Menstrual health is not just a women’s issue; it’s a vital topic for everyone, and understanding it can significantly enhance gender equality and social justice.

Danielle Keiser, a leading menstrual health educator, shares her journey and insights into how cultural shifts have influenced her mission. We discuss the importance of educating men about menstrual cycles and how this knowledge can foster empathy and support in relationships. With the launch of a new app aimed at helping dads and partners learn about menstrual health, Danielle emphasizes that this education can empower families and transform societal attitudes.

Check out the show notes!

Takeaways:

• Menstrual health is crucial for achieving gender equality and understanding societal dynamics.
• Educating men about menstrual health can foster empathy and improve relationships with women.
• Understanding the menstrual cycle can empower individuals to manage their health effectively and holistically.
• Periods and menstruation should be normalized as part of a broader human experience, not just a women's issue.
• Menstrual pain is often dismissed, yet it can indicate underlying health issues that require attention.
• Cultural perceptions of menstruation influence how individuals and families communicate about reproductive health.

-----

Support the Podcast: Click here to send in a one-time or monthly donation

Submit a Question: Click here to send in a question!

Join the Podcast Mailing list: https://www.globalhealthpursuit.com/mailing-list

Make sure to follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook!

Email me at hetal@globalhealthpursuit.com

______

A huge thank you to Sparkle for sponsoring this episode! The mission at Sparkle is to offer healthy, sustainable, and innovative period products made from the highest-quality ingredients to care for you and the planet. To learn more about Sparkle, visit them on the web at getsparkle.life.

______

Thank you to our partners at CHIMUK: A sustainable and ethical handmade fashion brand transforming women's lives through knitting. Purchase one of a kind, high quality baby alpaca, and cotton handmade scarves, hats, and more! Each product comes with a special QR code linking you to a photo/bio of the artisan who handmade your product! Click here to see the impact you can make by shopping with Chimuk. >>Use the code GHP10 for 10% off at checkout!<<

Hey, and welcome back to another episode of the Global Health Pursuit podcast.

I'm Hethal Bauman and I'm so happy to have you back with us for another eye opening episode.

This will be the last episode of season two, so make sure you're subscribed to the podcast for more information on when the next season will launch.

Next week, I'll be sharing a quick little solo episode to summarize all of the amazing things that have happened this season and to say a proper thank you to all of you.

Season three is already in the works and I'm planning on launching it in January, so stay tuned.

But for today, we're diving into a topic that often gets swept under the rug but is crucial for gender equality and social justice.

That topic is menstrual health.

Ever think about how understanding the menstrual cycle could change the way we see gender equality?

You're not alone.

For this episode, we're joined by the amazing Danielle Kaiser, a top educator in menstrual health who will be taking us through her incredible journey and how cultural shifts have shaped her perspective and driven her mission.

Danielle has got some exciting news.

It's a project that's sure to make waves, a menstrual health app that's focused on educating men.

Interesting, right?

Why is this important?

And the reason is that understanding menstruation isn't just a women's issue.

Everyone stands to benefit.

So if you like what you hear today, do me a solid.

Subscribe, drop a five star review and share this episode with your dad, your partner, all of the men in your life.

I also want to mention that this episode is proudly supported by Sparkle.

The mission at Sparkle is to offer healthy, sustainable and innovative period products made from the highest quality ingredients to care for you and the planet.

To learn more about Sparkle, visit them on the web at GetSparkle Life.

More about them later.

I'm in a transition right now because I'm about to go back to Germany.

Just like getting a lot of stuff together.

I had to move out of my apartment.

Now I'm in the Bay Area and I go to Germany next week.

There's a lot of floating parts.

I'm looking forward to settling back there and also feeling very sad about leaving the US I spent so much time here and had such a wonderful time.

It's always harder to go and be far away from home the older you get.

Yeah, well, I'm excited to finally get to chat with you about this.

Yeah, me too.

I've been looking forward to this conversation and talking to you for a really long time.

Especially because we have such a vibe together around periods and social justice.

And so I'm really excited to unpack and learn more about you, our commonalities and the ways we want to change the world from our little seats, from.

Our little space, my little chair in little corner of my little room.

Yeah, I've been excited about this conversation.

I think today it was interesting because I use a period tracker app, Clue.

I'm not paying for the full subscription, but I just track when my periods are and all that.

It pertains so well to this episode because I screenshot the little.

There's like, you know, the circle with like, here's where your period is, here's when your ovulation is, and then this is the number of days till your next period.

I screenshot it and send it to my husband.

