Empowering society to learn about periods

New book from Professor Mary Ryan

Professor Mary Ryan, specialist in endocrinology, has released a new book called ‘It’s Probably Your Period’, following on from her previous bestselling book, ‘It’s probably your hormones’.

This book aims to educate and empower society to learn more and to talk about periods and how they affect those who menstruate.

“Periods are something that should be spoken about, if someone has bad periods, they should be able say it out in the open,” stressed Professor Ryan while speaking to the Nenagh Guardian.

“People forget periods are from 12 to 50, that’s a lot of your life, and you don’t want to be suffering for that duration of time,” she pointed out.

As expressed by Professor Ryan, it is extremely important for all members of society understand what a healthy period looks like so that people can be supported if they are suffering.

“I want to educate all of society on the importance of periods. It is really important that both sexes know what a normal period is so that they can help, so they can be supportive and empathetic, and so that there can be more research in this area and we can push for the equality of women."

Educate ourselves as a society

This book touches on a wide range of topics to do with the menstrual cycle, including how it has been treated and stigmatised in Ireland for generations. As stressed by Professor Ryan, this shame and behaviour around periods, has resulted in the suffering of so many women and young girls for generations.

“Women should have never been allowed to suffer in this way, and that we must educate ourselves as a society to help each other going forward. It shows that we didn’t respect women. We weren’t treating woman equally, we weren’t listening to their stories. We were allowing these young girls and women in their 30s and 40s to suffer and weren’t asking the questions,” added Professor Ryan.

“Never again should we allow for someone to suffer in that way, and it’s a big black mark on all of society that this was allowed to go on for so long,” she added, highlighting how it is only in recent years that people have begun to speak about female health more openly.

Education for Society

Her new book outlines a range of topics that people should know about periods, and a range of conditions that may affect people who may have an abnormal period. Conditions such as endometriosis, PCOS, PMS, Perimenopause and Menopause are touched on throughout the book in an easy to understand manner, alongside ways a which a person can support themselves during their period and when it is necessary to seek medical help.

“If we are not discussing what a normal period is, then we can’t discuss what an abnormal period is,” stressed Professor Ryan, highlighting why periods need to be discussed and understood in society so that women are not suffering in silence.

“If people are suffering, they need to get the right information,” explained Professor Ryan. She highlighted she how social media has positively opened up discussions among women about their menstrual cycle. This has been a great development for society, she added, though social media has also led to a rise in disinformation about periods and hormone health.

“It’s really why I wrote the book, to set the record straight on a lot of it, a lot of it unfortunately, people should know and don’t know,” explained Professor Ryan.

Early intervention is key

“Women were never educated, society were never educated and a result, women have suffered from very painful periods, they have also lost out on valuable time in their teens, their twenties, their thirties,” stated the professor, highlighting the impact that painful periods can have on people, even though a lot of women don’t realise what they are suffering with is abnormal.

“I really believe with early intervention, we can prevent endometriosis, we can prevent PCOS, and we can prevent women having unnecessary hysterectomies, and we can prevent a lot of fertility problems. I want to educate people on hormone health and period health, normalise it, so that women and girls no longer have to suffer like generation of women previously suffered,” she concluded.

Book launch

The book will be launched this Friday, March 27, at Eason Nenagh from 6-8pm.