10 x special facts about your period

We all know what it's like to be on your period. The cramps, the blood loss, and the cravings are something we've gotten used to, no matter how awful it is every month. Yet, there are still plenty of crazy things about your menstruation that you probably didn't know.

1. Menstrual products cost you around €10,000 in total
I'm not even surprised by this. Just for a pack of Aleve Feminax, you pay about five euros, and I haven't even counted the tampons, panty liners, and ruined underwear. Altogether, you're about €10,000 poorer by the time you're fifty. Can't they make all menstrual products free here too, just like in Scotland and New Zealand?

2. Your menstrual blood is great for plants
Next time, you might want to save your blood for your vegetable garden, because it turns out that menstrual blood contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are good for plants. I wonder if there are people who actually do this.

3. NASA thought a woman needed a hundred tampons
You would think that NASA employees are the most intelligent people, but their knowledge about women isn't that high. When a female astronaut went into space in 1983, a male staff member asked her if a hundred tampons would be enough. She was going into space for a week. Awkward.

4. Your voice is a bit deeper during your period
All those hormones do strange things to our bodies. Research has shown that your estrogen and progesterone levels affect the pitch of your voice. You might speak a bit lower due to the extra mucus produced. Now, I'm not the most pleasant person at home during my period, so with such a deep voice, I sound like an old fishwife.

5. Your cramps are worse in winter
If you thought the winter blues weren't miserable enough, you were wrong. The cold causes your blood vessels to constrict, which disrupts blood flow. This results in more cramps. Is there anything positive about winter at all?

6. You are on your period for about seven years of your life
When I read this, I felt a lot of sympathy for myself. We are on our period for about seven years in our lives. SEVEN YEARS. That's about four to five hundred periods. Yeah, think about that.

7. There is a Disney movie about menstruation
How cute is this? In 1946, Walt Disney broke the taboo by making a short film about menstruation. It's called ‘The Story of Menstruation’ and it still exists, but you can't really call it a fun Disney movie. The video lasts ten minutes and consists almost entirely of dull, gray images. Very old-fashioned.

8. A pack of sanitary pads contains a lot of plastic
Besides the fact that it's super annoying to wear, it's also bad for the environment. A pack of sanitary pads contains about 36 grams of plastic, which is equivalent to five plastic bags. Soon we'll have paper pads that you can throw away just like McDonald's straws after two seconds.

9. Some cramps can feel like giving birth
Some people have a bit of cramping, while others nearly faint from the stomach pain. If you have endometriosis like I do, you experience so much pain during your period that you literally scream from it. Now, I don't know what it feels like to give birth, but I can imagine it's a similar feeling to what you experience during childbirth. Well, luckily I'm somewhat used to it.

10. Your body burns more calories when you're on your period
You won't hear me complaining. I see this only as a good excuse to eat a whole Milka bar instead of half. You burn more energy, which means you burn an extra hundred to three hundred calories. So you can skip your cardio at the gym too. What a punishment, right?.