just some speculation on my part about the moon/menstruation

[feroluce.livejournal.com]

i dont know if this is a connection that many people have made, but here's an idea. we all have very varied periods, right? some are really short, some are long, frequency varies...etc etc. and it's all normal, it's just how our bodies work. but i think, perhaps, that's not how our bodies SHOULD work. now dont go exploding just yet, i'm just brainstorming some ideas.

the more i tune my life to nature, the more i find my cycle regulating its self, lining up with the moon. maybe we're all so out of whack because we dont do that nearly often enough. in the book "the red tent" the women all live in close proximity, and get their periods together at the dark of the moon. same in the "mists of avalon" series. we, as a society, dont group women together like that any more. we dont gather in tents day after day to do the household chores, mending, cooking, etc. we dont live side by side as WOMEN. we've worked so hard to be equal, only to find ourselves divided as a sex, lacking the unity and sisterhood we once had. this is why many seek out sororities, etc etc, as a means of replacement.

so perhaps, we all are so off schedule with one another because we're completely off of the way of LIFE we once had.

i'm sure none of these are new revelations, i just wanted to share. my rants tend to take many directions :)

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Were we on schedule with one another 3000 years ago? all in the tent at once?

Who took care of "women's work" that week?

Re:

[feroluce.livejournal.com]

oh i'm not saying it was exact, but there was usually a 3 or 4 day span of time each month where the women were given relief from their duties. either they stocked up before hand, or only the women of the house were given this privelege and the servants kept on working, but it was a "womans" time. we, as a society, do so many things to IGNORE that *menstruation* even occurs.

[sabrette.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know about 3000 years ago, but I DO know that I'm in my high school's colorguard and that's 25 girls that get their periods in the same week, more or less. Give us the summer together and somehow we all end up on the same (or very very close to the same) cycle.

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[feroluce.livejournal.com]

that's part of the point i was driving at (i think i butchered my own ideas with my own post, heh) but the other part was the moon thing. it's possible for women today to spend time around eachother and synchronize their cycles. but is it still possible, in this day and age, for women to either as a group or alone, attune themselves to the moon?

[sabrette.livejournal.com]

You know, now that I think about it...I usually have mine during the new moon, or just before. Then again, I'm a little odd anyway, I'm always the first of my friends to get (once mine is over, they all know they're in for it soon).

Re:

[feroluce.livejournal.com]

i'm EXACTLY the same. as long as i'm conscious of the moon cycles, i get mine 1-2 days before the new moon, then my mom and friends start watching for theirs when i'm done, heh.

Full Moon

[earthchildnz.livejournal.com]

funny you should mention this as I was thinking of putting in a similar post.
Personally, I ovulate with the new moon and bleed at the full. Given that the moon is 'full' for three days, I will always be bleeding for at least some of the fullmoon. This I believe is quite common, and hence the term 'moon-time'......
I would be very interested to know how many of you woman, not those taking hormonal bc, bleed with the full moon ???

Re: Full Moon

[feroluce.livejournal.com]

actually, i usually bleed with the new moon. from what i've heard, a lot of women are most fertile at the full moon...which would imply that there are more like me. but info can be all sorts of screwed up, who knows. but i think i thought it was the other way around. bleed at the dark of the moon (it's even that way in "mists of avalon", i was amused that i matched them) and most fertile at the full, "pregnant" moon.

[linzbinz.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read "Cunt" by Inga Musico (I might have just butchered her last name)? She talks about that kind of stuff a lot in her book (which happens to be TOTALLY amazing). Anyway, I guess if you're really observant of your cycle, and the moon phases, you can actually get them to happen at the same time. Pretty cool, huh?

Re:

[feroluce.livejournal.com]

i'll look for that book after my next paycheck, thanks :)

[lizzvoltage.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna have to make myself an outsider on vaginapagina, and say I didn't really like cunt much. It was wonderful in some parts, but others, she claims that men are unable to give or recieve happiness; are incomplete human beings... which is, I'm sorry, bullshit. So. Some parts of the book were amazing and changed me as a human being. Others made me want to shake her.

[crackofdawn.livejournal.com]

Actually, I agree with you. I had to fight the urge to smack at times :-)

[sabbysteg.livejournal.com]

You're not the only one who felt that way about Cunt. I'm glad not everyone who has read it agrees with the author. Some of her ideas were just way too out there.

[shadowfae.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, women who live or work in close proximity with one another tend to syncronize periods.

And mine always follows a moon cycle. I can just look up at the sky and tell how long I've got before it starts, usually.

