Day8: How Well Do We Really Know Our Bodies?

For more than a month now we’ve been all about our bodies: its size, its colour, its shape and a whole lot more.
But how well do we really know our bodies?
This sounds like a pointless question, but it got me thinking.

“A woman’s body and her sexuality have traditionally been understood and presented as the property and business of everyone but the woman herself. Many of us have been made to feel that knowledge about and care for our bodies—particularly those parts considered primarily sexual—are unnecessary, maybe even inappropriate. Yet learning how to take care of ourselves frees us to feel more comfortable in our bodies and with our sexuality, and enables us to take a more active role in monitoring and maintaining our health.”
—OBOS Extract

Especially on things menstruation, our female organs and sex. I don’t know about you, but where I’m from, most women find it difficult and consider it vulgar to mention the words ‘menstruation’ or ‘vagina’ or anything linked to the female form. Not to mention ‘Sex’.

So can you guess the group’s reaction when I put up the CandidTalk Poster??

Shhhhhh…

Yeah you guessed it. Silence. I was a little disappointed but I had expected it so I got to work warming things up.

Came up with these with Yensi’s Help (Amazing Woman)

By the end of the day the answers started to trickle in, and by the next morning, everyone was chipping in. We ending up focusing on a question a day. There were some interesting answers that I would love to share with you.

1. What are your go-to sources for information about your Body?

I never talk to my mom about any body issues, including menstruation or sexual health. I learned from ‘Live Life to the Full’ for starters. But for a medical professional, I didn’t really take an interest in learning. I used the internet too but wasn’t really sure of how reliable it could be. Till I came across this book, ‘Our bodies, Ourselves’ which really opened my eyes. I think the key word is ‘interest’. How many of us are really curious? As my opener said, we’ve been taught to almost be passive carriers of our bodies in a way.

I realized that the prevailing theme was: If I’m not sexually active, no need to worry about missed periods or learning about sex and all of that. Which is complete BS by the way!

The most prevailing sources were:

• Online (blogs and others)
• Books
• School
• Friends
• Self observation (from really woke people lol)

2. How much do you know about your Menstrual Cycle?

World Menstrual Health Day was a few days ago, yey! The 28th of May exactly. The theme this year was #NoMoreLimits. I’m planning on a post to tell you all how we celebrated this year😄.

Menstrual Cycle wahala… that’s me. I know a lot about my cycle, kind of had to lol. To say my menstrual cycle is irregular is an understatement. I menstruate like every 2-3months (longest has been 4 months, medical term is amenorrhea) . So I’ve tried to really find out why. I know it’s definitely not normal but there it is.

I like the statement ‘irregularly regular’ lol. Most of us think that if it doesn’t work like clockwork, then there’s a problem. The truth is that fewer women have a perfect 28 or 32 day cycle with fixed dates than we realise. The key is to know your patterns; any irregularities then should get you worried. It’s also important to know that several factors affect a cycle: stress, birth, breastfeeding etc.

The level of knowledge ranged from ‘not so much😐’ to ‘alot! 😃’ and most of the girls used apps like Flo to track their periods (totally have to check that out, for curiosity’s sake more than anything!)

3. How much do you know about SRH? Do you feel comfortable asking questions about it?

I learnt from school about sexual reproductive health. But it was usually too general and skimpy and I did find it difficult asking questions about it. I wasn’t really curious too because I thought I didn’t need it. It wasn’t until much later that realized how wrong and uninformed I was.

Alvine puts the SRH drama in a cute way:

Reproductive health topic was a no go area with mama, she will give you that suspicious look and give you her answers so as to scare you 🤣 I love that lady.

Thanks to my very open aunty, always giving me the girly chat informing me and making me all the same super uncomfortable. I learned and I’m still learning from her. So before I dived into books she was my source, a very open source. She gave me the condom talk and presented me some samples…..she is a crazy aunt and I love her for that 🤣. At the time I was uncomfortable, now I think I still am….so I dive into books, because they wouldn’t laugh at my naivety or judge me😊.

My profession warrants me to provide answers partaining to reproductive health to many, and I make them know it’s normal so they don’t feel shy or uncomfortable with me.

More on SRH later!

4. Do you think how you see yourself is strongly linked to your ideas about sex?

I read from a book titled the total woman that the brain is the biggest sex organ…that how you see yourself influences your mentality and the mentality you have determines how you will feel about sex.

_Noela

5. Do you think you have a right to your Body?

Hell, Yes!!!

And I leave it at that.

Ok…

Phww! They were some heavy questions, weren’t they? Hope you learned a thing or two.

---

Hello! Hope you enjoyed the above teasers! Got great posts planned on each of these questions so stay close and don’t miss a beat! 😉