Another reason I was late was surprising for me. If you are period-squeamish, read no further. While not officially in menopause, I've had two very long stretches without a period so far. The first long stretch was about ten months. The last one was eleven months, and I was getting very hopeful. Until yesterday, when my lower back began flaring up just *that* way. No, I thought. No. No. I don't want it! I think I mentally pushed it off and though I could feel it coming, it stayed away. This morning I was not so lucky, and developed all the cramps and back pain that I think I would have had during all eleven missed cycles at once. It's been a doozy of a day. Seeing as I wasn't able to use my reproductive organs (yet manage to currently have ten "kids" - ha!) I have zero use for this experience. Zero. Nil. Fogetttaboutit. Go away. Spay me. Am hoping this is a false alarm and might just be a quick annoyance as of tomorrow. Then I will pray for another eleven months off, if not forever! I never want to look at a tampon again. Every box I buy I look heavenward and say "Please let this be my last! Please!"
I am a firm believer that if men were to have periods, they would find a healthy and socially acceptable way not to have them at all. Just saying the word "period" embarrasses a lot of people, both men and women. Why? I read an article yesterday that I found shocking. Many cultures around the world still hold to shaming menstruating women and continue to have superstitious beliefs about periods. Shocking, though I was in the embarrassed camp for a reason I never could identify growing up. Periods were to be suffered through silently, associated problems never discussed, questions never answered. Good old Irish unspoken shame. Apparently, as this article by the Huffington Post describes, much of the world still lives in the shadows of acknowledging this gross and sometimes violently painful female malady. I think there isn't much to be done about it, so like a lot of other things, it's better not to talk about it. Again, if men had to deal with it month after month, year after year...sigh. The only good thing about "that time of the month" is that I used to have a surge of creativity just before it actually hit. Maybe that makes up for the debilitating days that one can have while "OTR." After reading this article, though, I realize how lucky we are as women in the western world who can at least afford sanitary products. I guess I should appreciate every tampon, whether it is my last or not.
What will you make today with your non-period energy?