I'm like, I'm in the luteal phase right now.

And he goes, what does that mean?

Hmm.

Yeah.

There's a basic education that would be so valuable for both the people who menstruate to have because it can be life changing, but then also for the people in our lives who don't have menstrual cycles and really could benefit to understand that we have this really magical should we choose to go in that direction, Rhythm and compass.

That really makes a huge difference on how we show up in the world.

Actually.

Flow has a partners feature in their app so you can share it with your partner and they get to see everything.

Oh, that's so cool.

You wouldn't necessarily have to screenshot if you wanted to have that feature.

I'm definitely going to look into that.

The only downside to that feature is it doesn't tell your partner which day you're on.

It says 14 days until next period or five days to the next period.

Instead of saying day 26 or day 25, which I find to be more helpful when I know the number moving forward, not the anticipation of it helps me situate myself into the whole cycle because I know What a day, 6, 16, 26, which phases those roughly fit into, as opposed to, you know, the other way around.

I feel a little chaotic right now.

If you can tell which day are you in your luteal phase, maybe that's a good place to start.

I believe I'm in my 23rd day.

Okay, so you.

Because the cycle starts the first day of menstruation, right?

Correct.

See, these are things that I don't fully understand, which is so awesome to talk to you About.

And I have been diving deeper just since meeting you.

It's like, you know what?

I need to understand this a little bit more and then hopefully get my hubby to understand this.

Yeah.

And, you know, once you start to learn a little bit, you lift up the carpet and you realize there's a whole universe underneath there because there's this aspect of just understanding where you're at with the phases.

But then once you learn about hormones and gut health and all the ways that they are so connected to your menstrual cycle, your mind gets really blown.

And as someone who's been working in this space for 11 years, I'm still learning things all the time from people I meet, from books that I read.

It's just this, like, very generous field of health that we are starting to look into.

Lots of things get put into mental health as well.

You know, hormone disorders and endocrine things connected to, like thy, you know, thyroid disorders.

Also very connected to menstrual health.

And so it's almost like there's not a lot of boundaries to menstrual health because it is such an omnipresent experience.

Menstruation chore is a sign.

This is the thing that we can see and feel.

But there's a whole cycle that precedes menstruation that's really rich with lots of learnings.

Ovulation is maybe the more important event.

People only when they're wanting to, you know, conceive.

Conceive, think about.

But ovulation is actually the real star of the show.

Menstruation just gets all the attention because it's bloody and we can see it can't really see ovulation so clearly.

You can in certain subtle signs, but you have to kind of go deep inside to see that.

I know there's just so much to this.

And I mean, I think in this episode we're just going to be scratching the surface.

You alluded to how you've had several years of experience in this space.

My big question to you is, how did this space find you?

It's such a niche space, right.

For somebody to say, I'm a menstrual health educator.

It's like, you gotta wonder, how does this.

Where does the path lead?

It's actually a funny story.

It's not as profound as some others would think.

I've been really lucky with my periods and hadn't really had too many problems.

I know a lot of my peers who work in this space have had really bad period problems or took a Long time for their diagnosis.

So it wasn't my.

My experience.

I was always interested in the intersection between politics and behavior change.

I studied politics and sociology.

Always really interested in social justice from high school or something.

I grew up in la, so there was a lot of materialistic conversations going on.

And I was always like, oh, why are we talking about these things?

I don't care about fashion.

I don't care about the movie stars, who's wearing what and how skin you are.

That bag and this.

It just, like, didn't interest me at all.

It was, like, repulsed by it.

And so I went to UC Santa Cruz, which is a notoriously liberal school.

My mind exploded there, learning about environmental justice, racism, and all the kinds of things you would expect a college experience to have, especially when you're, you know, a young, impressionable teenager still.

Yeah, and after coming out of school, I really wanted to work in a capacity where I could make some change.

I thought the advertising industry would be interesting because people see advertisements on TV or they see billboards, and, you know, sometimes there's those ones that are just such good campaigns where you're like, wow, that one sign has the potential to change so many people's lives and so much behavior.

And so I really wanted to work in that kind of field.

Started working in advertising.

Then I went back to school to get my master's degree in Global Visual Communication because the program seemed like the perfect intersection between politics and advertising.

What did you study for your undergrad?

Politics and sociology.

I didn't really find my feminism until I started working on the topic of menstruation, because my university was so hippie feminist.

You know, like the dreadlocks and the no shoes and the long armpit hair.

Really like the crusty California.

Yeah.

Feminist brand.

And I was like, this is not for me.

I believe that, you know, people are equal.