[sleepyhouse.livejournal.com]

I think its a little problematic to idealize a romantasized fiction of the past. Tho I haven't read 'the Red Tent', I have read Mists and it is far from a historical novel. Not to dismiss totally some of the ideas, and while I certainly think it is a nice idea, I don't think they create a very realistic picture. That being said, I do agree that not enough time is spent enjoying the company and listening to other women and not simply critisizing them...

Re:

[feroluce.livejournal.com]

mostly i miss the sense of community that the women seem to share in "the red tent" (which is much more reality based than mists). it's a right of passage for the young women to be allowed into the tent, it's where the women give birth, it's where the old women are brought to die. it just seems like a sort of togetherness that i do NOT see today.

i'm also currently having some "issues" with my friends right now, so it's natural that in a lonely state, i'd idealize more "cohesive" past traditions. heh.

[gigglinggorgon.livejournal.com]

my period always comes on with the full moon... it starts the day before, is heaviest on the full moon and then tapers off quickly. I love it that way... makes me feel connected.

When I was a teenager, my mom, sister and I all bled at about the same time. It was kinda cool for us, not so much for my brother and father ;)


And... I don't know if whole communities of women could have had the exact same cycle... I mean, most communities had the women isolating themselves... that would have left only the very old, very young and pregnant to do all the work ... could that have even worked out? I don't know.... especially since in my family the women rarely reach full menopause (my grandmother is almost 90 and still bleeds every few months)

Interesting thoughts. Thanks for waking up my brain this AM!

Re:

[feroluce.livejournal.com]

from what i hear, the slaves werent allowed to go into isolation, so thats why that sort of thing worked back in the day. i think today, men could deal well enough for a few days :)

Re:

[gigglinggorgon.livejournal.com]

LoL

[minniemoonshine.livejournal.com]

There's this fictional novel I just read by Tom Robbins called "Still Life With Woodpecker" where he talks about this menstrual/moon connection. I think he terms it "lunaception". The book is kind of off-the-wall, but I wondered if he had researched this lunaception stuff?

I agree with you in ways. The moon really affects bodies of water, and tides etc., and considering humans are mostly water, it makes sense that the moon would influence our cycles. I definately see it in myself...
I think there is more to our cycles than we are aware...
... but that's just me :)

Re:

[feroluce.livejournal.com]

definately! :)

[minniemoonshine.livejournal.com]

Hi Again!
I just did a quick little search on the net about "lunaception" and was reminded that there was more to this than just the moon. Basically the theory is that before we had artificial light, the light given off by the moon affected our bodies and dictated a pattern that governed our cycles. Now that we have so much artificial light in our world, (and hormonal bc) the cycles have been distrupted and we have altogether forgotten that there was a connection between the light and our bodies. I guess the idea is that women in the same geographic area would be in sync because a) that happens when women live closely together and b) the light from the moon in their specific time zone would have the same effect on everyone's bodies in that area.
I think this is really interesting - especially when you consider how many of us have irregular periods, breakthrough bleeding, abnormally heavy or light periods, and consider in combination how many of us work nights/sleep in the day, and think of how much artificial light we really have in our lives.
There's a book called "Lunaception: A feminine Odyssey into fertility and contraception" by Louise Lacey. Apparently she experimented with light and writes about how it affected her cycles and fertility. I'd love to read that.
Really interesting stuff: I thought I'd share!

[meensy.livejournal.com]

Mine ALWAYS comes with the full moon.

I think a lot of people have their periods at the same time in the moon cycle, but as you said, they aren't tuned in to nature enough to notice.

Have you read The Red Tent? Some of the things you're speculating about here are expanded on in that book.

Re:

[feroluce.livejournal.com]

i mentioned red tent in the post actually ;) it's a wonderful book!

[kiapa.livejournal.com]

I agree with your theories about moon phases altering our cycles. I find that I experience a double PMS if I am not in line with the full moon for menstruation. As I am on BCP I have a little control and try to keep them as close as possible. The days of non-BCP are so long lost and far gone I do not recall them.
As for comments made by other posters regarding ‘women’s work’ and a week off..
Why would you need time off for menstruation?
I know my period is not a huge time halting event that alters my daily activity.
Perhaps it was at some point. Or perhaps I am just not as sensitive to issues some women face.
*shrug
I guess I would have been one of the women continuing her work with the servants, pregnant, young and old.

Re:

[feroluce.livejournal.com]

it's not that we "need" time off, it's that it was sort of a well deserved rest period for women just to sort of be...women. and it's not like they stopped working, they brought their sewing and mending and etc. with them into their huts, or whatever it may be. i dont know, it just sort of seems likea really nice sense of community, :)