I am excited to share this inspiring story from my client, Maddi. She wanted to share her personal story of discovering the love of her body through Menstrual Cycle Awareness & Fertility Awareness. She shares how her period returned within 4 weeks of working with me, and how she now feels so proud to be a woman!
"Everyday I see the opportunity to deepen my relationship with myself through my menstrual cycle. I've never felt more connected and in love with my body & my cycle. So proud to be the woman I am"
My relationship with myself changed drastically when I became aware of and in touch with my menstrual cycle
This hasn't always been the case though.. For a long time I wasn't educated and completely blocked from connecting with the most sacred part of my body..
I was put on the pill at 14 for acne, and at the time I didn't have any awareness to ask questions about what it would be doing to my body, the side effects & long-term effects. As a teenager I thought it was great to be able to 'skip' my 'period' if I wanted too and to be honest I had no real idea what this pill was actually doing, all I knew was that my acne & scars were clearing up so that made it a win for me.
When I was 20 I decided I wanted to switch over to the Mirena IUD. I was trying to plan ahead as I was going to go away for a few months and didn't know how well I would be at consistently taking the pill while traveling.
This whole experience was very traumatic for me. Getting it put in was nothing I could have prepared myself for. It's a procedure they do while you are awake and honestly it was the most painful experience I have had to go through. (Please keep in mind this is my experience, I know other people who have struggled like me but then I have heard of some who have managed it fine)
For almost 10 years I hadn't had a 'real' period, I had no idea what to expect to tell you the truth. For the first time in my life all I wanted was to bleed.
The Mirena made me feel absolutely crazy! Emotions were like a roller coaster and I just knew it wasn't 'me'. I started to feel knee dropping pain, pain during & after sex and overall had this knowing that my body no longer wanted this foreign object inside of me. So I eventually built up the courage to go through the procedure to get it taken out. Ugh hard but relieving.
Back on the pill I went, this time for contraception. There was a good year where I contemplated coming off the pill, I had this urge of wanting to experience a real period and let my body find its own natural rhythm. I went to the doctors once to discuss the matter and she pretty much just gave me the ultimatum 'Are you ready to have kids or not?' 'If you come off the pill, this is what will happen'. Great! I guessed staying on the pill was my only option. Or was it?
Life circumstances changed and I was in a place where I could come off the pill. I did this all on my own without going to the doctors as I thought she would convince me to stay on it again. Which lead me to months of not having my period. My body started to go haywire, it was understandable. For almost 10 years I hadn't had a 'real' period, I had no idea what to expect to tell you the truth.. For the first time in my life all I wanted was to bleed.
In these long, lost months of feeling so incomplete I signed up to an 8-week course, Menstrual Magic, which taught me all the in's and out's of a menstrual cycle - physically & metaphysically, I was in love! I thrived while I was learning all about this topic and all I wanted to do was share all of the information I was learning with every woman I came across.
And guess what, my period finally came while doing this course. It was an intimate online course where we met up on zoom every fortnight - I was beyond excited to share the news. I could truly feel the pure excitement and joy the women had for me for the fact I finally got my period. This was a game changer for me - How long have we been lead to believe that our period is 'dirty', shouldn't be spoken about, should be hidden and all personal needs during this time be pushed to the side. That day my period was a celebration and it was so f*cking beautiful!!!
I continued to have coaching for 3 months with Jaime, the facilitator of the course. Here I learnt about the fertility awareness method. This has helped me greatly, I feel like I have such a rich understanding of my cycle now. I chart my cycle daily, here is where I inquire how I feel emotionally & energetically as well as noting any physical observation with mucus and such.
Everyday I see the opportunity to deepen my relationship with myself through my menstrual cycle. I've never felt more connected and in love with my body & my cycle. So proud to be the woman that I am.
Maddi, Australia
INST @wellnesswithmaddi