Improving your health involves changing the way you think and talk about your body.

For many women, getting their monthly period is nothing short of inconvenient. They have to deal with cramps, mood swings, and an increased desire to dive into the cookie jar. To top it all off, they also feel the pressure to carry on with their days as normal, as if their symptoms didn’t matter.

Sadly, women have been conditioned to avoid talking about their bodily functions; topics like periods aren’t always welcome in everyday conversation. Advertising and the media are partially to blame for this: the language used by TV commercials, brands, and even women’s health magazines often depict menstruation as something dirty or shameful that women should hide away and deal with in private.

Sex education also negatively influences the way we think and talk about the female body – something the author has seen for herself. Even as a teenager, she remembers being shocked at the language used to describe the female reproductive system in her biology textbook. Whereas the male testes were characterized as an efficient “powerhouse” of production, the ovaries were described as passive bystanders that were just hanging out and waiting to release an egg. Unsurprisingly, the hero of the story was the sperm that risked its life to find the egg and, ultimately, make the magic happen.

After analyzing these descriptions closely, the author realized that women were always being painted as the weaker sex – even on the level of biology. No wonder they considered their menstrual cycles something to be ashamed of, rather than something to celebrate!

The problems of this go deeper, too. A lot of women assume that their menstrual cycles are unimportant, which makes them neglect their hormonal health. For example, women struggling with issues such as unwanted weight gain, PMS, or acne breakouts look to detox teas, crash diets, and fitness experts before stopping to consider whether their cycle is functioning correctly.

The reluctance of many women to take care of their menstrual health comes back to crummy, sexist sex ed. But, it’s also closely linked to taboos and myths surrounding female periods. We’ll take a closer look at this in the next blink.