Women Who Menstruate Have Every Right to Speak with Authority on Periods

Women have every right to speak with authority about menstruation.

Maybe it’s those old television commercials—the ones with smiling, carefree women twirling in white pants—that convinced people that periods must be “easy,” “light,” or “barely noticeable.”
Because if you believe that fantasy, you truly won’t understand why any woman would be offended when males casually announce:

“Women don’t own periods.”

But we know better.

Our voices around our own bodies have been dismissed for generations—especially around menstruation. And it shows.

The Reality No One Wants to Admit

Not every woman menstruates.
But the women who do know exactly what it feels like to speak up about pain and be ignored.
We know what it’s like to have:

• obvious symptoms

• heavy bleeding

• crippling cramps

• sudden changes

• signs of something medically serious

…only to be told it’s “just stress,” “in your head,” or “normal for women.”

This is part of the same system that silences us in maternal health, too.
#maternalhealth is not separate from this conversation—it’s the continuation of the same pattern.

When it comes to periods and reproductive pain, the medical community still knows too little.
And society respects it even less.

ONLY Women Know These Realities

Only women know what it’s like to have adenomyosis—and have medical staff disbelieve you while also mispronouncing the condition.

Only women know what it’s like to be dismissed while silently battling fibroids, endometriosis, PCOS, hormonal shifts, clotting, or heavy bleeding for years with no answers.

Only women know the feeling of being told “everything looks fine” while something is very clearly not fine.

Many women carry a combination of these conditions at once.
Some spend decades searching for relief.
Some spend years being gaslit by medical systems that refuse to study women with the seriousness we deserve.

So yes—women do have authority here.
Women do own this experience.
That is simply reality.

The complaint department is whatever you believe the Creator to be.

This Is About Survival, Not Superiority

Our voices matter because they influence:

• the quality of women’s healthcare

• how quickly symptoms are recognized

• how seriously we are treated

• whether girls grow up with accurate knowledge

• whether a woman’s pain is seen as a warning sign or a punchline

Speaking about periods is not gatekeeping.
It is life and death.

Self-Respect Is Not Self-Erasure

Treating others well does not mean making yourself invisible.
It does not require blurring the lines of who you are as a woman.

You do not have to make yourself small so someone else feels comfortable.

That is not self-love.
That is not self-respect.
That is not self-care.

If you cannot safely acknowledge the truth of your own body—your hair, your skin, your hormones, your reproductive organs, your unique vulnerabilities—how can you ever properly care for yourself?

Women Must Speak. Women Must Be Heard.

After all this time, misinformation still spreads faster than medical facts.

That is why women must speak.
That is why women must keep telling the truth about our bodies, our symptoms, our cycles, our pain, and our needs.

Women’s voices are not optional.
They are essential.

And when women speak from lived authority, especially Black women, we open the door for better care, better research, and better outcomes for generations of girls coming after us.