Women's Wellness Circle: Last Wednesday of every month at 1pm PT/4pm ET/8pm UTC

WELLNESS CIRCLE ZOOM LINK

Women's Wellness Circle is a Women's Studies Online educational initiative aimed at prioritizing women's unique biological and social health and wellness needs throughout our life stages. Through educational presentations, guest speakers, resource sharing and virtually-based discussions, we'll learn about health and wellness - broadly defined - within this circle.

Menstruation

Please join us for a candid discussion about periods.

Menstruation is a normal part of being a teenage (or pre-teen) girl and woman up until menopause. Every woman's cycle and body is unique but the stigma around menstruation is the same.

"The stigma around menstruation, and menstrual blood, has held back medical research on endometriosis and other menstrual-related disorders" (AlSayyad, 2023).

The Menstrual Cycle

The menstrual cycle impacts our brain and creates changes in everything from spatial skills to sexual desire (Washington, 2024).

Image Source: BBC (Credit: Yoko Miyagawa/BBC).
"Menstrual cycles represent a sophisticated interplay of hormonal cascades, neurological signals, and reproductive system interactions" (Washington, 2024).

Menstruation Products

Did you know about 2 billion women menstruate every month around the world? (UN Women, 2025). Yet somehow we seem to know little about what products are made of and how they might impact our bodies over time (2025, Pinho). Increasingly, women are choosing more sustainable and nontoxic period products and these products are becoming more readily sold by Canadian and US retailers.

Image Source: shethepeople. "Photo of Leona Chalmers, image via NYPL’s Chamberlain and Lyman Brown papers/ Photoplay Magazine, October 1937 issue, p.86"

Questions To Consider

  • For those who feel comfortable please share your first memory of beginning menstruation. When reflecting do you remember who you told? How that person reacted? What did you understand about menstruation at the time?
  • Do you find your energy level, wellness or mood impacted by hormonal changes throughout the month? If so, how do you meet the challenges of daily life while coping with these changes?
  • What is important to you when purchasing menstruation products? For instance, cost? Or maybe environmental impact and sustainability? Perhaps it's the comfort and effectiveness of the product?
The Period Purse: Fighting Period Poverty in Toronto, Canada
Join The Period Purse in fighting period poverty across Canada. Donate now to help ensure access to essential menstrual products and education.
The Period Purse | Dignity. Empowerment. Menstrual Health. | Canada
Moon Time Connections - True North Aid | Canadian Charity Supporting Indigenous Communities
Providing menstrual products and education to northern and remote Indigeous Communities in Canada.
True North Aid | Canadian Charity Supporting Indigenous CommunitiesNicole White

References

Pinho, Bárbara (2025). How Safe and Sustainable are Period Products? Royal Society of Chemistry.

UN Women (2025). Period Poverty – why millions of girls and women cannot afford their periods. UN Women For All Women And Girls.

AlSayyad, Yasmine (2023). What We Still Don't Know About Periods. Our Bodies Ourselves.

Gorvett, Zaria (2018). How the menstrual cycle changes women’s brains – for better. BBC.

Washington, Xavier (2024). 9 essential insights on improving menstrual health and reproductive wellness. Rolling Out.

Code of Participation

If you have questions, please read over and review our Feminist Code Of Participation.