I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know shit about my period until my early 40s.

Obviously, I knew that I HAD a monthly menstrual cycle that made wearing white pants inconvenient. And I knew that in the days leading up to my period, I was a carb-craving, emotionally unstable, hyper-sensitive, crampy, bloated raw bundle of nerves.

And of course, I had a basic understanding that my body operated in a 28 day cycle that involved all sorts of hormones that worked to construct, and then deconstruct, my womb for creating, growing and birthing a Life. 

This smidge of knowledge was congealed from sex ed classes in the 80s, limited and painfully awkward conversations with my mother in middle school, a few Cosmo articles, conversations with girlfriends, and my own observations.

Everything I was “taught” about my cycle could be neatly wrapped up in one word: ENDURANCE.

My period was something I just had to “deal with” and “get through” for a week each month. 

On th...