Let's Talk About Periods (Yes, Blood Included)

Hello. Welcome to embrace the madness. I'm your host, Madeleine, host of the podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in. If this is your first time, what an episode to start off with? And if you are a returning listener, thanks so much for supporting me and being here on my journey. So, as you can tell from the title, this episode is about period. So I'm just gonna let you know right now, if you don't like hearing about blood or people menstruating or talking about it, then I've got a bunch of other episodes that don't talk about periods, so go check those out. And if you don't care because you know that there's not a lot we can do about it as biological beings, then you're in the right place. So, as you can see, I'm a little spunky today. But yeah, I was having a thought and then I was like, oh, I literally go through a box, if not more, in one period. And depending on how much I buy tampons for, it could be $15. So it's like because a biological process in my body is happening, I have to pay $15 every time I want to take care of it. Which I don't know, I know there's like a million different things, but I still just feel weird that we have to pay to I mean, it's a comfort thing. But anyways, I was like, oh, this is great energy to finally do the podcast on. And yeah, so I say so a lot. And I think I found out on TikTok that's a millennial thing, so I guess I just need a new word, a different conjunction. So if you got another one, let me know. Yeah. Oh, my candle just went out. I was like, what's on fire? So oh, my God, I just did it again. Wow. My gosh. Okay, well, that's something to be addressed later, but yeah, you can see I've got my board behind me and I'm just going to use that for reference. I just wanted to talk about periods and talk about the ways that we are made to feel weird about them and bad about them and all that jazz. We're feeling like we're meant to hide it. I just wanted to talk about that because we don't really have a lot of spaces to talk about it, or I know now, in 2023 for sure, but historically, not really. And I just wanted to throw my two cent into the conversation because, yeah, I've been bleeding for about 20 something years. No, I don't even remember. I think it started at twelve, but it's just like, if you don't have to deal with it, there's no way of you truly understanding. I know people have done that Cramp simulator, but it's still so hard to capture the whole feeling of someone else's experience anyways, and that's not to isolate us or make people feel bad because they aren't bleeding or anything like that. It's just so I don't know if you got the period talk. I think my cousin gave me the period talk and I think we had watched a video. I went to public elementary school or middle school or both. And they did like sex ed was like one day, but that included I guess the girl video talking about puberty and the changes we would go through. And I barely remember that, but I think that's like the extent of how I learned about it. I do remember my mom showing me how to use one, so that was silly, but yeah, otherwise I think as a young adult you're like, what the heck? You have no way of understanding why you need to bleed or anything like that or why it's something that you're going to have to live with for the rest of your life. I don't have kids, so it's like how do you prepare one for that? But in the event that you didn't get the period talk or there's a lot of gray area around periods. I just wanted to talk a little bit about some of the science. I'm not going to go super in depth, but just enough to kind of connect the dots and ways we can use all this knowledge to our benefit and we can actually work with it and make our life better. So you get your period when you are going through puberty, when you're like at the end of puberty. So I think I got it around twelve. They say around like fourth grade, fifth grade. But just depending on you and your body composition, it could have been early, it could have been late, it could have been, yeah, anytime. That's so weird that it's like but it also speaks to all of our bodies going through different changes and stuff like that. Oh yeah, I forgot to I got a new tattoo since I did the podcast last. So she's cute. If you're listening on Spotify, you just got to watch the YouTube video. You could also be listening somewhere else, like Amazon or itunes. It's crazy when you realize where everything distributes, but that's super cool. So anyways, yeah, you get your period when you are at the end of your adolescence kind of going through that puberty. And when you're turning into an adult, different hormones are going and if you watch the video then you got to know like, oh surprise, we grow boobs and go through this thing where we're just going to start bleeding and it's only going to last several days of the month, but it's going to happen every month. I know. Also a lot of us didn't get the chance to be educated on this and a lot of religion comes into play with all of this and I know like the whole sex education and talking about people's bodies, it's like such a divisive issue. I just want to talk about the biology. I'm also like pretty. I feel like I've always been a little subtly, like, oh yeah, I'm bleeding. Like, what about it? And I've noticed that a lot of people are not either wanting to have that conversation or care to have that conversation or they get grossed out or whatever. So if at any point I seem sassy, I probably am, so I put on my lipstick for this one too. So, yeah, if you're listening, you got to check out the video. It's also like golden hour. So it's like pretty outside. So where was I? Periods are okay, so if we go zoom out, not from a patriarchal lens, but from a