Red River
I've been craving oil lately. Yes, oil. I ride a grease wave every couple of months where any glistening, edible thing stamped unhealthy is incredibly appealing and irresistible. I'm talking deep fried chicken skin, grilled goat fat, fried eggs, fried rice, not so well drained chips, the hunk two apartment blocks down (caught you); you get it, yes? My sister and closest friends, and possibly now you, find it so strange. My body surrenders to this unwarranted, self-inflicted punishment but I revel in it, truly. It's as though my taste buds are promoted to indescribable heights where everything they touch is essentially, food gold. Though this wave usually means I'm gonna have the best culinary experience in the most unlikely places and with unlikely dishes, the underlying reason of its presence is embedded in my womanhood. My damn period.
Now, some may disagree but I'm currently quite happy with this special arrangement my body has made to not burden me with a regular period and to give me the strangest signs when it's knocking. I don't know what menstrual cramps are, I'm pretty sure my mood generally doesn't change, lighthouses don't erect on my face announcing to the general public of some internal turbulence. All I crave is fat in all its glistening glory. That's it!
Okay, take a TMI break. There's worse on the wider web so get a hold of yourself. Let's resume.
Backstory for this openness, I graduated last year and you know how all your classmates go off and do their thing; you keep in touch with some, you lose some, others you just hear of and so on. One of my classmates, Faith Kimeu, together with her sister, Linda Kimeu, came up with quite an innovative app called "Dial a Pad". The genesis of it actually came from them working with children from public schools to create awareness on the importance of general hygiene and hand-washing which stemmed into menstrual hygiene. Now they've been steadily growing, sharing information surrounding menstrual health and providing more options in terms of products that women can use in that time. In Kenya, for example, most of our retail shops stock up on pads or tampons, but what can you do if you're not compatible with either? They're helping to bridge such issues. They have also run a couple of petitions this year to give menstruation a bit more dignity after a shocking exposé on the plight of disadvantaged schoolgirls having to trade sexual favours for pads; and their latest venture is the installation of pad dispensers in schools and offices which I really hope will be successful because that is quite something.
It has been interesting to watch how the sisters have given a lot of thought to their work and it is steadily translating to something that is so relevant plus I have mentioned before how I find it awesome when my peers succeed. So to celebrate the boldness of these ladies in their attempt to demystify menstruation not just through conversation but with action; and with my period right around the corner after oh so many weeks, I thought, why not share a bit on menses and tea! Now obviously I'm an outlier from the biology textbook example of the menstrual cycle, however, I have found there is no blanket condition that can be applied to women and their period with regards to the matter.
For those against, the first hurdle is with caffeine. It constricts uterine blood vessels as it causes an increase in epinephrine and norepinephrine (stress hormones), which elevate blood pressure and heart rate thus making menstrual cramps more painful. In the same breath, women who consume caffeine during their period have been found to have shorter periods. This again goes back to caffeine's function as a vasoconstrictor which reduces uterine blood flow thus menstrual bleeding. You may celebrate this just because periods are never particularly fun, but overindulging would have negative long-term effects on ones health. The second hurdle surrounds tannin, a compound found in tea. If you're like me and enjoy having tea WITH your meals, chances are you aren't absorbing as much iron as you could because the tannins are able to bind with the iron, particularly non-haem iron (from plants), making it less available for absorption and utilisation. Now when you're on your period obviously you experience your own personal world war and the little iron troopers in your blood fall with it. So your iron stores are getting depleted and here you are adding tannins to the mix leaving you a little bit anaemic and vulnerable to the enemy. Maybe a little dramatic but you get the picture.
Of course, being a tea champion, there are options to keep you on tea during your menses. Herbal teas are a great substitute for black tea because you get to cut out the caffeine. Chamomile is super due to its calming effects, and if you have extreme PMS symptoms like vomiting, ginger tea is great to counter the nausea. If you enjoy having tea with meals, add a little lemon in it. While tannins work to take away your iron, vitamin C from the lemon juice helps increase its absorption. Or you could just have tea an hour or more after your meal. Whatever floats your boat.
I enjoyed sharing my menstrual story with you guys, not too concerned about how awkward it was but such is life. I'm so glad these ladies are championing in making this conversation less of a taboo! Please do check out Dial a Pad (link down below), share your story, support their petitions (link also below) and learn more about the periodic predicament that rests upon 3.8 billion humans.
xx
The Ultimate Tea Girl
Sources:
- "The effect of tea on iron absorption." - Disler PB, Lynch SR, Charlton RW, Torrance JD, Bothwell TH, Walker RB, Mayet F.
- "Caffeine Consumption and Menstrual Function" - Laura Fenster,1 Chris Quale,1 Kirsten Waller,1 Gayle C. Windham,1 Eric P. Elkin,1 Neal Benowitz,2 and Shanna H. Swan1