But that didn't give me a good introduction to it.

And so I kind of, like, kind of wrote it off a little bit.

And it wasn't until after my master's program, after two and a half years of living in Germany, that I was like, okay, I've got a master's degree.

You know, want to find a job in a country that I've only studied in, and now I'm ready to make my mark on the world.

So I applied for a communications manager position at Wash United.

Wash United is a social impact organization focused on water, sanitation and hygiene, behavior change trainings and campaigns.

And I was like, this is the perfect job for me.

These campaigns are mostly Dedicated to developing countries and developing economies.

They were working in India and Kenya on hand washing campaigns to get people to wash their hands with soap, to use toilets, to end open defecation.

Because the statistics around diarrheal disease for young children in places without adequate sanitation infrastructure are just so debilitating and depressing.

Yeah.

They were focused on these topics and wanted to start talking more about menstrual hygiene management.

I was like, menstrual hygiene management.

Okay, I'm putting those three words together.

I think I have an idea what that means.

But it was just a very dry clinical term.

I got hired to help ignite Global Menstrual Hygiene Day, the new advocacy initiative they were starting.

And I was full in, like, okay, this is exactly the kind of behavior change stuff that I want to do.

So back before CANVA existed, I was making social media posts.

How was that using not canva?

It was hard, but I felt like, this is good.

I got to be authentically creative without having a graphic design background.

It was also before Instagram was really big, so you're mostly doing stuff on Facebook and Twitter.

In the lead up to the first Menstrual Hygiene Day, which was quite small at the time, we had a few partners.

I was the partnership manager.

So we had WaterAid and Save the Children.

It's a big name international development organization.

So we're like, we can launch this with a few of these names.

You know, there was a moment where, you know, in doing the research and hearing the stories of people talking about how they didn't have access to pads and would stay at home, how girls would bleed through their pants and be so embarrassed that they'd stop going to school.

This was a real wake up moment for me, who grew up in the West.

Always had a toilet everywhere, always had pads if I needed them.

But we live in a very privileged society where we have access to that.

And it was really this explosion euphoria moment where I was like, oh, my God.

Menstruation is one of the leading reasons for gender inequality.

Like, we're kids running around having a good time.

Then, yeah, all of a sudden, everything changes.

You start to grow boobs, you start to bleed from your vagina, People start treating you differently, you start treating yourself differently.

And it's like all those opportunities that might have been more equal just playing around, kicking the ball, are all of a sudden skewed because the boys in your class are now looking at you differently.

And now you gotta stay home and you can't go to school.

That one Week out of the year.

Yeah.

And so it was.

I really found my feminism in menstruation.

And from then on I was like, there's no going back from here.

I helped build Menstrual Hygiene Day into a global advocacy initiative.

I grew the partnership network to 350 partners in three years.

It was really exciting because I got to spend half an hour with every new partner that joined.

Hey, how are you?

Where are you calling from?

Oh, I'm in Nairobi.

What kind of menstrual hygiene health work do you do?

We do these trainings with kids.

We have this song and we sing this song with the girls and we have the boys come in afterwards.

So cool.

I actually got to connect with all different corners of the world, learn about their initiatives, and then feature them on our social media.

Was there one partnership that you would just never forget?

It was the colleagues that I had in Kenya that I had never really traveled abroad before, besides Germany.

And I got to go to Kenya for a educational initiative program thing.

And seeing them do their trainings of menstrual health and hand washing and seeing the little kids and the way that they reacted, that was so transformational for me to see how song and dance and workshops are such effective ways of communicating information around health behaviors.

I think we're starting to come back to that after Covid.

You know, everything's been so digital.

Yeah, it's been really great in some ways.

But I do notice we miss the song and the dance and we love interacting with people and being in our bodies and interacting with strangers.

So I think it's seeing that, like, yes, menstrual health education is.

There's so many different formats in which it can happen.

But the best is really person to person, creating and holding that space of trust, enabling questions to come up and holding space for that fear too, because there's so much fear, misinformation, stigma, taboo, and being able to really hold that first because it's real that people are feeling and then be able to push it back with evidence based information or playful, fun ways to understand something and kind of create a little mini transformation in their mind.

Oh, I thought it was like this and I thought I was impure.

Like.

No, you're not impure at all.

You're actually a magical human, you know, I love that.

And that makes a huge difference in the life of a little person who's still figuring everything out.

Their bodies are growing.

You never know what's going on in their social or family context.

And so if you can just kind of make this part a little easier for them.

Right.

