MENSTRUAL PROBLEMS:NON-INCLUSION OF TRANS MEN AND NON-BINARY PEOPLE

“You’re now becoming a woman”. We often heard our mothers or grandmothers say this to us when we got our first period. Some of us were excited about the beginning of this enthralling phase of our life and some found it rather bothersome, but a fraction of us was terrified.

Menstruation has always been considered something feminine, even glorified by many elderly women as the blessing of motherhood, but not all of us always felt the same. Many cisgender women wish to never have kids and yet orthodox ideas like “it’s a gift from God” or “motherhood makes a woman complete” are forced onto them. However, women are coming to terms with this ancient ideology within the past decade. A topic still alien to many people out there, is menstruation in transgender men and non-binary people and the dysmorphia that comes with it.

Let’s make this clear first—it's not only ‘women’ who menstruate. Transgender men (biological females who identify as a man) and non-binary people assigned as females at birth, with a female reproductive system who get their menstrual cycles. The onset of periods or the general idea of it is very scary for most of them. Transgender and non-binary menstruators associate a lot of their understanding of femininity with periods and thus, throughout their life, struggle a lot with self-acceptance and gender identity while trying to fit the norms that society has laid for them. The onset of periods can be terrifying for a pre-transition transgender or non-binary menstruator especially right around puberty.

Many transgender and non-binary menstruators find it extremely hard to open up about their periods. The typical feminine characteristics are not necessarily what they want, they may not wish to get pregnant or birth a child and hence find the occurrence of periods alienating themselves from their bodies. Effects of periods add onto the dysmorphia experienced by transgender and non-binary menstruators.

Even after years of being on testosterone, many transgender and non-binary menstruators are unable to do away with their menstruation (although there could be significant changes such as much longer cycles, less bleeding and milder pains). In the cases of some transgender menstruators, they are freed from their cycles, but there are chances it is temporary and they may begin again.

The representation of menstruation in society is very harsh towards transgender and non-binary menstruators because it does not acknowledge their struggles. Menstrual essentials are labelled as ‘feminine hygiene’, the product packaging focuses more on the ‘girly’ colors like pink and purple with flowers and butterflies and other feminine designs. These products, overly portrayed as ‘feminine’ create a lot of discomfort to transgender and non-binary menstruators who find it difficult to publicly purchase them. The very appearance of these products and their strong link to the commercialized idea of femininity, force transgender menstruators back to their congenital identity which they are trying to separate themselves from. It is equivalent to putting them in the same cage they did everything in their power to break out of. For at least some products, a more gender-neutral packaging can help trans people a lot by giving them a sense of acceptance and normalization.

Menstruation needs to be normalized by us, for everyone who menstruates so that they do not feel shameful about themselves. We are making tremendous progress at educating young menstruators about their genitals, letting them bleed without feeling “cursed” or impure. It's time for us to propagate awareness regarding the battles transgender and non-binary menstruators have to fight to preserve their sense of oneness and belonging and help aid in their problems rather than question and bully them. Non-binary people are still forced to enter into gender-specific toilets and transgender men still cannot use and dispose of their sanitary napkins in the men’s public washrooms without feeling ashamed. Let’s begin with understanding their struggles, listening to their problems and accepting them for who they are.