Samantha Mittelmeier

Since more than 90 percent of women experience at least one PMS symptom prior to the beginning of their period, it’s no surprise that those symptoms are pretty well known. Nearly every woman is familiar with the moodiness, bloating, cramps, headaches, and general discomfort that tend to pop up every 28 days or so.

For most women, these symptoms are relatively minor and are not a significant cause for concern. Others, however, face much more severe complications when their periods roll around each month. Between three and five percent of the menstruating population suffer from a debilitating condition known as premenstrual dysmorphic disorder, or PMDD. This condition is an extension of PMS that includes a range of troubling emotional and behavioral symptoms.

Heather Silvers

Have you ever caught yourself fretting about why your period is late? Before you head to the local pharmacy to pick up a home pregnancy test, it’s best to consider other reasons why your monthly cycle could be off. Not every late period means you’re pregnant. Irregular cycles are more common than you think. University of California Professor of Obstetrics-Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences Dr. Amy Autry discussed how at least 30% of women have irregular periods during their childbearing years. Another report published by the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism cites that many women experience occasional period irregularities throughout their reproductive years. While many women may experience late periods, the factors causing it can greatly vary. Below, we’ll take a look at the reasons why your period could be late.

J.B.

If you thought your skin was acting up just before or around the time of your period, you’re not imagining it.  According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology, “a significant number of adult women have perimenstrual acne symptoms”.   There are also some women suffering eczema or psoriasis that seems to get worse around the time of their period.

J.B.

Nanotechnology is, according to one government site, “science, engineering, and technology conducted at the nanoscale, which is about 1 to 100 nanometers”. (A nanometer is really, really small – it takes more than 25 million of them to make an inch.)

Richard Feynman, an American physicist, is credited with having introduced the concept of nanotechnology in 1959, although the term “nanotechnology” wasn’t coined until 1981.  Feynman’s idea was that things could be made much smaller.  For instance, in 1959 computers were massive; some of them weighed literally tons and took up entire rooms.  Feynman theorized that they could be made much smaller using nanotechnology.   He was bang on about that.  Computers keep getting smaller, faster, and better with nanotechnology.

Apart from not having to build an extra wing to your house for your home computer, there are many other applications of nanotechnology in use and in development. 

J.B.

A woman’s menstrual cycle has three phases:  the follicular (before the egg is released), ovulatory (when the egg is released) and luteal (after the egg is released).  Each of these phases is regulated by different hormones, primarily estrogen, progesterone, FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone), and LH (luteinizing hormone). 

These hormones work in concert with each other and with other hormones, much like the members of a sports team will work together, each performing a separate role in coordination with the other team members.

Kaitlyn Luckow

Male masturbation is usually the brunt of jokes, it’s assumed that all guys do it, and it’s totally fine to talk about and admit.

However, I have found that when women talk about masturbating, people are shocked and it is seen as something dirty or embarrassing. It’s something that is hushed, it’s not talked about, and it makes women afraid of their own bodies.

To be honest (and this is a little embarrassing), I didn’t even know that females could masturbate until I was well into puberty.  

There is a lot of misinformation out there about female masturbation and it causes a lot of myths to rise up around the subject. This can make learning about the female body confusing for a lot of young women and even daunting.   

I wanted to clear the air here. Yes, women masturbate. Yes, it’s awesome. Yes, we can talk about it.

Here are some common myths surrounding female masturbation and the truth behind the lies.

Kaitlyn Luckow

As this month comes to an end, we wanted to talk about something that is near and dear to our hearts: Endometriosis Awareness Month.

Endometriosis, like many women’s health problems, has gone wildly untalked about. Many women go through life experiencing intense pain and thinking that it’s just normal for them to have to live with that pain. Because of this, many women around the world don’t know that what they’re experiencing is abnormal and many go undiagnosed when in reality, they are suffering from Endometriosis.

Your pain is not normal.

176 million women (that’s 10% of women) around the world have suffered and continue to suffer from a disease that has a huge impact on their daily lives.

PMS is the medical acronym for premenstrual syndrome.   You know, that time before your period when you feel tired, fat, and cranky.