The way in which menstrual health has the opportunity to act like a Trojan horse to the rest of the things that will happen in someone's life.

The other points, whether it's sexual debut, body confidence or birth control, and choosing whether or not to use anything, all of those things are going to be made an easier, better experience when you actually understand what the menstrual cycle is and what's going on in your body.

Right.

But if you don't have that first step, if you don't have that basic information and all those other things are kind of confusing and you don't really.

Understand, why am I feeling like this?

Why is this happening?

For all those reasons and more.

That's why I am a menstrual health educator, because it's such a generous space in so many ways.

The information keeps growing and it affects so many different aspects of our lives.

When you were in Kenya or any of these other places around the world, what did you notice when it came to the dads or the brothers or the partners of these women or girls?

So they weren't necessarily there.

I would say absence first and foremost.

But on the other side, the men working in the development organizations in Uganda and Kenya were the real advocates for menstruation and menstrual health and menstrual hygiene.

The number of executive directors for small grassroots organizations were mostly men.

They're the ones who are really advocating for this topic.

I was so impressed by a few of these executive directors and their honest understanding that this is a big issue in our community and we need to do something about it.

It's a multilayered process.

There is a couple of outstanding Ugandan and Kenyan men who really saw this as something pivotal, connected to so many other things, especially around sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially around water, sanitation, and hygiene, which are, you know, core issues in those communities.

So you're in the process of developing a really cool app, and it's targeted towards dads and partners to support their partners and daughters.

Mm.

I would say it's a learning app.

Right.

What brought you to start this app or start the Prague?

I feel like I cannot speak sometimes.

No.

You know what?

It has a lot to do with where you're at in your menstrual cycle.

Honestly, information.

Before we go into that information exchange in your luteal phase, like if you actually look, if you were to scan your brain right now, versus a week and a half or two weeks ago when you were Ovulating, there's a lot more gray matter, and it's because your brain doesn't process information as fast, because estrogen is what helps process information and get those things lit up.

And when progesterone is in your body and your actual hormones are coming down, you're having more brain fog.

You can't process the information as fast.

So this is a time to be gentle and understanding with yourself and know that when you rest and just kind of accept that it's going to come back to you in a few days after your period comes back and your estrogen starts to climb again.

So it's a lot about acceptance.

You know, it's okay.

I had a feeling it was about that.

And I'm definitely gonna keep this portion in the podcast because that's something people will laugh about.

And I always thought this is such a tangent, but I think it's also a part of not being around people all the time anymore.

Oh, yeah.

No.

When I speak with my husband, who goes to work, and he's around people all day, every day, and comes back and I can't form a full sentence, I'm like, I feel like I'm losing my brains, you know, And I'm like, I need to talk to more people.

It just relates to when people have their first kid and they stay at home and they're just talking baby talk all day, and then they don't know how to have real conversations.

We're meant to be social creatures, but not all the time.

The ways that we can elevate ourselves spiritually or know in our, like, collective consciousness kind of way requires us being alone and spending that time alone sometimes, but not all the time.

But I wanted to go back to your question about what inspired this app that I am so bent on creating.

Since I've been working in this space for so long, I have no shame.

I could bleed my pants through and just, you know, walk down the street.

Wear the white pants.

And then I've done as a costume before for Last Menstrual Hygiene Day.

Oh, what?

Nice.

So I have a really approachable way to talk about this.

I really love talking to men about it because I don't come at it from this stigmatized perspective, but really from a.

Wow, this is so cool.

I have this thing and it's amazing, and it's amazing that I know about it.

I get hired every year to be promo person at Expo west, which is the largest natural products expo in the United States.

There's 15,000 products there, and they're all vying to get on Whole Foods shelves.

And I am hired by Sparkle, an amazing Indian based company that has figured out a way to make plant based period products.

All their pads, tampons and panty liners are made with plant based cellulose.

Whereas the leading commercial brands, even the ones that say they're organic cotton, still can contain up to 90% plastic with just an organic cotton top sheet.

I love this company.

Huge plug for Sparkle.

So since we're already talking about Sparkle, I wanted to take a little bit of an extra mini break to highlight them as the sponsor for today's episode.

Sparkle Pads is an innovative menstrual care company on a mission to make periods healthier, more comfortable and more sustainable.

Designed with organic, breathable materials, Sparkle Pads offer an eco friendly alternative to traditional menstrual products.

They're biodegradable and made with care for both you and the planet.

What makes Sparkle Pads special isn't just their commitment to quality, but also their dedication to accessibility and community impact.

They work to provide menstrual products to underserved communities worldwide, ensuring that no one has to compromise on health or dignity during their period.

