Period Myths Debunked

Periods are NEVER painful. April Fool’s! (Did we do that right?)

Anyways… There are a lot of myths about periods that we are going to debunk for April Fool’s Day.

1. Periods are the same thing as the menstrual cycle.

People often think that their cycle is the same as their period. However, the actual time a person bleeds is known as a period while the menstrual cycle is the whole time from one period to the next. 

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4. Period blood is just blood. 

Period blood isn’t just blood; it is a mixture of the uterine lining, bacteria, and a bit of blood which gives it the color. It’s less concentrated from the blood in our veins because it has fewer blood cells.

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7. Using tampons as a virgin will break your hymen and take a person’s virginity. 

This is another myth that has tumbled and gotten bigger through history. It is still really prevalent in the US. The hymen is not something laying flat and covering the vagina so this is not true. Some people are not born with hymens and others have a small one. The important thing is that a hymen, for those who do have one, can be broken in a lot of different ways. And virginity is a concept so the “disruption of a piece of tissue” does not determine if one is a virgin or not. 

Overall, there are a lot of misconceptions about periods! It's important to recognize long-time stigmas surrounding periods in order to break down the taboo and promote period equity.