biological lens, the female has been the one to carry the baby. I know there's like seahorses where the dads do it, but yeah, in many cases the person with female genitals is the one who has the baby. And in the whole process, which side note I took biology in France when I studied abroad and it was all in French, so I was kind of lost, but I was like, well, I've taken science in America and I was really good at it. And I had never really taken official biology, so I was very humbled. But I remember being gone and I missed a test or I missed learning about a chapter and it was a one about sex organs and periods. And I remember I was like, either we don't have this in our science book or we don't talk about this. So it was crazy how I really didn't know a lot about it. So what happens is our bodies want to create more life so we can continue on, continue on our lineage and et cetera, et cetera. So in that creating an offspring, we have an egg. We have lots of eggs and one egg drops per month, so it has like this little window of time where it can get fertilized. So there we go again with so and then, and then so you've got the egg and needs to be fertilized. Well, if the egg doesn't get fertilized in that window, then it's like, okay, well, we'll try again next month. Well, this whole time that your body is like, okay, we're going to have this egg and we're going to get ready to have this baby in there and we're going to make it all nice and cozy. So our body is like building a nice little nest, kind of. And what happens when the egg doesn't get fertilized and the body's like, oh, we're not getting pregnant this month, are we? It's like, okay, well, take down everything we've built because we don't need it. And that all is what we experience as bleeding in our periods. It really is kind of like a denotation of health and things going according to plan. It's just crazy because we have the capacity to lose so much blood and nothing phases us. And I think that really speaks to only a little bit tiny part of just it's cool being a woman, and I identify as a woman, so it's just something that I found to be powering and empowering. I don't know if I said powering or empowering, but not powering. Almost said so again. And yeah, I think I grew up either not really learning about the sacredness of it or the naturalness of it. And so I kind of was a little repressed, I think. I obviously wasn't as outspoken as I am now, but yeah, it's just when you get to thinking about it, you're like, why has this natural part of us been kind of used as a weapon to make us feel bad, to make us feel like we're doing something wrong, to make us feel like we're inconveniencing things? And I feel like I'm going in a million different directions. So if you're listening and following along, thank you, but it all kind of will catch on. But yeah, it's crazy to think that at least when I was growing up, I didn't feel like I had any concessions. I don't know really what the right word that I'm looking for is, but just like, I didn't really feel like I had a lot of leeway or it was just like I was on my period and you just deal with it. You just deal with it. It sucks. It sucks that it's there, but you just got to deal with it. And in a way that's still true. But why does it suck? Why isn't it, like, something that we celebrate? Why is it something that's inconvenient to our work day, which wasn't really created around our cycle and our schedule? So it's like the more you get into this, the more it's like everything starts just like unfolding, unraveling, and you're just like we have been conditioned to feel bad about ourselves and about bleeding and about getting stains on things and just all of this unglamorous stuff about something that is just a part of our biology. And I can feel myself getting heated right now, and then we have to pay. So it's like we're getting punished because it's happening and we're getting taxed on it's just a lot of stuff. And I know there's so many people and organizations who are leading efforts towards getting a lot of these things tax free, and I feel like in some states there might be, but we're still a long way from kind of this acceptance and willingness to acknowledge and talk about it. And I don't even want to make people feel like they have to be okay with talking about Blood 24/7. It would be nice. I'm just being silly, but you know what I mean. And I don't think we should have to feel bad about who we are and what our bodies are doing. And so, yeah, I think a lot of kind of taking that power back is learning about it and learning the way that it shows up in our lives and learning how to live with this part instead of resist it or things like that. And I've really been paying attention to the way I relate to my period because a lot of times I do relate to it in that way of, like, well, it's annoying, and I have this to do, and I'm working. Like, I used to work doubles, and I would be, like, on my second or third day of my period and just be like, oh, well, it's not happening, or just, no. And it's just a lot to think about when you start thinking about it. I've learned so much in listening to people talk about their periods and listening to people share the science and yeah, hearing people talk about it and make it feel less weird. I know I've probably embarrassed, either friends or family talking about periods. I know my mom loves to tell this one story. Yeah, I'll leave it off, but I'm sure she would love to tell it. Yeah, I think I just feel like, well, I'm not going to receive the shame that's being thrown at me because I feel like this is just part of my life at this point. It's just something that I have to navigate, and for you to make me feel bad about something that I have to navigate is just frustrating. Where are we going? I