Breaking the silence around menstruation, one conversation at a time

Mid-May, in a small room at a café in Montreal's McGill Ghetto. Three women meet for an interview and an intimate discussion about menstruation. Spring is well underway, and the sun is gently warming the city. Talking about hot flashes feels like a necessary breath of fresh air, just in time.

One of the women, Yusle Rodríguez, is a mother and is accompanied by her eight-year-old daughter, who has already participated in workshops on the menstrual cycle. The other, Claudia Gamboa, has no children. She is well into her thirties and gathered her best friends at this café – which she owns – for an information workshop on menstruation.

The third, Diana Palacios, is the one who imparts knowledge: she gives workshops on menstruation and the "power of the feminine." While the other two women share their experiences, she listens, clarifies, and informs.

Originally from Colombia, Diana says she fell in love with Montreal, a city she first knew when she came to do a master's degree... and where she stayed, precisely, for love.

Her journey into activism began with a menstrual cup. "It changed my life. I reconnected with my body, with my blood, and I started collecting my menstrual blood to use it in the soil, as natural fertilizer. It was a way for me to reconcile with my body."

This personal transformation led her to train as an educator at the Emancipadas Menstrual Education School in Medellín and to found the Happy Periods project in 2021.

As part of this initiative, and through "positive, healthy, and sustainable" experiences, she seeks to give the menstrual cycle and menstruation new meaning for girls, adolescents, and women. Young girls can draw the uterus, read stories, draw the body and its changes, or play card games to form pairs of the different parts of the female reproductive system, for example.

Menstrual education is also a way to address other topics close to her heart: environmental education, social responsibility, community change, and valuing local resources.

"What color is your menstrual blood?" This is the question she often starts her workshops with. The usual answer? Silence. Some participants shrug, others look down.

"Many women arrive at my workshops at 30 or 40 years old without knowing how their cycle works. No one has ever talked to them about their body, their blood, their uterus," she laments. The menstrual cycle is, however, an important indicator of women's health, she adds, and it should be recognized as such.

"Having your period is a vital sign of health. If I have it regularly, it means my body is working well, and that should be celebrated," she insists.

Taboos and the Voices Defying Them

The menstrual experience has long been marked by taboos, shame, and silence, which also explains widespread misinformation. And this is no different from one country to another. Diana notes that this phenomenon repeats itself even in supposedly more open societies, like Canada.

"The taboo is everywhere. I experienced it in Colombia, and I see it here in Quebec. It doesn't matter if it's a Latina, African, Asian woman... the silence always returns," she asserts.

In Quebec, a study released in 2023 by the Quebec Women's Health Action Network (RQASF) revealed that the devaluation of periods remains very present in daily life. Two-thirds of respondents (65%) reported being stigmatized, ridiculed, or criticized in connection with their menstruation.

More and more voices are seeking to make this silence and stigma visible and transform it.

This is one of the objectives of Menstrual Hygiene Day. The meaning of this date is simple and symbolic: the menstrual cycle lasts an average of 28 days, and the average duration of periods is 5 days; May 28th is the 28th day of the 5th month.

Instituted in 2014 by the German non-profit organization WASH United, this day is supported by organizations like the United Nations, which encourage collective action to ensure that menstruation does not pose an obstacle to education, health, or personal development.

This global day also aims to raise public awareness of the transformative effects that investments in menstrual health can have on the lives of girls and women. After all, according to UN Women, over two billion people worldwide menstruate every month.

‍

Finally, We Dare to Talk About Periods

Yusle Rodríguez is delighted by the growing openness towards periods, particularly because when she was a child, she saw her mother suffer terribly every time she menstruated.

"For me, having my period was the worst thing that could happen to me. My mother suffered so much that I grew up thinking it was something negative, painful," she recounts, while Avril, her daughter, draws and colors, listening attentively.

"At home, we never talked about it. So, I saw it as a disease," she adds. Of Cuban origin, Yusle has lived in Montreal for several years.

Giving birth to a daughter pushed her to learn more about the menstrual cycle. Today, she talks about it openly as a natural process.

She has also participated in several of Diana's workshops with her daughter and finds these meetings a valuable source of information for herself, as she begins to feel the first effects of perimenopause.

Diana offers different types of meetings. Some are exclusively for girls and adolescents, without the presence of parents during the information sessions. Others are intergenerational: young participants are accompanied, usually by their mother. These meetings cost from $30 to $60.

In these spaces, they talk openly about the vulva, vagina, uterus, ovulation, "but also about emotions, changes, and self-knowledge," Diana explains.

This holistic approach is what most impressed Yusle Rodríguez.

"Girls need to know that their body is normal and beautiful (...) The workshop was a blessing because I saw that my daughter felt safe, that she could talk about it without shame, without fear," she reports.

The goal of the workshops, Diana explains, is to help girls familiarize themselves with the changes their bodies go through at this stage. She chooses her words carefully.

"It's not that they become women, as we were often told in Latin America. They remain girls, and it is as such that they must experience this process. The information is adapted to their age, and it is essential to respect that."

This way, participants are better prepared for their first menstruation. Generally, it's recommended that they have a small kit ready: a kit they can carry anywhere that contains their choice of menstrual products, a change of clothes, wet wipes, and even herbal tea or an infusion, in case they don't feel well.