The Mayo Clinic has a long, long list of symptoms of PMS including fatigue, weight gain, bloating, anxiety, depression, insomnia, on and on. Some sources say that “up to 150 symptoms have been identified as part of premenstrual syndrome”.   And if it gets really bad, PMS graduates to PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder), not that having an extra letter is going to make anyone feel better.

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, PMS symptoms can appear in the one to two weeks before your period.

Wow!  What a miserable way to spend one or two weeks out of every month.  PMS  should actually stand for “Please! Make it Stop!”

J.B.

There’s no such thing as a good time to get a urinary tract infection.  But getting a UTI at the same time as your period?  Oh, no!

The urinary tract is a brilliant drainage system for getting rid of excess fluid.   The kidneys remove extra fluid from the blood to make urine.  The urine travels from the kidneys to the bladder through tubes called ureters.  The bladder stores the urine and then drains it through another little tube called the urethra.  But like any other complex system, things can occasionally go wrong.

J.B.

What is an irregular menstrual cycle?  Well, that kind of depends on who you ask, but the medical consensus seems to be that a “normal” menstrual cycle lasts 28 days, give or take seven days.  A cycle is considered to be irregular if it occurs more often than every 21 days or if bleeding goes on longer than 8 days.  Early or late periods, and missed periods are also considered to be irregular.

How common is an irregular menstrual cycle?  According to Dr. Amy Autry, Professor of Obstetrics-Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, “at least 30% of women have irregular periods during their childbearing years”.  A 2011 report published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism confirms that many women occasionally experience irregular periods all throughout their reproductive years.

But what causes irregular periods?  Well, like most things, there isn’t just one answer.  The menstrual cycle can be influenced by a number of factors.

J.B.

How often have you heard (or said) “they grow up so fast”?  It’s true.  Kids do grow up quickly and, in terms of the onset of menstruation, it’s speeding up.

According to Sandra Steingraber, the average menstruation onset age has been steadily lessening over the last number of decades.  90 years ago, the average age was 14; 50 years ago the average was 13-1/2 years old; these days it’s 12-1/2 years old.  And it is not unheard of for girls as young as 8 or 9 to get their period.  She claims that, furthermore, half of the girls in the United States now show signs of breast budding before their tenth birthday. 

The exact reasons for this have not been established.  It is held by some “experts” that lowered rates of disease and better nutrition are factors.  But others claim that endocrine-disruptive chemicals in food, drinking water and even the air along with hormonally active agents found in a vast array of consumer items such as hair tonics, pesticides, packaging materials and building products are affecting hormonal balance.  Still, others link it to obesity.

Kaitlyn Luckow

While the holidays are known for being a time of joy and cheer, oftentimes we can also feel a strong sense of sadness and loneliness. We can feel it because we miss family members, we can feel it because of the trauma dealing with family causes, or even just because there’s not as much sunlight during the day.

Whatever the reason, seasonal and holiday sadness is a very real thing and shouldn’t be pushed aside. It can be even more hostile towards individuals who already have a mental illness such as depression.

Although it may not be possible to avoid entirely, here are some ways that can help you survive seasonal sadness this holiday season:

Kaitlyn Luckow

Ever since I’ve started writing about menstruation, I’ve had a surprising amount of men reach out to me with questions and thoughts they have about periods and menstruation. I think it’s so important to open up this discussion to all genders, because everyone should be educated on menstruation, not just people who experience it.

This discussion is vital in order to erase misconceptions about menstruation and could help further education throughout the world. This mentality could erase negative mentalities and improve the health for women throughout the world.

I reached out to men throughout the world to see what they think about menstruation, addressed some misconceptions that they hold, and answered questions that were asked.

J.B.

If you’re like me, you love a good night’s sleep.  It’s refreshing and rejuvenating.  But, for many women, it’s often elusive.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, “More than half of American women (60%) say they only get a good night’s sleep a few nights per week or less and 67% say they frequently experience a sleep problem.”

