A tough ‘period’

Aradhika  Sharma

Overheard, a conversation between two 30-something women in a gynaecologist’s waiting room:

Woman 1: How wonderful that a movie on periods, in India, has won an Oscar. It’ll create more awareness on menstruation in the country.

Woman 2: In my opinion, every woman who gets periods should win a prize for having to silently suffer them. Why should women have to agonise over all the painful stuff? Periods, pregnancy, childbirth, menopause? Why not men? Even before we’re born, we’re discriminated against!

Woman 1: Oh, I wouldn’t say that! Men must go through puberty too.

Woman 2: Really? What do they have to endure during puberty? Only a cracked voice, zits and facial hair. On the other hand, women must suffer cramps, fear of stain and, sometimes, even segregation.

Woman 1: True! I came to the doctor because when I’m down, it feels like there’s a Black Friday stampede trying to escape from inside my uterus. Seriously. I’m not “overacting”.

Woman 2: Have you noticed how we have pseudonyms for periods? ‘I’m down’, ‘I’m having my chums’, ‘That time of the month’, ‘A visit from Aunt Flo’. We’ve constructed so many names to describe the monthly shedding of our menstrual walls so that people (read men) don’t get offended.

Woman 1: Have you noticed how periods will show up on the first day of vacation? Last year, during a vacation in Goa, everyone frolicked in the sea and I sat grumpily outside. The excellent pina coladas that the shackwallahs were serving compensated a little though.

Woman 2: Bloody Marys would have been more appropriate!

The women collapsed with laughter.

Woman 1: Seriously though, it gets bad when the pain makes you miss work. Worldwide, the concept of menstrual leave has been gaining traction. Women in Japan and Korea can request days off work, though Japanese women rarely take this option for the fear of losing authority or getting paid less.

Woman 2: That wouldn’t happen if men were menstruating. 

Woman 1: Unlikely! Have you noticed how advertisements regarding pads and tampons call them feminine hygiene products? Are we unclean or something? 

Woman 2: Everything boils down to taboos and stigmas around periods. The fact is: men have no idea. And we just don’t talk about it enough for them to ‘get it’!

Woman 1: Well, we’re damned if we have them and damned if we don’t! If we have them, we must keep silent about our biology and suffer through hormone hell. If we don’t, then we’re either pregnant (not a bad thing) or going through an perimenopause or have thyroid or PCOS issues.

Woman 2: We should take the conversation into the public domain! Fathers and brothers should feel as comfortable talking about periods as moms and sisters. It is only when women get the opportunity to talk openly about their health, including periods, that it will make it to the political agendas of countries.

Woman 2: Right! Let’s start by making an instructional video about men being giant babies while dealing with periods.