Is the period blood pure or impure? This question might confuse a lot of people about menstrual blood. To answer this we must first understand the menstruation cycle; the natural process of the female body. Females have an amazing process going on inside their body. One of them is menstruation. The menstruation cycle occurs during the reproductive age of a female. It usually starts at the age of 12 and ends usually at the age of 50. It differs from person to person. The end of menstruation is called menopause.
Every month a female body prepares itself for conceiving a baby when she is in her fertility period. The hormones called ‘estrogen’ and ‘progesterone’ stimulated in the female body are responsible for this cycle. The menstruation cycle occurs in four phases. At first from day 1st to day 6th blood flows from the vagina. After day 7th, a thin lining starts developing at the walls of the uterus which is called uterus lining. During the cycle, usually on day 14th ovulation occurs which is simply the release of eggs from the ovaries. Meanwhile, the uterus lining then becomes thicker and thicker as the days pass until day 28th. This layer is said to be preparing for the fertilized egg to form and provide essential nutrition when sperm from the male and ovum(egg) from the female meet and fertilization occurs. If the fertilization occurs, the menstrual cycle stops until the baby is born. But if the fertilization doesn’t occur then the layer gradually falls and it is thrown out from the vagina by the body which is a natural process. This phenomenon repeats and occurs every month which we call ‘The menstruation cycle’.
For a long time, I used to think menstrual blood was impure. It is the impurities that come out every month. Until I found out, the uterus lining is formed by the combination of tissues of blood vessels, endometrial fluid, and mucus and the blood component in menstrual discharge is the same as arterial blood (Source:Find here). It is the purest form of blood which can also be used as NPK fertilizer (Source:Find here & here). But here in our society there is a myth that a female on their periods should not be touching plants or else it will die.
When the blood itself can be used as fertilizer for plants it is irrelevant to say females on their period are impure or the blood that flows is impure. There is no evidence that the menstrual discharge is toxic and dangerous as well until and unless she is having infectious disease.
Due to my lack of knowledge and myth deep rooted in the society I also had misconception. But now I no longer consider it as impure blood. Why should we consider it impure? Just because the blood comes out from the vagina, we cannot say it is impure. It is a myth which exists in society. We have to clear our perception of menstruation and accept menstrual blood as pure blood. We the youths should be able to break the taboos and stigma for the upcoming generation, for a better world. We should believe and analyze the actual facts rather than the existing myths. We should normalize and accept menstruation. If we don’t then who will?