If you're interested in learning more or even buying some of their products, you can check them out at GetSparkle Life.

That's GetSparkle Life.

They're also being sold at your local Whole Foods, so check them out.

Thank you to Sparkle for supporting this episode and for championing menstrual health for all.

So I have this like uterus costume that I'll put on and kind of like dance around.

Okay, you need to send me a photo of this.

That's what I should have sent you.

This is good content.

I have pictures of that.

So like wear this uterus costume and kind of like attract people to come to our booth so we can talk about what we're offering.

And I'll see a man walking by and I'll look at him and be like, hey, what's up?

And he looks at me like, who the heck are you?

And I'm like, come here.

You know, motion him come over.

And he has a name tag on because we're at a trade show.

Hey, Mike, how you doing?

It's so, so good to see you again.

And he's like, do we know each other?

I was like, yeah.

Hello.

You don't recognize me?

You lived here for nine months.

Oh my God.

Before you came out into this world, do you remember how many years ago was that?

40.

40, 43.

Almost 44 years ago.

It Was a long time, huh?

And he's like, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

That's funny.

Okay, what are you selling?

And I'm like, oh, gosh.

So he's like, you got my attention.

I realized in some of these conversations because I have a tattoo on my arm of the menstrual cycle that I just kind of, like, am able to, in a really short amount of time, give them really important information about what the menstrual cycle is.

That there's four phases, that there's two main hormones, and that there's two main events, and that it's really distinct, these different parts of the menstrual cycle.

And it's not just all the same thing, and it's not just periods in blood.

And some of them are so grateful for this quick exchange that we've had.

They really feel like their minds are blown.

They have elevated their understanding of female health, are more empathetic and understanding towards their partner, and can walk away with new knowledge to practice.

I got inspired from such positive feedback from my interactions with those men that I was like, I should just create an app that enables men to get this basic, basic information.

I have been feeling this in my body to create this.

When I was grounding down in my menstrual phase a few months ago, I was meditating.

This overwhelming feeling came from my womb, which is the place of creation.

This is where we actually make our babies, right?

This is where we seed our ideas and all of our creative projects.

That's where they come from, this core place in our bodies.

I'm so glad that you connected that to conception, because if you hadn't said that, I think a lot of people would have been like, oh, that's so woo, woo.

But it is the place where things grow, literally and figuratively.

And, you know, people that have, like, brilliant creative endeavors that really change the world, most of the time, it's not necessarily coming from their brain.

It's coming from this place in their body where it's almost like creator or something is like, this is what you have to do.

This is.

And you could listen to the calling, you could ignore the calling, or you could do whatever you want to do.

I really feel like this is another stage of my calling in the menstrual health field because I've spent so much time engaging women and girls already, and I will continue to do so.

But we can't keep looking at this topic as a women's issue, because it's not.

It is a human issue.

It is the magic of Reproduction.

We have a freaking reproductive heartbeat every month that tells us if we can make a baby or not.

In addition to all these other things that it can tell us, should we have access to this incredible education about our own bodies?

I really feel that if men, boys, partners, dads had more access to this information, the world would be a better place.

It'd be more kind, it'd be more empathetic, it would be more inclusive.

There's something to be said about the sad reality that the more we hate our periods and menstrual cycles, the more men are going to hate periods and menstrual cycles.

There's a direct reflection on how we think about our own bodies and potential.

And they read that, you know, just they're, they're intuitive people.

They see we don't like something, oh, that's gotta be bad.

And so it's really disheartening when I.

When I hear people say, and you don't have to, like, be obsessed with your period and love your period, but there's an acceptance, right?

Periods are not supposed to be super painful.

Our bodies communicate through pain prostaglandins, which are the things that cause cramps.

So, like hormone, like compounds that actually are enabling the endometrium to leave from the uterus, they are helping move the tissue down.

But our bodies, like, if our knee was hurting for every single month at the exact same time, we would probably go to the knee doctor.

If our eye was pussing and bleeding consecutively, we'd probably go to the eye doctor.

But we live in a society that has so internalized this fact that period pain and cramps are completely normal.

It's actually a sign of dysfunction in some way because all pain is a sign of dysfunction and it's a communicator to the body.

Even when you work out a bunch afterwards, your body hurts a little bit because you're transitioning.

Your body is like, ooh, that is good pain.

It feels good, but it's communicating to you that your muscles are getting stronger.

Having that kind of foundational understanding can empower dads to be advocates for their daughters in healthcare settings and understand, like, I learned through this app that I've been screwing around on that bleeding over eight days is not normal.

