NC for this, but regular. (I am sure some people will be able to identify me, but please don't out me if you do, you clever people!).
I think I understand what she was trying to do, and I don't find it disgusting.
However, I do have big problems with the equation of menstruation with femininity. The reason being that I have had my life torn apart by menorrhagia.
Yes, menorrhagia. It's normally an annoying but relatively minor condition right? I can't tell you the number of women who have helpfully told me that they also had it and it 'wasn't that bad'. I'm sure it wasn't in their case. But in mine, it has been devastating.
I began to bleed when I was 32. It started with very long periods - lasting up to 14 days, which were really heavy of the start. I didn't think that much of it, but when I went on holiday to New York, I asked the doctor for something to stem the bleeding. I was given a big dose of hormones, but I bled right through. I think that was when I realised something was wrong.
By the age of 34 I was bleeding every single day - yes, every day without remission. For three days, I would get something that was worse, resembling the start of a period on steroids. In this state I would go through a super-plus tampon and the largest pad every 30 minutes, day and night, getting up over and over again to change. When I went to the loo it was like a scene from a gory horror movie.
Outside of those times, I could suddenly flood at any time. Imagine there's a tap in your fanjo, and it can just be turned on, releasing loads and loads of blood. You have literally seconds to get to a loo before you start leaking all through your tampon, your pad, your clothes. I couldn't go anywhere more than a minute from a toilet. Country walks were impossible, flights were impossible, even a picnic in the park was difficult.
It started to affect my work. I tried to work from home for a while, but my boss (a misogynist old school wanker) was having none of it. I was doing quite well in my career, but I couldn't travel on trains any more due to the mess that it would create. I would have to leave meetings repeatedly without any warning because I would feel myself suddenly flood. I had to carry spare clothes and handfuls of period gear everywhere I went.
Exercise was an impossibility - I went from being a hill runner to struggling to climb a flight of stairs, breathless, weak, and exhausted. Sex - forget it! Worst of all, because of later complications I lost my chance to have a child.
Didn't I realise what was happening and see a doctor? Dear reader, I went back to my GP dozens and dozens of times and was repeatedly told by patronising dictors that I was 'normal', that this was 'part of being a woman' and 'very common'. I changed surgery. This time, I got stuck in a loop of endless testing for STDs (5 tests!!!). And then the same thing. I explained how much I was bleeding, but they would not believe me. I explained that I wanted a child but couldn't have sex, that I was desperate, that I knew that my fertility would be falling and that I might have problems if something wasn't done straight away. They told me that I couldn't get pregnant 'if I was stressed' and told me to listen to a relaxation CD.
In short, they did nothing. Not even a blood test.
One day, I was trying to climb the stairs at home and I collapsed and my heart started racing. I ended up in A&E and I was told that I had been on the verge of a heart attack because I was very severely anaemic. It was only then that I managed to get a referral to see a consultant.
The problem was fixed within 6 months. The problem turned out to be a huge fibroid which was so awkwardly placed that it was causing constant bleeding. I had three rounds of surgery to remove it. But my life remains in tatters. I still have nightmares about the constant bleeding. My confidence is shattered, I still have no job, and no chance of having a family.
I have every sympathy with the campaign to give more women access to sanitary products. Just don't tell me that bleeding is what makes me 'a woman' or that it's an essential part of my femininity that I need to accept and enjoy!!