The feminine menstrual cycle. period.

The word “Period” is rooted in the Greek words “peri” and “hodos” (periodos) meaning “around” and “way/path.” This eventually turned into the Latin “periodus” meaning “recurring cycle.

Let’s all stop and reflect on this a little deeper.
If period was referring to way/ path, and it is recurring, there has to be some power in this, right?

Then why are we raised to think it is dirty, a nuisance, that we have to control it or stop it altogether.
That our period makes us weaker, more emotional, a burden.

If it is actually the way/ the path and this way and path recurs each month, can we instead learn this is our source of power?

I am today years old (39 years and 6 months) when I learned that - after properly tracking my cycle for the first time this year - I feel my most vulnerable and feminine around my period. It starts about 3 days prior and ends when my period ends.

I feel vulnerable, I need extra cuddles and reassurances from my husband, I want to cook homey foods and not do much work, I take more breaks and do whatever I feel like - and give myself permission to do this during these days.
I am also very aroused during this time and I think about sex all the time with my husband.

I thought we were ‘supposed’ to not want sex during our periods, because it is dirty, gross and that we are too emotional to want it.

Then I start tracking when I ovulate. We are done having babies. We have one beautiful daughter and we feel abundant with her in our lives. I don’t track my ovulation to try and avoid pregnancy or get pregnant, I track it because I have noticed that when I ovulate I am so TURNED OFF by my husband. He can’t do anything right during this 4-5 day ovulation period. I am aggressive, overwhelmed, triggered, grossed out, irritable and basically not nice to be around.

I did some research and feeling aroused and ready leading up to and during your period is because of hormones shifting.

During and right after the period is when progesterone—the hormone that suppresses your sex drive—is the lowest, Meanwhile, our desire-boosting estrogen levels are building up, making a case for increased sex drive.

Huh. You don’t say.

Ok, so then why am I so irritable and agro when I am ovulating?
During ovulation, you're more likely to get angry and retaliate when treated unfairly due to a rise in testosterone.

So when I am ovulating, the smaller details annoy me.

This makes so much sense in an animalistic and instinctive sense because when we are ovulating, we are in ‘heat’. Imagine a female deer in heat, all of the Buck’s in the area can smell her for miles and compete to mate with her. She is VERY CHOOSY and wants THE BEST. So this little mechanism that we have during ovulation, a rise in testosterone, is another way mother nature creates a ‘survival of the fittest’ scenario.

Instead of fighting this with control and hormone fixing, I am going to deepen into the cycle and work with “the path/way” and see how it all unfolds.

I know that there are women out there who genuinely have hormonal imbalances, for various reasons, but the vast majority of us likely just don’t know our own bodies super powers, we have been taught to believe another thing.

We don’t have to be controlled, we have to be curious in ourselves.

I know for sure that since I have noticed this pattern in my cycle for the past 3 months (my period and arousal time) my relationship has gotten spicier and after 8 years of marriage that is a really exciting prospect!

Now, with my awareness on my ovulation time, I will communicate with my husband because this means he needs to be MORE masculine than me, with my rise in testosterone at that time, he will have to overcome this.

In nature, some species mate with the females and then the males simply die from exhaustion of overcoming the female testosterone!

It is not expected that my husband has to stay in his uber masculine state for my entire cycle, just a few days. If we communicate and work together with the feminine power, imagine what can be birthed in relationship cohesion, and then take that into the workplace, our communities and society. Wow.

So excited to see how this unfolds in my relationship and how I can deepen into this awareness.

Let’s talk about this. Let’s talk about this with our daughters and son’s. The system wants us to believe we need to be controlled. This is not true. Certainly not my truth any longer.

In love,
Ashley