And that's not a good sign.

Or asking her how many pads she's going through.

Oh, wow, she's going through like 6, 7 pad's day when on day 4, it should be lightening up.

And maybe she shouldn't be bleeding through that many.

Maybe there's something going on.

And these are the kinds of conversations and interactions that I'm hoping something like this will be able to have, where a father feels more involved and more sound in understanding just basic human biology and that we're different, but it's not impossible for us to learn about our differences.

Right.

In the process of developing this app and doing your research, what have you heard from women?

What type of feedback have you heard from them?

Because in my mind, sometimes there's the stigma that you have to get over.

Right.

For example, I'm okay saying in the house, I have my period, but anything more than that to my dad, it's a little bit weird for me.

Right.

So why is it weird for you?

What are the feelings that emerge from that weirdness?

I think growing up in an Indian household, having your period is a womanly thing.

And you talk to your mom about it.

Mm, yeah.

And she's the one that I would call.

Yeah, that totally makes sense.

But at the same time, it can be very traumatizing for a young girl to have always had the support of their father.

All growing up, they fall.

Dad picks him up, makes him feel better, picks him up from school, goes to all the soccer games.

Go.

Goes to the school plays.

But then the period comes.

I don't know anything about that.

Go talk to your mother.

That lack of support when you've always felt like you could turn to your dad for anything can create a major distance between that parent and their child unnecessarily.

It's not like they need to, you know, help insert the tampon or anything, which no one would expect.

But having a basic understanding and being there, having presence, I think is super important.

I may not know everything, but I am here for you.

I'm going to buy whatever you need, and we're going to learn about this together.

I've already learned a little bit.

Maybe we could talk a little bit about that.

Are you experiencing any of this kind of pain?

I heard this great yoga posture maybe that you could try.

Oh, dad.

No, I don't.

Dad, that's so embarrassing.

Yeah, but I mean, it may be embarrassing in the time, but when that little girl reflects on her life 10 years ago, she's going to be really happy that she had a dad who was there for her versus oh, yeah, my dad wouldn't even talk about it.

He left the room.

And that has an impact.

It could potentially impact her relationships with men in the future.

Dad acted like this.

I am never going to talk about my excruciating period pain to any of the partners that I have.

And so that really enables them to hide a huge part of themselves.

Right.

And just, oh, I'm fine.

I'm absolutely fine.

They have like a nine on the pain scale and have to gobble painkillers because they have potentially undiagnosed endometriosis or uterine fibroids or something.

So once there's more comfort from a younger age that like, hey, you can tell me anything that breeds a further culture of that young girl growing up to be like, well, I can talk about my periods with guys because my dad was fine with it, so you should be fine with it too.

And he's now 75 and, you know, you're only 30.

Right.

Get over it.

We bleed know.

So, yeah, I, I, I am sensitive to the cultural aspect and that's very real.

We've seen so much progress in this space just in the last 10 years.

It finally feels like it's the right time to be engaging men and boys on this kind of level.

Maybe before it was a little too early, but periods have really been bleeding from the margins to the mainstream in the last few years.

I mean, there's so many more companies out there.

There's big companies doing advertisements.

It's really become like, you know, the it girl.

In many ways, we are societally breaking things down across the world.

It's not just in Western countries.

There's always going to be rural places lagging on that global trend.

But there's also some important cultural traditions that we can learn from them too.

You know, not all period taboo or experiences are bad.

Like, there's even there's positive period rituals in the world that we can be learning from if we look to indigenous cultures.

Getting your period is a rite of passage that is incredible.

It signifies your transition to a next phase of your life, you know, and that is such a beautiful thing that we have forgotten about.

We don't celebrate rites of passage in any way.

You know, we discard women when they become old.

Menopause is the most important rite of passage.

That's when we've menstruated for 40 years, maybe had some children, gained all of our power and wisdom, and now can firmly sit in our wisdom.

But no, our Western values and cultures toss all that aside because you're not young and supple and beautiful anymore.

It's a travesty because our elders are our lifeline to the past.

They are the ones who have lived all the years, learned all the lessons, and seen all the things.

Yeah, a sign of A sick society that we don't respect our elders nor the important rites of passage that we as humans necessarily experience during our first puberty, in our reproductive times and in our second puberty, which is the menopause, when the cycles cease.

You were making me get emotional.

Emotional time, right.

We're gonna have a new moon in cancer or something like that.

Everyone I know right now is like really just emotional and crying a lot.

