Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder

11 Apr 2002, 16:46 p.m.

I'm female. I generally don't advertise this fact in…

Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2002 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.

I'm female. I generally don't advertise this fact in my weblog, since the parts of my life most affected by my gender are the parts I consider too private for my weblog, and I enjoy a good game of gender ambiguity as well as the next netizen. But I've mentioned it before, when relevant, and here I will again, because the thing I've been evangelizing to my friends this past week really can't be separated from my femininity.

I'm talking about menstruation.

I menstruate every month, and have since I was twelve. I've tried various products to contain my monthly flow, and now I've found a new one that suits me for financial and ideological reasons. I've written up my experience such that both men and women can read it -- more of a shopping compare-and-contrast than anything else. It's about twenty paragraphs, too long for a weblog entry, so I've placed it here. Please read it and send me your thoughts.