did pull a few tarot cards to see. I was just like, what's the energy of this reading? I mean, podcast episode or bleeding or whatever. And it was cool because I got a lot of I'm like, looking at it now. A lot of just kind of, like, imbalanced masculine energy and doing things out of force. And ironically, I got the death card and the ten of swords, which is, like, the bleeding one. And then it was crazy because I just started doing, like, queens, and then I got three of the queen. I love it. But yeah, just like this reclamation of the feminine energy and the sacredness of it, because I do really feel like just like giving birth or things like that, there is this sacred part of being this biological organism that goes through these unfathomable fathomable experiences. And it's like, how did your body just do that? How did that happen? It was like a miracle. It's like magic. But I just want to honor those parts of us, and I feel like periods are ours. We're not meant to feel bad about them and even noticing the internalized period shame of like, oh, God, you stain another pair of underwear again, or, oh, God, you stain the sheets again. Or, oh, God, can you just stop bleeding? As if I'm inconveniencing myself. And that's a lot to sit with. It's like, a lot to realize that I've been doing this for ever since I started. And not just me, but, like, millions of girls, millions of women millions of people who were assigned female at birth. There's millions of us who have been navigating this based on this lens of the patriarchy who knows nothing about bleeding. It's just a lot, again, it's like a lot to unravel and it just keeps unraveling. So I just wanted to share my experience and just another voice in the world that tells you it's okay to talk about periods and it's okay to talk about bleeding, and it's okay to not feel shame about this part of you and this part of our bodies. We don't have time anymore. Yeah, so I talked a little bit about the science. Again, the actual menstruation part of us bleeding is because of, again, that little home that was created for the egg is kind of just breaking down and being disposed of. And that is the process that we experience as on our period. So depending on, again, your body type, whether you're on birth control, whether you are overweight or underweight or at weight or again, I don't even know whose standards, but whatever they've measured to be healthy. Again, body composite, everybody's so different, and we all have the same thing, but we experience it in different ways. So mine lasts usually around five. And I've had a journey too, with my period. I think I've had shorter ones and longer ones and then really longer ones. But I think around five to six to seven days is in that kind of normal range. And again, normal is based on a sample that doctors have studied. But it all depends. So if you are considered not normal, I don't want you to freak out or, God forbid, go to WebMD and Google something, and there's no need to fret. But if you do feel like something's wrong or anything like that, please do call a doctor or professional who can help you and guide you in the direction that you want to go. So. Oh, my God. See, it's so unconscious. And it's not just I know it's not just me, it's all millennials. But on another note, have you heard about Zillennials? I think that's like a mix of gen, Z and millennial, and I feel like I am, but whatever. So I just need to make a Blooper reel of each time I say so. I'm just having a hard time conjuring another conjunction. Help me conjure the conjunction. Period is about a week. So if you look at periods, they're usually on a monthly cycle. And again, depending on your body composition, your birth control, no birth control, whatever, your body is going to have a different cycle. Mine, I think, is about 28 to 30 days and give or take a couple of days. Sometimes stress can delay our periods. Other things mainly stress, but they're generally around a month. And I think they say, like mensis, and men is like moon. And that's cool that there's like this spiritual connection to the moon through our moon and if you want to go there. So our periods have four phases and I wasn't taught this. I think I remember a little bit of this in the descriptions from biology in French. I remember the chart. I think we have four phases and it really has helped me to look at it like seasons. Because if you look at each one, you can definitely see where it just kind of clicks. So if you're in a place with four seasons or you're familiar with the four seasons, it's kind of cool to look at them this way. So god, I think I'm just a sogirl it's like we got woo girls and we got so girls menstruation. That week where you're bleeding, give or take, however many days, is kind of like winter. So this is when our bodies are bleeding. If you have ever bled before, you know that there's sometimes cramps involved. It can be really painful. Some people will experience a lot of pain. Some people experience less hormonal. Birth control can kind of play a factor in that too. But most of the time we want to lay in bed, we don't really feel good. We might be experiencing nausea. We're just bleeding. Like we just want to chill. And it's really cool because when you look at the chart and I'm going to see if I can put one in the video, but when you look at the chart it's actually when all of our hormone levels are at their lowest. And so for me I felt that was really validating because it was like, oh well, it's normal for me to not have energy and it's normal for me to feel like shit essentially. So I felt like, oh okay, nothing's wrong with me so maybe that helps you. But yeah, that's the one. That's kind of considered to be winter. Now in winter things are kind of cold. We're inward and we can