The Menstruation Tales

Ahh informative article ahead.

Recently, I had the eye-opening experience of reading comments from guys regarding menstruation on a Facebook post, which gave me an idea that how much the other gender lacks quality information on “periods” a.k.a “menstruation”.

• Menstruation starts at 12–13 years of age. Little girls, freshly stepping into teenage, find it hard to understand what is happening to their body. So the next time you see your little niece or sister acting all weird, you know one possibility can be this.
• We bleed for 3–7 days continuously. Day and night, 24 hours and it's not just a few drops. The first comment on that Facebook post read “You girls cry like you bleed continuously for days. Stop it. All you bleed is some drops for some hours. How bad it can be?”. Needless to say, what happened to him after that comment was not cute.
• Period consist of two things - breaking of the egg and breaking of the uterus lining, both of which are developed, released and thickened in every monthly cycle by the female reproductive organ for a possible pregnancy.
• When the egg and uterus line sheds out, it literally breaks down, little by little, and it actually pains A LOT. Stomach, abdominal area, back, legs, feet. Whole body becomes lethargic and we feel completely drained out on first few days.
• Every girl has different period cycles, and every girl has a different kind of menstruation. Some girls have menstruation after 28 days for 3 days, and some have a 7 day menstruation after 35 days. Also some women get heavy periods, some get medium and some get light periods. The intensity of pain also differs, and so does the texture and color. Such things can give away the signs of a healthy reproductive organ, or lack thereof, which ultimately results in a visit to a gynecologist.
• Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we end up spoiling our clothes, bed sheets, or the surfaces we sleep or sit on. We don't do it intentionally. Neither it is like we don't know how to use stuff. Sometimes it just happens. It is not our fault. We ourselves feel embarrassed. It would be really kind of you that if you see a red spot somewhere on our lower wear, please don't make our fun. We're already in a mess.
• Periods never get better or easy. It is us who gets better in tackling and managing them. We can give exams, run marathons, stand up for elections and go to Mars on our periods too, but only if it's really advantageous and necessary for us. If it's not, we're not leaving our lovely bed no matter what until it's an urgency.
• Unlike those women in Whisper advertisements, normal girls cannot even think of wearing white pants in their periods, not even in dreams. We save our adventurous khiladi(player) side for other days.
• If it's our initial days, and we are sitting somewhere comfortably, don't ask us to get up. We feel like a waterfall.
• You can touch us. You can hug us. You can shake hands with us. You can sit beside us. You can eat with us. We're not going through any contagious disease which will get into you magically. Neither we smell bad in our periods. We're just as clean as any other day.
• I have personally touched tulsi plant and pickles just to see if anything happens to them. Nothing happened. I also go to temple and pray if I feel like. No problem in that too. Kindly come out of the superstitions regarding periods. Nothing becomes impure by our touch. Neither food nor God.
• Please be considerate of our uneasiness and pain. Don't just say “You're over reacting. How bad it can be.” Trust us, they're really a headache for most of us. Bleeding continuously from your genitals while every cell of your body pains isn't easy, and add on the moodiness and irritation we feel for absolutely no logical reason. I have never seen any girl happy right after she has her periods. Only exception to this rule is the sister who had unprotected sex and now is happy that she isn't pregnant.
• Periods and ovulation are different. Ovulation is a process where one of the ovary releases the egg into the Fallopian tube. If there the egg meets the sperm, pregnancy occurs, if not, period occurs. So yes, a woman is not fertile for the entire month. Our fertility depends upon our ovulation cycle. Also, the egg released in ovulation doesn't live up for long. It is said that a woman is only fertile for around five days in a month, right before/ after ovulation. That's why gynacs study the ovulation cycles of women who wants to get pregnant.
• Pregnancy can occur in periods too. While one egg is being shed in periods, it can happen that one of the two ovaries releases another egg at the same time. So whoever thinks that periods are “safe”, nope. Definitely not.
• Don't blame PMS for everything. Sometimes your girlfriend isn't angry on you because of her PMS. Sometimes she can be angry on you generally because of your own actions. Actually not sometimes, mostly.
• You can buy sanitary napkins too if your mother/sister/girlfriend/wife/daughter needs them. Their convenience should be more important for you than the fear of being judged by some random people.
• We don't want you to worship us because of this. We just want your extra help and care for some days in a month. We know you didn't decide that women should have periods and not men. Almighty did. All we ask from you is to be as helpful to any girl as you can be if you come to know she's menstruating, even if she's a stranger.
• There are before effects and after effects of menstruation. Before effect is PMS, moodiness and irritation. After effect is happy dancing.
• When a woman reaches fifty, she finally looks up and say “Thank you. Now I can finally live in peace.” Menopause is the only reason women endure being old.

P.S - The amount of embarrassment and yuckiness you felt while reading this answer is directly proportional to your lack of knowledge regarding menstruation, and the need to learn about it, because most of you have mother/sister/girlfriend/female friend/wife/daughter in your life.

Even half of your existence lies in the concept of menstruation.

I feel all men should know about menstruation because this process is such an important and regular part of the lives of their important ladies.