And I don't know when this is releasing, but yeah, during the time of this recording, new moon cancer is happening.

I was just thinking about my grandmom.

So.

Yeah, yeah, these, these are important things for us to be reclaiming.

The menstrual cycle has the power to bring us back to that inherent human nature.

We are nature.

We always forget because we've built these beautiful houses and we have economic models of yachts and all this stuff.

We are like the birds and the trees.

We, we have cycles.

We change, we grow, we're dynamic.

There's some times where we're, you know, like full of energy and you know, radiating in this like summer like way.

And there's other times when we are deeply inward and we are not doing any of those things.

And we live in a society that has kind of told us that it's always spring and summertime.

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

And the menstrual cycle has been my greatest teacher in that it's given me permission to stop or slow down.

And I love that because that's how we sustain ourselves.

That's how we're going to be able to show up for ourselves and for the other people in our lives.

Taking a break, slowing down, not ascribing to this artificial pace that our man made society has created for us.

Natural society already dictates our rhythm.

We have seasons, we have the sun and the moon and we have our menstrual cycles.

That's more real than any of this other Monday through Friday capitalist Monday through Friday 9 to 5 stuff, which of course is important.

And we can't have one without the other.

But a conscious integration of these natural cycles brings us back down to earth and allows us to slow down sometimes.

Sometimes.

There was a quote that you mentioned when you shared about the app and it's men aren't stupid, they're clueless.

And in your research when you ask them, hey, do you think you need to know a little bit more about the menstrual cycle?

What responses have you gotten?

It's been really interesting.

I interviewed 30 men or sent the survey out to 30 men.

And a lot of them thought they were great men for taking this survey.

It's really important to note that within this topic of menstrual health education, there is a bit of a chip on men's shoulders for even engaging in this in the first place.

Place and thinking, oh, because I'm taking a survey, I'm not like most men.

I'm willing to sit down and help a friend out and do this for 20 minutes.

I'm really interested in this because I want my daughter to be happy and I want to be supportive.

I don't want my wife to carry all the burdens and responsibilities for having to do more than she already has to.

And so I find that a lot of.

There's, like, a bit of an ego problem that I will have to work with in creating this app.

That's why I want to work with men.

I don't want to really, really want to work with women because I've got the content and the information being translated by excellent male copywriters and men that can really speak to audience.

Well, you called it.

I think you called it.

Dude speak.

Dude speak.

Yeah, I need, I need someone who can translate this to me or translate to them because, yeah, they, they.

I don't know, they have this.

This inflated sense of importance and that they're better than other men for even going this far as to learn or to.

To take this survey.

And when I asked them, you know, would you like more information about menstrual health?

There was a interesting divide.

66% said, yeah, I know some things, but I could learn a little bit more.

33% said, Nah, I'm good.

I think I'm.

I'm fine.

And then I went on in the later part of the survey to ask them two basic questions about dementia cycle, like, what are the two basic hormones and what are the two main phases?

Most of them couldn't answer either one of the questions.

And so you have them being like, no, I'm fine.

I don't need more information yet.

They can't answer basic information.

So, yeah, this is an interesting challenge because if they knew what those phases actually entailed and how it could help them to relate better to the women and the girls in their lives, it would make a huge difference.

And a lot of them actually did have basic information.

Some of them are really already informed, knowing that before the period, they're less likely to engage in intense arguments with their girlfriend because they know that they might be more sensitive then and to maybe have a Night out with the boys.

They realize that their partner being alone is actually the best thing they can do.

Instead of, what do you need?

Can I collaborate?

Can I give you this?

Can I bring you that?

It's more like just having a little bit more alone time is the best thing they can do there.

It's going to be interesting when it comes to the translation of information, but the content itself, puberty hormones, cycle 101, it's so needed because it undergirds how we relate to each other.

If we can relate to each other with more empathy and understanding, then we can have more harmony and happiness in our lives.

Yeah.

And communication tips, you know, that the app could give to your partner.

Say this, don't say that, say this, don't say that.

And so, yeah, I think a lot of them are really interested in tips like how to be a more supportive dad, how to be a more supportive partner.

So also the dads are really interested in nutrition for growing girls.

I think that's severely underestimated and under looked at in general when we're talking about hormonal health.

So much of how our hormones react and respond is a direct response to how we nourish them.

And if we're nourishing them with processed foods and lots of sugars, then they're not able to do their amazing thing, which is create this, you know, wave throughout the month of increase of estrogen in the first half, really getting us towards a ripe ovulatory state where we could possibly conceive and then dipping and having progesterone rise in the second half, which is more of a calming hormone.