kind of look at it like that too. With our period, it's important that we get a lot of rest. I think our bodies are expending a lot of energy just doing all this stuff, especially trying to get rid of all those cells that are coming out. I know when I used to drink, if I drank on my period, it was like my effects were amplified. And I think our bodies are just a little bit more fragile here. Just like kind of how animals hibernate. In winter it's normal for us to want to chill out, to move very slow, to stay in bed. We're not lazy. We're not making a big deal about nothing. Our bodies are literally just like tired and doing their best. So this is an important time to try to slow down. And I know we have found ourselves in a 40 day work week and lots of either manual labor or physical labor or just labor period. Sometimes we can't and don't have the luxury of just laying in bed about it or going slow. So I think it's just important to be aware of so that you can kind of cut corners or take breaks where you need to. Because I really think a lot, okay, if we don't treat this week of our period like chill time, we're just going to be going and going and going and going and going really hard when our bodies are at low energy and in terms of sustainability and making sure in longevity, that's a surefire way to burn out really quickly. And that's something that I probably did a lot and I probably drank a lot during my period. And I'm not trying to send shame or anything too. I'm just like reflecting on my own experience and just all the ways that I used to live disconnected to my natural cycle and what else I spent so much of my life working on my period just because it's just my period, I just have to do it. I'm not going to get a break or a day off. And this isn't me looking for pity or sympathy, but it's just like women are socialized to just keep going and do our thing and show up to work and still perform at the same level without acting like anything's wrong. So it's crazy how different it is when you take the chance to slow down and really just conserve energy during that time. I've been experimenting with following my cycle in different stages but over the last year or two and really trying to play with matching the energy of all my cycles. And I think it has tremendously helped and it's also very privileged, I acknowledge that too, to be able to say, oh, well, I'd rather not work when I'm on my period or I'd rather not do a lot of heavy labor or high activity or high intensity things on my period, if we are able to. I think it's extremely helpful and extremely validating just in our own bodies and taking care of our bodies. So after your period, whenever you stop bleeding, so your period actually day one starts. If you were to count, day one would be the first day you start bleeding and then day five, six, seven, or four, three, whatever, your day of bleeding is done, that is the last day. So that phase is called menstruation and the next is called follicular. And this is when your body is done bleeding. That uterine wall is like gone and it's back to normal. So our hormones are finally going up a little bit. Some of them are going up. Progesterone. I said I wasn't going to talk about it, but I'm going to talk about some. Progesterone isn't because it's the hormone that's involved in the nest part more. And I think there's a lot of birth control. I think birth control is like different forms. But anyways, I'm not going to get in there because I'm not sure if what I'm saying has 100% accuracy, but it probably has 99% Follicular. You can look at this as kind of like spring. So, you know, after winter, the sun starts coming out. It's not as cold, the snow is kind of gone. We're kind of slowly waking up to a new season, and our periods are moving to the next phase just like that. So we've got follicular. So they say the next season is summer, which is ovulation. So they say that ovulation is around the middle. So about like day 16 or whatever. Now, this is when the egg is dropping. Let me make sure. Okay. Yeah. See, I feel like I just have a background in science, so I don't like to just say things that I don't feel like are true, but sometimes I'm not always confident in what I say. But, yes, please feel free to fact check anything that I say in this podcast because I do want to know if it's wrong. But I feel like a lot of this stuff I feel confident to speak around. So, yes, the ovulation is when the egg drops. And depending on your birth control, some people ovulate and some people don't. Some people don't have periods. So ovulation you can really see because the consistency of the mucus changes the discharge. And you can kind of tell because it's like a little bit clumpier, which is something you kind of have to really pay attention to. You can't just be like, oh, I think I'm ovulating. But there are some things that can help you detect or feel. So, again, checking your discharge, but sometimes you cramp a little bit, and I've had cramps. It's just like your body doing its thing down there and releasing the egg. So that will be a thing. And depending on how much time is in between your bleeding time and your ovulation, that's going to be your follicular. So your hormones are going to be rising and your body's going to be trying to get that egg to get released. So just like, I'm going backwards a little bit. So just like with spring, we're coming out, we're shining, we're getting more energy that's happening in our lives, too. So you can kind of expect that first week when you're bleeding to just be your chill time, your low energy. It's important that you honor your low energy because when the follicular is coming and you're done bleeding, you're going to feel a little bit better and your energy is coming back. It's helpful to be able