

The number of commercially insured teens filling birth control prescriptions from 2002 to 2009 increased 50 percent, while prescriptions for those with Medicaid rose 29 percent.

ABC News/Good Morning America followed up on the Reuters study and reported the following in July, 2011.

Today, one in five American girls between the ages of 13 and 18, two-and-a-half million teens in all, are on the birth control, the study found, and doctors say the age at which teens start on the pill is getting younger and younger.

From 1 in 8 teen girls in 2002, to 1 in 5 by 2009.

Say what?!?

If it jumped that much in 7 years, what are the numbers now, 4 years later?

And, what affects are these synthetic hormones having on the developing bodies of our maturing girls? on their future health?