It's really about more introspection, just taking it down a few notches.

And that's very much like the strengths of estrogen and the strengths of progesterone very much reflect the day and the night.

Or the polar.

Polar opposites of elizo energy versus Billie Eilish energy, which is very.

I love this comparison.

This actually comes from Tara Ghosh, who's an amazing menstrual health educator in the uk.

That's so cool.

I'll have to give her credit for it.

Once people kind of like, oh, that makes sense.

You know, like you wouldn't have the daytime all the time.

Right.

And that's kind of like the world that we're living in is that it's daytime all the time.

And we're like, hello.

No, we have the night.

No, we have the luteal phase.

This is actually our call to rest.

And rest can be so productive if you actually really can calm the nervous system, find your chill, get that parasympathetic activation.

Then your next cycle is going to be so much better.

And your cycle after that is going to be so much better because you listened to your body when it needed.

Chill, which so much of us don't do that, you know.

Right.

But then the body reacts to that period pain, extreme pushing of ourselves, not listening, having one more cup of coffee.

The days before our period when our body is like, mm, I'm ready to chill, calm down.

And then the coughing punches, the progesterone in the face.

Yeah.

Our bodies remember that you didn't chill the last year and a half.

So in my coaching practice, I really try to focus on tiny adjustments that people can possibly make.

What would that look like to block out your calendar?

Whatever day of your menstrual cycle is really hard.

You know, you've already been tracking your cycles.

Some people it's the days leading up to it.

Some people it's day one or day two, whatever that day might be.

You start small and just block out the afternoon.

With that afternoon, you are going to consciously rest.

You are going to plan to plan your rest.

Plan your rest.

Starting small, something like that can have huge rewards in the future.

This is what the menstrual cycle continues to teach me and it's what I want to continue to teach other people.

We're heading to the beach this Evening for the 4th and the weekend, and I think it's a perfect time to unplug.

Yeah.

Especially since I'm going into that phase.

Yeah, go into that phase.

Bring yourself a good book, bring your sleeping mask and earplugs so that you can really take good care of your rest.

Sleep hygiene is really underestimated as well.

Making sure that you have, you know, the things you need to block out the light and block out the sound is also super important for self care and taking.

Taking care of yourself.

Essentially your body just asks you, can you take care of me at this time?

I'm literally bleeding.

Just take care of me.

And then you're like, no, I'm going to power through and do all these things.

Okay, I'll just be here then bleeding.

I'll be here.

It's going to hurt.

Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast.

This has been such a.

There's so much more we can talk about.

How can people find you if they want to work with you?

Yeah.

So I have a website called danny-health.com and I am going to be launching my coaching practice.

Towards the end of the year, I'll be working with clients one on one either in like 12 week programs or I am working on developing a course right now that people can take that's at a lesser price point.

I also work with companies interested in menstrual health innovation and want to kind of understand all of the nuances because I said there's just so much to understand.

And so I really love being like the second hand gal to companies in their innovations or their futures.

You know, trend forecasting departments, if they are wanting to create any kind of either menstrual products, period tracker apps, anything around the cycle.

You can find me on Instagram at Danidani.

Health people can also email me.

I love connecting with people.

I have office hours as well if people want to talk.

I have a lot of aspiring young people who want to get into the field that always ask me, you know, what I should be plugging into.

And I'm so generous with the connection they have because I want to share the resources I have.

You know, I'm like, oh, you could get in touch with this person.

Oh, you should talk to this person.

You're creating that app.

She's creating a similar app.

You should definitely talk.

And I'm always wanting to be like a cupid so you can consider me like a menstrual health cupid as well.

Yay.

Hey, thank you so much.

Yeah, it was such a pleasure.

I'm really happy that we got the opportunity to talk about menstruation.

Maybe if there's other questions that come in from this episode and other certain things that people want to.

Ooh, you know what would be cool?

We could do a Q and A episode if anybody like reaches out.

So if you do have any questions, please shoot them over because I think that would be really cool to have a follow up.

Yeah, definitely.

It's been such a pleasure.

Thank you for hosting and of course, let me know if there's anything at all that I can do or follow up with this.

Thank you for listening to this episode.

If you'd like to learn more about today's topic and guest, head over to the show notes linked in the description of this episode.

There you can get access to resources, links and ways you can get involved in the pursuit for global health.

And if you loved this episode, don't forget to write me a review on Apple Podcasts and rate the podcast on Spotify.

It helps me get in front of more people just like you and continues to elevate the causes.

We are so passionate about.

I'll see you in the next one.