Period Anthology: No Shame
We are excited to share another story in our Period Anthology from one of our fabulous board members - Shana Chivon Stephens. Shana is a mom, a woman in tech, mentors with Girls Who Code, and is the founder of the Shana Chivon Social Justice Book Club where she helps readers to DECOLONIZE their bookshelf. Thank you, Shana, for sharing your story - and spreading HOPE with your story to women and girls around the world!
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I am so excited to have this opportunity to tell a story that many regard as taboo! When the reality is, most all of us are here on this earth because a woman had a period! My period story is rather uneventful! I was 11 years old and the biggest thing I remember is that I started my period the same day that the episode aired where Rudy Huxtable on the Cosby Show started. I felt like that episode was just for me as Clair tried to get Rudy to participate in the Woman’s Day tradition that her sisters had already experienced and Rudy wanted no part in it.
The experience for me passed with little pomp and circumstance, I had two sisters and had already had some very basic understanding so all worked out well!
What I wanted to tell the story of today is a little different. I wanted to talk about what happens when a seemingly normal history of menstruation takes a turn and no one cares to hear it.
When I was 20 years old, after 9 years of regular periods, I began to experience heavy bleeding and unbearable pain during that time of month. When I went to the doctors, they said that cramps were normal, bleeding was part of the process, and I was dismissed.
Meanwhile, every month during my period I could barely function. All that changed one day in the middle of work one day while on my period suddenly I felt blood running down my leg. When I looked down, there was a pool of blood in the floor. I was horrified! What was I supposed to do! People were looking at me and looking down at the floor trying to figure out what was happening.
I tried to get paper towels to clean it up and my friend said she would get the cleaning crew and I ran out the building to the ER. When I arrived, they said it was just a heavy period and they told me to consult a gynecologist. I was able to get a referral and after a couple months I finally knew what was going on, I had Endometriosis.
Endometriosis, according to the Mayo Clinic, is an often-painful disorder in which tissue similar to the tissue that normally lines the inside of your uterus — the endometrium — grows outside your uterus. With endometriosis, the endometrial-like tissue acts as endometrial tissue would — it thickens, breaks down and bleeds with each menstrual cycle. But, because this tissue has no way to exit your body, it becomes trapped. When endometriosis involves the ovaries, cysts called endometriomas may form. Surrounding tissue can become irritated, eventually developing scar tissue and adhesions.
Once I started receiving treatment, my periods returned to normal for a little while but there have been many more flare-ups and during my cycle, I can be in intense pain and if I am not careful may bleed out.
I tell this story not to scare anyone, but to make ALL parts of menstruation normal, even when it does not go like everyone else’s. Our bodies are beautiful, unique, and capable of many things. Even when things are not textbook and there is no shame in any of that!
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Every heart carries a story - and we would love to hear yours! Email us at Ginger@SheHopes.org or CLICK HERE. Please remember that you are SEEN, you are LOVED, and you are not ALONE. Here’s to HOPE.