09/25/2020
Repost from
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Using my face to talk about trans periods with you!!
TW: Menstruation, dysphoria, maneuvering the health system as a trans person
As long as I’ve had my period, I’ve been dealing with debilitating cramps. Language and treatment around mensuration is so gendered that for a long time I avoided trying to moderate or understand the pain. When the pain would get so bad that I didn’t have a choice, I was often met by resistance, even frustration from OB/GYNs and ER doctors & nurses who couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t just use birth control to moderate it. They had no understanding as to how this solution might trigger my dysphoria (let alone what that is) so I continually left appointments with no answers, no solutions.
It was only last year when I finally got the nerve to go back to an OB/GYN, determined to find out what was really going on as the pain worsened and persisted. I was able to find a trans-competent OB/GYN, and mere seconds into examining me, this doctor knew exactly what was happening. Because of so many years of extreme cramps, my pelvic floor has adopted spasms and gotten itself into the mess that is called Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Disorder. I had literally never heard of this before. And because I was told over and over again it was “just a bad period” or “maybe endometriosis, but we can’t really know”, it got worse than it ever should have. Thankfully, I now have a better understanding of what is happening to my body and have been able to begin the journey of healing and therapy to help release this knot of muscle that is my pelvic floor!
All of this is to say:
We MUST stop using gendered language when talking about periods. We MUST include trans folx in the conversation. Trans folx MUST be able to walk into a doctors office or an emergency room and be treated without question or a laugh or a look of confusion on the face of the person who is supposed to have all the answers. We MUST NOT feel like the better option is to endure pain and cause more trauma to our bodies, instead of being taken care of and healed. My fellow white transmasc folx and I MUST recognize our privilege in our experience of the health system.