to kind of check in with yourself and see where you're at, but also looking at your cycle, too, because it helps if you're a regular. It helps for you to just see data. It's just really helpful and something that we're not taught to do as little kids or teenagers. I'm grateful for all the people who have shared their stuff on the Internet. I think that's probably a lot of how I learned, a lot of how we all learned. And so when we get the summer and that egg is dropping, we are going to be like at our peak, at our peak. Because if you look back to the science, we're still trying to get pregnant. Whether we have an intention of getting pregnant or not, our bodies are still trying to do their thing because we have a system. If we don't get pregnant, the lining will just come off. So Ovulation is kind of like when you are in heat and it's because the egg is dropping. And so evolutionarily when the female is, hey, I got this egg and I'm ready for it to get fertilized. So I'm going to make sure I'll look cute and fun and sexy and I have all this energy and so you can kind of see like, oh, okay, we get our high energy because our hormones are going up, so we can try to mate or find someone to fertilize this egg. And even though we might not be trying to get pregnant, we can still be aware of this energy and use it to our benefit. This is a good time to do like high intensity exercises and it's just kind of summer, it's like playtime, it's fun time. We are excited, we're high energy and so we can actually work with this energy to our benefit by tracking our cycle. So Ovulation is about it's a couple of days. This is like the window that you can get pregnant, which I never learned and I'm pretty sure I went through Catholic high school and still never really knew that you can only get pregnant a couple of days. So I understand telling people that you can get pregnant period is kind of just like, well, don't do it. It is a little misleading to not tell us that, oh, well, it's only a few days of the month, but they don't want us to have sex, so whatever. So we were at Ovulation summer. So what's after summer, fall we're going to after that egg has dropped and it hasn't been fertilized, the body's kind of like, okay, well, let's start to slowly close up shop. And close up shop just means get rid of the lining like we talked about earlier and follicular Ovulation and then luteal. And I'm not sure what the correct pronunciation. I know some people have called it luteal. I just say luteal. But this is when just like fall is kind of ending summer and going back to get ready for winter. This is our body's way of getting back, ready to get rid of the kind of lining that's been built. And because of this, our body's like, well, we don't need all of this energy to try to get pregnant. We need to actually switch gears and move our energy the other way to kind of just take things down. So as you'll see in. The chart, our energy levels are falling. And this is another normal time for us to be aware of because if we try to expect ourselves to perform all month long every day at the same level that we're at only a couple of days during Ovulation, it's just going to be hard on our bodies. We're going to be trying to grab and pull this energy from places where we don't have any. And that can be not a good thing physically. It can be not a good thing emotionally. And so that's why I just feel like all of this is so important for us to be aware of and to pay attention to in our own lives. And so what else? Yeah, our hormone levels are falling. And it's appropriate for us to also kind of start nesting and doing what we need to get ready for our bleed, get ready for that time where we're going to go in our cave, our metaphorical woman cave, female cave, person who bleeds cave. It's the bleeders cave. Oh my God. And the luteal phase is about two weeks. I feel like mine's about two weeks because the difference between day 16 of Ovulation to day 30 is about 15 days or two weeks. Yeah, it's kind of like a two week. Slowly our levels are falling. So it's like towards the earlier part, right after Ovulation, we've still got a little bit of energy, so we can still expect ourselves to show up and do things, but just paying attention to, oh, well, it's okay if I feel a little bit tired because naturally that's where my body's moving towards. And I feel like this whole process just gives us so much grace in terms of we feel under pressure because we're not feeling well. We feel like we're not doing good enough. We feel like something's wrong with us. We feel like we're bad because we're not able to show up in the way that other people can. And yeah, I can't wait to reclaim this because you know why? So I'm going to say so again. And once the Follicular stage is kind of wrapping up, we go back into winter and we bleed again. And the day that we bleed, remember, is day one again. So you can start tracking your cycle by either on the day one of your period when you start bleeding, you can make a little note on your calendar, and then you could just wait for that whole cycle and do another day one when you start your next period. And you can count the days and you can then begin kind of breaking your months into these phases. And it was just a game changer for me to realize, like, oh, I really only have energy for this little chunk of a month. Maybe I can maximize my things around it. And I know a lot of people are. It's like there's so many layers. You can be like, surface layer, just being gentle with your period. Other people are like, oh, I'm going to schedule my meetings when I'm Ovulating and all these really good rendezvous. So some people are really in tune and really cycle syncing. So whatever level you feel comfortable with, if you feel like you're just a beginner