Have you ever considered suppressing your menstrual cycle?
Do you want to stop the phenomenon of rain just because it’s inconvenient to be outdoors while it’s wet?
We have become such a convenience-based culture, that we seek to eliminate anything slightly uncomfortable, regardless of the consequences. Lets imagine a world without rain: warm temperatures abide, the sun is shining year-round, we can enjoy the great outdoors 365 days a year, no need to stock up on warm cloths or boots, it’s just another day in paradise! Or is it?
Have you noticed how the great outdoors is slowly but surely drying out? The grasses have turned yellow, as did the trees. Creeks, rivulets, rivers, and lakes slowly shrink and dry out, having no rain to replenish them. It takes time for them to evaporate to nothing, but their disappearance is inevitable. Animals start to die as their water sources vanish, and wait, what about us? Where do we get to drink from? Our reservoirs are almost empty. Well, but no more bothersome rain is falling, isn’t that a good thing?!?
A pill that wipes out menstruation is like a method for eliminating rain!
Both menstruation and rain are crucial to our life cycle. Either can be inconvenient, or enjoyed, depending on your attitude and willingness!
If you ever bundled up and took a toddler out in the rain, splashed in a paddle, or lifted your head up to catch raindrops on your tongue, you know how joyful the “inconvenient” rain can be! And, yes, you must have also been terribly inconvenienced by rains on many occasions, as we all have. Is this a good enough reason to start working on methods for rain suppression?
Suppressing menstruation is as short sighted as rain suppression!
Starting with the fact that we don’t know what the long term hormonal repercussions might be, suppressing menstruation is tempering with the blueprint of womanhood!
Women are cyclical beings. We ebb and flow with the moon, we dance a monthly rhythm of expansion and contraction, we move from outward- to inward-bound modes of being, from action to dreaminess, and back again… In the same way that we can not thrive in a no-rain world, we can’t thrive in a mono way of being. It is not how we are wired as women…
But what about PMS, cramps, mood swings?
Remember being miserable in the rain versus reveling in it? Rain is not there to inconvenience us. It’s there for a reason. It feeds life. It’s an integral part of the natural cycle of life, and it calls us to dance under it – if we so choose. Likewise PMS, and most physical or emotional symptoms related to menstruation, are there for a reason. They are our body’s wise way of calling our attention to the need to stop, rest, go inward, replenish… Suppressing menstruation is killing the messenger!
We can thank it instead…
We can thank our body for reminding us that we’ve been on the go and it’s time to stop for a while. We can appreciate the opportunity to take stock, to renew ourselves emotionally, just as our womb renews itself physically, every month, by shedding it’s inner lining.
Fighting our body’s messages will, in itself, produce symptoms. Or it will aggravate the mild ones which we ignore. Taking time off, on the first day of your period, even if you can only spare a few moments in the morning before anyone else in the household gets up, will help you attune to your inner rhythm. Spend those moments (hours, or the entire day if you can) reflecting on what you want to release with the month that is ending, and what you wish to welcome to your life in the month ahead…
You may soon discover you are drawing strength and renewal from your body’s rhythm, rather than wanting to do away with it.
The manufacturers of the menstrual suppression pill would want to encourage you to not bother. To have every day be the same: sunny, dry, and linear. But who would you rather listen to: pharmaceutical companies or your own body?
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© 2011-2017 DeAnna L’am, All Rights Reserved
9 Responses
I so love the metaphore of the rain DeAnna!
It is so appropriate!!!
I so much agree with you and I think I should go more public about this like you, at the end of the day there is enough noise coming from the other side, so even if we become very loud and repetitive with this message, we will be infinitely silent compared to the noise produced by the pharmaceutical companies so, let’s the noise begin in style!!!
Thanks for reminding me DeAnna!
Love from UK
I love this post. As an ob/gym nurse and health educatir, I have been educating about the harm of BC pills and suppressing menstruation for 25 years.
I will repost this on my wise women red tent site as soon as my laptop is repaired.
Many blessings for being a positive voice in female health & healing, Paula
Thank you, Paula, for your enthusiasm and support!
I appreciate your intention to repost this and spread the word.
When you do, please add this bio with the post:
DeAnna L’am, internationally recognized pioneer in Menstrual Empowerment, is author of ‘Becoming Peers – Mentoring Girls Into Womanhood’ and ‘A Diva’s Guide to Getting Your Period’. She is founder of ‘Red Moon School of Empowerment for Women & Girls™’, and of ‘Red Tents In Every Neighborhood – Global Network’.
Fondly known as ‘Womb Visionary’, DeAnna has been transforming lives worldwide for over 25 years, teaching women and girls how to love themselves unconditionally! She helps women dissolve PMS symptoms by drawing spiritual strength from their cycle; Guides women in the art of welcoming girls to empowered womanhood, and inspires women to hold Red Tents in their communities. DeAnna L’am was the first to bring Menstrual Empowerment work to Israel/Palestine, her country of origin, where she helped Jewish & Palestinian women surpass political and religious differences by deeply bonding as cycling women. Visit her at: https://deannalam.com
I find it laughable that the people who always say “freedom of choice” and talk about oppression want us to suppress the feminine. They talk about “other methods of knowing” other than the patriarchy, but then patronizingly pat us on the head and say that we’re “confused by the patriarchy” because we’re not taking birth control–this same “choice” crowd demonizes people who don’t want to vaccinate. I’m sure that people who bound women’s feet in China in the past used the same argument.
Thank you so much Dear Anna for this beautiful post. We are Cycle, we are wild and we are different women during our cycle : that is the pure female Essence. That is in this way, in this very exact way, that we are creative beings and that we can bring our tribute to this Planet :) Much Love to Each Goddess you are.
Armelle
Aquatic Facilitator
Something I learned while attending school to become an herbalist: in addition to menstruation drawing your attention to the need to take a break, it is also one of the first indicators that there is imbalance in the body. Changes in your cycle are like the canary in the coal mine – they are a sign to pay attention to your health.
YES!!! Thank you for expressing this beautiful perspective. Our monthly cycles are a blessing, not a curse. I’m reading this piece as I prepare to teach a Blood Mysteries event for the Temple of the Goddess Mystery School that I facilitate and you have such a wealth of resources available! I look forward to referring my Priestesses-in-Training to you! With love, blessings, and appreciation!
So well explained and such needed information. Part of the war on women is to have them deny their essence. Suppress the sources of their power. The greedy profit mongering big pharma is only too happy to target the pain and offer a solution without caring about repercussions.
It’s long overdue that the reality of the Sacred flow of the menstrual cycle is known, understood and followed. But it is growing. The Divine Feminine consciousness is growing and information like this post is helping to anchor her!
Another poignant and bold way to describe reality. For this talent and courage I truely appreciate your presence and your voice, DeAnna.