Some even organize menarche ceremonies (the name given to first menstruation), surrounded by friends and family members.

What also struck Yusle was realizing that, just as with her mother, who suffered immensely during her periods – which is not her case – many symptoms related to menstruation, like pain, have been normalized over time.

Diana is categorical: "Pain is not normal. Heavy bleeding is not normal either. What happens is that we have normalized discomfort because the industry only offers us pills to keep functioning."

‍

‍A Social and Political Issue

When Diana states that "pain is not normal," Claudia Gamboa gently taps the table. Not out of surprise, but to support those words.

Born in Colombia and an ecologist by training, Claudia owns the café where our meeting takes place. She didn't seek out Happy Periods workshops; rather, they came to her when she met Diana in a women's circle focused on food and emotions.

"What she shared that day affected me so much that I told my friends about it. I then asked her to organize a workshop here, just for us," she says with a smile.

Claudia admits she knew almost nothing about her cycle when she had her first period. Today, her menstruations are regular and not very painful, which she considers a privilege. However, what struck her most about Diana's approach was the political and social dimension of the subject.

"Talking about periods isn't just intimate. It's also social, it's political," she affirms.

The workshop was an eye-opener for Claudia: how do women experiencing precarity, homelessness, or incarceration experience their periods?

"I had never thought about it. I wondered what world I was living in that I had never put myself in these women's shoes," she says, visibly moved.

Yusle continues: "Even labor laws don't account for menstruation. Before Diana talked about it in a workshop, I had never thought it could be recognized at work. But now, it all makes sense. It should be a right," she insists.

Diana suggests that workplaces create care spaces: kits with herbal teas, natural remedies, menstrual products. "Ten women can have their periods in the same office, and none of them talk about it. We have normalized working in pain, producing without a break. But that's not health," she says firmly.

‍Menopause: The Other Great Silence

The fear of being perceived as less effective also affects women in perimenopause and menopause. "Many don't tell their boss, for fear of being judged. It's a double burden: your body changes, and you have to hide it," Diana explains.

If menstruation is taboo, menopause is a black hole. Many women go through perimenopause without knowing it, attributing their symptoms to depression or anxiety, convinced they must suffer in silence.

This observation led Diana to offer workshops to menopausal women. She encourages participants to rest, exercise, opt for natural foods, and listen to their bodies.

"If a woman sleeps poorly, has hot flashes, doesn't understand what's happening, what she needs first is information. And even that, often, the healthcare system doesn't provide," she laments.

Juana Rubio is precisely at this stage of her life. One autumn day, a hot flash surprised her so much that she was scared. "I spent eight hours sitting in front of the computer working and sweating. It was a heat that came from within. I had to open the windows, even though it was cold," she recounts.

After several unsuccessful attempts in the public system, the sound artist of Colombian origin decided to consult a private clinic specializing in perimenopause.

"The best decision of my life!" she asserts. She received hormone replacement therapy, which eased her hot flashes and depressive episodes.

But this relief comes at a price: $250 for a first consultation, then $150 for follow-ups. And even if her spouse has private insurance from which she can benefit, reimbursement was denied because the bio-identical hormones she uses are not covered by that insurance plan.

In Quebec, hormonal treatment reimbursement policies partially evolved in 2022 when the provincial government announced better access to two bio-identical hormones: estradiol-17B in topical gel form and micronized progesterone.

However, these measures remain incomplete, Diana believes. Furthermore, many women, like Juana, still struggle to obtain hormonal treatment in the public health network due to limited access to professionals and the persistent reluctance of several doctors to prescribe this type of therapy.

‍An economic question as well

As Juana's case shows, the economic question is unavoidable when discussing menstruation or menopause.

Diana wants to help these women. That's why, true to her environmental engineering background, she also manufactures and sells reusable cloth sanitary pads, which are a bit cheaper than commercially available products in Montreal.

Indeed, this May 28th, she is leading a pad-making workshop at Claudia's café. The participation cost is $30 and includes materials and snacks. A concrete way to advance her project.

"Conventional pads are 90% plastic. That causes odors, irritations. Reusable pads, on the other hand, let the skin breathe and change our relationship with blood," she explains.

The pads Diana sells on her website cost $16 each or $27 per pair. People choose the size that best suits their needs and the patterns they like most.

In the local market, a pack of three eco-pads can cost up to $60. As for menstrual underwear, a well-known Canadian brand sells them at a price ranging from $25 to $48... and you need several to rotate them properly.

Some boroughs offer subsidies for the purchase of sustainable menstrual products, but Diana regrets the lack of information on this initiative. Reimbursements vary by borough and range from $50 to $100. However, funds are limited.

"It's a bureaucratic process. And if you don't have internet access or don't speak French or English, good luck!" she says. She does her best to inform participants in her workshops, "but it's still not enough."

The Future: Community and Action

At the heart of the Happy Periods project is the idea of community, Diana insists.

Women share homemade recipes, products, experiences. They accompany each other in the (re)discovery of their bodies. Talking about periods or menopause is not just a health act; it's a restorative gesture.

"If men had their periods, they would have paid leave and free products everywhere," Juana jokes, laughing. But it's not a joke. Silence has been imposed. Breaking it is a form of justice.

In Montreal, this change begins with a simple question: "What color is your menstrual blood?"