when the bleed phase goes missing

Another thing I hear, particularly from women in their sage-escence years (menopause + beyond), women who’ve occasionally skipped their bleed or have had an MIA period and have no clue why, and even gals who’ve been on contraceptives that make for a “predictable” bleed phase, or that indefinitely pause it altogether is:

“But actually it is soooo nice not to bleed!”

And, of course.

What a valid and reasonable feeling when we’re living in a social structure that reminds us all of the time how inconvenient it is to need to slow down for a few hours — let alone a few days; when the culture we’re working to shift has encouraged us so heavily to be more like men and less like women. Of course it would be nice to have a predictable, milder bleed phase, or forego it altogether when our periods previously came with cramps, clots, headaches, constipation / diarrhea, tender boobies, extreme emotion, you name it — and we had to play it like “all was well.” Because life “must go on” and, heaven forbid, anyone catch on that we’re bleeding.

Of course it would be nicer to skip that part if that’s been the experience.

In this thought pattern, we’ve forgotten the role and importance of why we bleed, why it matters, and what the long term implications are of not bleeding when we should be.

There is an order within the blueprint of life, and when we jump that order and forge another instead — we start to see disarray in innumerable ways.

Winter, spring, summer, fall.

Sow, sprout, tend, harvest.

Wax and wane.

Cyclically.

What would these processes be if we were to omit any piece? How would the following phases be altered?

In our physical selves, when our bleeding has gone missing everything is affected. That beautiful hormonal waltz that’s meant to happen turns into endless going, never catching our breath, not taking the moment between songs to recharge, though (like it or not) we need to.

When we bleed, we rest. This is woven into the fabric of our feminine design. Our physiologic time to pause caring for others, and to bring awareness to ourselves.

Menstruation stimulates ovulation, and vice versa. When we’re not menstruating, we’re likely not having the hormonal flow to support ovulation — this situation is called “anovulation” and can lead to a whole host of challenges that can present many ways. Simply stated, excessive hormonal buildup and the array of symptoms that follow. The only truly healthy times for our bleeding to be absent are pre-menarche, post-birth, and post-menopause — anything in between deserves some attention.

Emotionally, not bleeding can be related to filling our energetic / emotional backpack and never emptying it out. Gathering items as we go, but never sifting through to acknowledge the things we’ve been carrying, or refining them and removing what we don’t want to haul around anymore.

What a valuable step in the process, right?

There is so much more to say of course, because each woman’s story is unique and layered with the many parts of herself that meld together to form her individual and multi-faceted life. There’s no one single right answer.

This is what the exploration of the womb care consults sets out to do — where we dip into the chapters of your story, seek to decipher the meaning of what we find, and make the connection of how it’s all inter-related.

If you’d like, we could do that together. It could be fun. It could be insightful. It could be so many things. When you’re ready, reach out. I’d love to assist you in the weaving together of the parts of your life that maybe have felt separate from one another, or confusing, or frustrating — sometimes just a little information can help us have some compassion for what we’ve been feeling and give love to the roots of where it all begins.

Much love,

G