and just want to start very basically you can do what we just talked about, starting your day one on your bleed day and just kind of going from there. There's also apps that can help you. I know sometimes people are afraid of their data and I know in some bad cases this data has been used to harm people trying to get abortions or anything like that. So if you don't feel like putting your information in an app, don't feel bad about that. You can just do your own at home thing. If you have a dry erase calendar or if you have a piece of paper, there's so many ways you can do it. But I think when you start doing this and get into this just different phases of cycles, you might find that you feel like you're in a better flow, like you're honoring yourself and your energy and kind of how you were designed to be. I think when we are taught to push through our period and pretend like it doesn't exist and continue working at the rate at which men are expected to, yet we still have to show up the same on our periods. I think we're just denying a lot of our power. And when we are kind of shaming, whether it's conscious or not, this part of us, then I don't know, it just feels like it creates resistance. And to me, I feel like my life is vastly different from allowing myself time and space to chill and to slow down when I'm bleeding and to see that because I rested, I have more time to show up and I have more energy to show up in these other places. It's something you can do at your own speed, at your own comfort, at your own pace, really. But I just highly recommend it. And I'm also totally in support of mainstreaming periods more and talking about it and yeah, just taking over the narrative because it's been way too long. It's a part of who we are. It's a part of our nature and what makes us us. And I'm not going to apologize anymore for it and I'm not going to excuse myself out of shame or your comfort, and I'm not going to try to be rude about it, but I think that might be everything I have. Oh, I have some experience with like irregular periods, but again, this is one of those things that's super personal to everybody. I know I've been kind of on different birth controls since getting on and I remember I had the depot Prevara shot and it's just like a shot that you got. And I think it was like birth control for a few months at a time or whatever, but my body did not like that. And I was bleeding, but just spotting kind of. And it was like I never really had any time where I wasn't spotting. So that is something that I had to become aware of and realize that the birth control shot was doing to me. I think stress has definitely delayed my periods. I know sometimes if our periods are delayed, we are worried that we're pregnant. I think also, again, cycle tracking is important because again, there's like 60% to 70% of the month where we can't get pregnant. So if we have that knowledge, we're able to be more intentional about our sexual practices and our intentions about getting pregnant or not. But I know that stress can delay a period because again, you've got to think about it as our body's trying to take care of us during this process of creating new life. And if the body feels like it's not safe for this organism to get pregnant, then let's just wait. And I think that can happen with stress. And so sometimes you might not be pregnant, but your period is still late as heck. And I know that can be worrisome, but all of this is like another reason why it's so helpful to track all this stuff and can really get you in tune with your own body and your personal cycle. And that way you know that, oh, if something's not right, I can call someone or reach out for help and support. Planned Parenthood is a great place if you need any help with any of this stuff. I know that they do take some insurance and I think they have a little sliding scale for people without insurance. There are so many organizations who care about this stuff and care about the body and care about the reproductive organs and protecting those. But yeah, that's kind of my extent with irregular periods. Again, it's just going to be one of those things that are highly personal. But looking at all this stuff and just becoming aware of it can really help you navigate and really just have more information for your situation. What else? I don't know if there's anything else. Yeah, I'm just excited to be a part of the people moving forward who celebrate this aspect of our life and don't shame people and are not afraid to talk about it and who don't feel bad about not really being designed or fit in a system that wasn't created for our bodies. So cheers to going back to nature. Cheers to tuning back in with ourselves. I believe that's all I have for this episode. Oh, I do want to recommend my nose just got so itchy if you are interested in the science and all that stuff. The brain changing through different phases of people identifying as female and having female biology going through the different hormonal cycles. It's so fucking cool. The Female Brain by Lou Ann Brizendine. It's such a cool book. I think I sat down in the bookstore and just read it almost cover to cover because I was just like, nerding out. But it's all the scientific stuff about the changes that we go through and really validating stuff about our periods. So thanks so much for being here. Thanks for watching. If you watch till the end, you're a trooper and you're part of the movement of making periods cool again. So thanks for tuning in. As always. You can check out this whole episode on YouTube video. If you want to watch me talk and be silly and animated, you can listen to it or you can watch it on the YouTube and my channel is Youtube.com slash at embracethemad. Thanks so much. I will catch you in another episode. Bye.