The Midlife

Me and after an 11-month sabbatical: my period!!! Pausing for a reaction.

Just when I thought I could frame my Menopause flag, Flo had other plans. Up again goes my perimenopause flag firmly in place. Please note the differences.

While I had grown accustomed to not having cramps or a big supply of tampons on hand, my period returning was no big deal overall. Although my media period images growing up consisted of those from Sixteen Candles and Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. I never bought into the whole periods as a curse to womankind. It’s actually pretty amazing what women’s bodies do tbh. And the fact that women in close contact can synch up cycle-wise is cool as hell.

My mom never talked to me about menstruating and left that talk to my late sister. And while she did the very best to not terrify me about monthly bleeding, I promised myself I’d have open and honest conversations about such with my own daughter.

In speaking to my big-mouthed other sister, I told her about how my period had returned and she asked if I had had the talk with my now 7 year old. She was on speaker phone at the time and probably said the word period about eight times within earshot of said 7 year old. “No,” I replied. But I will now. Talk to you later.

What followed was the most basic introduction to the menstrual cycle. Keep in mind, we still refer to the vagina as our hoo-hoo, although she knows it’s technically a vagina. So, in some ways it sounded much like a conversation had between mother and daughter owls. In the end, we both walked away just as our conversation began: awkward and intrigued.

Over the past 35 years (what?!), I’ve spent too much time wondering about missed periods. My days of saying Oh Period, Where Art Thou? are over. No more of that, I’ve decided. From now on, I’ll just go with the flow.