Sleep deprivation is not just a matter of feeling tired.  Sleeplessness can affect your ability to think clearly, it can make you irritable (as if bloating and cramps weren’t enough to make you cranky), and it can affect your health too.  Sufferers of chronic sleep deprivation risk high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

J.B

Image via Brook Lark

Do you suffer from the typical menstrual symptoms?  The bloating, the mood swings, the muscle aches, the fatigue, the cramps (and sometimes severe menstrual cramps)?  Are you convinced that whoever wrote the song “I Enjoy Being a Girl” must have been a man?

You’re not alone. 

But there are some natural, non-pharmaceutical things you can do to ease the symptoms and one of these is diet.   Of course, everyone is different, but there are foods that are generally regarded as being helpful in reducing menstrual symptoms and some foods that can make your symptoms worse.

Kaitlyn Luckow

Image source: Charles Deluvio

It’s always surprising to think about everything that we don’t know about our own bodies. We literally live in them every single day, but let’s be honest, we don’t know the ins and outs about how they work.

Honestly, when I was researching about ovaries for this post, I was so embarrassed about what I didn’t know. I had gone through the entirety of my life not knowing what was going on inside of my own body. And I know I’m not the only one.

I wanted to make sure that you weren’t left in the dark like I was for so long simply because I didn’t seek out the facts.

Here are some things that you may or may not have known about ovaries:

Kaitlyn Luckow

Image @rawpixel

You walk into your gynecologist appointment and they ask you how you’ve been feeling and immediately you say, “fine.”

However, in your head, you might be thinking, “What about telling them about how debilitating your cramps have been?; What about that weird discharge you’ve been having?; What about talking about how painful sex has been for you?”

But how many of us actually talk about these things?

Today is National Women’s Health Day and it’s the perfect time to remind you to take care of yourself. Honest care of yourself. So many of us go to the gynecologist and don’t actually share what we’re experiencing on a daily basis. Or even worse, some of us don’t schedule an appointment at all because we get too anxious even thinking about it.

Not only do we not get the help we need because of that, but we also could be putting ourselves in danger.

Your reproductive health should be your priority and you should not let embarrassment get in the way. Here are some ways that you can prepare to speak up during your next trip to the gynecologist:

Kaitlyn Luckow

So many of us have grown ashamed and embarrassed about our vaginas, which may cause us to fear it and maybe even hate it. But it is so important to love your vagina each and every day. Self-care is about more than taking a bath and doing face masks, it’s about truly loving and appreciating every single part of you—including your vagina.

Here are things that you can do to make sure that your vagina is happy, healthy, and loved:

Don’t Skip That Gynecologist Appointment

I know that going to the gynecologist isn’t always the most pleasant experience and for individuals with trauma related to sexual violence, it is a dreaded and sometime horrifying experience.

The first thing you should do in regards to your gynecologist is find one that you’re comfortable with and that you trust. If you’re uncomfortable with anything that they’re doing, tell them. If you’ve experienced sexual violence in the past, tell them.

Also, make sure that you schedule and go to your gynecologist every year for a check up. Although you only need to get a Pap test every 1-3 years (depending on your health), you should still go every year to talk about your overall health.

Wear Cotton or Nothing At All

Cotton is the best fabric to wear when it comes to underwear for a variety of reasons. It’s soft on your skin, it absorbs perspiration, and it’s breathable, which can help stop the growth of bacteria. This breathability can help with preventing Urinary Tract Infections from occurring.

By Kaitlyn Luckow

You might remember that day in school where the boys and the girls were separated and your recess time was infringed upon because you needed to have “that talk”. I’m going to go out on a limb here and probably guess that you don’t have fond memories about that day.

I would be surprised if you did. If you were in the girl group, you were told that you were going to bleed out every month forever and that you would have to do all of these things to keep yourself clean and you were probably going to be in pain. Joy.

And if you were a boy, well…chances are you didn’t hear about menstruation at all. Just whispers on the playground about something horrifying that women do every month.

This lack of education, almost solely relied on by rumors, has led to a detrimental misguidance when it comes to menstruation. There are many myths revolving around menstruation and these myths are exactly that—they’re not true.

Regardless, many people go into adolescence holding these myths as true, and many of these myths are held well-on into adulthood.

I talked to many individuals of all genders and asked them about period myths that they have believed in the past. Here are the most common answers and why these myths are in fact just that: