I struggle to be on friendly terms with what is commonly referred to as maxi pads. Although it’s been many years since I’ve used one, I remember why I began disliking pads—they felt like diapers for adults, only instead of urine & fecal matter, I was sitting in menstrual fluids.

My issue with pads began while I was in high school. I was in the middle of class, had just changed my pad, yet I felt warm liquid working its way up my crack. I knew if I didn’t catch it, I would leak, so I excused myself to the bathroom for maintenance. Sure enough, my pad wasn’t catching the menstrual fluids. I thought if I’d used 2 super, extra long maxis with wings that my problem would be solved, but that didn’t help either. The menstrual fluid would just travel up, missing the pad altogether. Also, the size of the pads made me feel like I was sitting on a pillow, or wearing a diaper. I’d had it with pads, so I decided to try tampons. I was in love! Leakage was rare, I didn’t feel like I was wearing a diaper, and I wasn’t sitting in my own fluid. Also, I could SWIM—which I loved to do—so I was sold. I have been using tampons for years ever since. READ MORE… »

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Dads with developing daughters

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that your daughter is growing up. And for many fathers – watching their daughters hit puberty and go through so many changes so quickly is undeniably difficult. After all, this is Daddy’s little girl we are talking about.

Even so, it is important to know that in this day and age, 3 out of 10 girls are starting puberty at the young age of 8 years old. So what a daddy might see as his daughter pulling away from hugs and becoming increasingly self-conscious is really just a symptom of all the many changes that naturally come with puberty.

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The Endometriosis Network Canada“There I was, at 2 am, awakened again by a cold sweat, a sharp pain in my right side and the overwhelming nausea that caused me to keep my jaw clamped shut in the hopes of avoiding an episode of vomiting. I pushed back the covers, slid my feet to the edge and sank to the floor. Quick, what are my options? Crawl to the bathroom in the hopes of retrieving my hot water bottle and lying on the cold tile floor knowing that whatever happens at least I won’t make a mess, or quietly open my bedside table drawer for my collection of pain killers and aromatic essential oils to keep me from passing out? Will I wake anyone? Will either of the options help? Is the pain escalating? Is this “episode” going to make the ER necessary? No, not the ER–what is the point of losing consciousness on the toilet in the ER bathroom, in a puddle of my own sweat, and then being accused of drug seeking? I slump over, right there on the floor beside my bed and wait for the current wave of contractions to pass. Breathe. I can get through this. I’m a rock star.”

How often at work or at school do we look at someone and wonder how they’ve spent their night? If we do, how often do we think, “Hmm, they must have been in excruciating pain.” While some with endometriosis are without symptoms, the majority have spent many days and nights in some semblance of the above state. It might surprise the average person to know what so many intelligent, witty, creative, vibrant, hard-working people are reduced to when no one is looking. It becomes so important to appear “normal” to someone suffering so constantly in this way. This desire to keep up appearances is, in itself, isolating and exhausting. READ MORE… »

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Believe it or not, as a father – you play a huge role in how comfortable your daughter is with her own femininity.  Girls who have a loving, supportive, compassionate, and understanding father have been proven in numerous studies to have more self-confidence and perform better in school (and life!)

It’s easy as a father to sit back and allow mom, or another female role model to handle the particulars of periods – considering those things ‘woman’s stuff!”  The problem is that if a girl in the midst of puberty sees her father avoiding the subject or throwing his hands over his ears every time someone mentions the word ‘period,’ the girl can often feel like her father is not accepting her transition to adulthood.  And this can be a problem.

Remember that this transitionary time in your daughter’s life is confusing for HER too – and the last thing she needs is to feel unaccepted by those around her.

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Our First Period stories are seldom told.

We share highlights from our childhood with our own children as they grow up, from the mischievous to the beautiful, from the mundane to the unparalleled. Moms may share their First Kiss story with their Teen girl, but a first menstrual story? Rarely…

my first periodHaving worked with woman and girls all over the world, I found that sharing these silent stories creates deep bonding, and has a rich healing effect on those who share, as well as on those who listen.

I encourage women to break the taboo, to give voice to their untold First Menstruation story, as the first step to releasing the negative residues they may be carrying form that time in their life, as well as the first step in becoming comfortable in welcoming their daughter into womanhood.

In the spirit of modeling, I would like to share my First period story with you.

I was about 12, and owned a book called “A Baby Comes into the World,” which was given to me by my Mom a few years earlier. Even though we looked at the detailed drawings of Female and Male anatomy, and she read the book to me more than once, when the day arrived — none of that, apparently, sank in. READ MORE… »

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By Softcup

The menstrual cycle and menstruation are often not well understood by many women, even though dealing with it is something they are faced with on a regular basis.

The average menstrual cycle is 28 days long, but just as all women are different, so are our periods. Normal cycles can range anywhere from 21 to 35 days in adults and from 21 to 45 days in young teens.

Many women may have irregular or heavy periods, making their periods unpredictable or otherwise difficult. Many women with irregular or heavy periods manage them with menstrual cups, which are safe to use right before you start your period, which can be especially beneficial if your period is not quite as predictable as you’d like it to be.

The menstrual cycle timing described below is based off of the average 28-day cycle. If your menstrual cycle is a bit shorter or longer, the timing of certain occurrences in your cycle may vary.

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I will never forget the shopping trip that I took with my Mom when we were searching for my grade 8 Graduation dress. I had my period and I had the worst cramps I had ever experienced. I had already taken some medication for the pain, but it wasn’t doing anything for me. I should have listened better to my body because I ended up passing out on the change room floor because the pain was so intense! We ended up going to see the doctor after that and I was prescribed some special medication that helped me get through the terrible cramps each month.

By Multi-Testing Mommy

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I discovered something a few years ago that has changed me and has made a huge difference in my life of PMS, pads and periods. If I’d only known it when I was a teen and just beginning my menstrual journey; oh, what a difference it would have made in my life.

I don’t want you to be like me; with almost 35 years of menstrual experience before I learned this important truth.

Here it is.

Embrace your cycle, every day of it. READ MORE… »

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My parents divorced when I was 11 and my mother moved out of the house. For a while my mother would buy me my monthly “supplies” and drop them off because it was too embarrassing to ask my father.

After a while, my mother said I was on my own to pick up these necessities. In an effort to be sly and avoid any conversation about my needs, I decided to quietly add them to the weekly grocery list for my dad. I wrote “pads” in the middle of the list. I thought for sure I’d be safe. And then the day of shopping came and there my father stood in front of me, list in hand, questioning what I meant by “pads”. Do you mean “sanitary napkins?” Uggghhhh….who says that? I was horrified!! “Yes” I replied, hoping that would be the end. To my dismay, it continued. “So, what do they look like, what color, what size?” It seemed to never end. Wait till he saw some of them had wings!! But once the horror ended, he did his fatherly duty and helped his daughter out, until I made it to high school and mustered the courage to buy them on my own. READ MORE… »

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My first period came when I was 11 years old, I was the first of my friends to get my period and I was especially pleased with myself, as the flat-chested girl in a group of girls who had developed early and large, this meant I wasn’t going to be left behind. In fact getting my period first meant to me that I was the first to reach womanhood, my chest may have been flat but I had made up for that with womanly hips and womanly things going on between my hips.

It was after gym class…in the winter the girls changing rooms would flood, so we had to get changed in the gym itself, I distinctly remember suddenly feeling warm and more wet than usual. I knew this had to be my period, so I changed back into my uniform with my back to the wall so no one would see blood on my underwear, and I kept my gym shorts on under my skirt. Between class I nipped to the bathroom, sure enough a big bright-red splodge of blood in my underwear and all over the toilet paper when I wiped. We had lovely bathrooms in that school, but no sanitary product vending machines, and I had no supplies with me, so I wrapped toilet paper round my underwear and went to my last class of the day. READ MORE… »

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