The Brief » Category_Womanhood>Stories

Real Talk: Living With an Ovarian Cyst and Learning to Listen to My Body
It was about 2AM on a Thursday when I started to feel a throbbing in my lower abdomen. The sensation didn’t hurt, but as I was listening to my body, I knew something was wrong.

Real Talk: Why I Stopped Taking Birth Control (and What Happened)
At first I was excited because it felt like I was finally taking control of my body. I felt empowered. The nurse told me the pill would help to make my periods lighter and less painful each month, so naturally, I couldn’t wait. My excitement was short-lived.

Real Talk: Stronger Than My Endometriosis Struggle
This piece, Stronger Than My Struggle: My Battle with Hormones and Beyond, originally a...

Real Talk: Remember Not Only Cis Women Have Periods
In general, when people talk about periods, they tend to refer to them in terms of cisg...

Real Talk: On Being Forty, Happy, and Embracing Singlehood
I’m single because that suits my goals and needs best right now. I don’t want to get into a relationship just to have one or seem valid in a society that supports this type of rubbish.

Real Talk: On the Challenges of Finding Tampons Abroad
It leads me to think: what other countries also ban tampons or just don’t sell them? It turns out; it's more than one might think.
Real Talk: That Time I Got My Period Blood on My Client's Car Seat
My period blood had gone through the tampon, through the panty liner, through my underwear and pants, creating a perfect print in the shape of the panty liner on the passenger seat.

Real Talk: Walking with Lions (While on my Period)
The original plan was shark diving.
The night before we were suppose to go, we learned ...

Real Talk: Having the Chat with My Boyfriend About Anal Sex
Before you have "the baby talk," or "the marriage talk," many couples will have another chat, one to measure the expectations of the other party and figure out the future prospects where this act is concerned: anal sex.

Real Talk: Learning to Love My Thighs (or At Least Trying to)
In a society that covets the absence of flesh, where a thigh gap is like the holy grail of workout goals, it's hard to figure out what a healthy body is, and even harder, perhaps, to learn to love yours when its not like theirs. But it's a lesson I'm trying to learn.

The “M” Word: How I Learned to Talk About My Miscarriage
Miscarriage. It’s the word no expectant mother wants to hear. And in January of this year, I miscarried.

Real Talk: How Alcoholism Impacted My Experience of Womanhood
Recently, I bought a pregnancy test. My period was over a week late and I was worried, as one would be when "the plan" does not include a plus (little) one anytime soon.

Real Talk: When I didn't Know What Period Cramps Were
I remember the first pang of period cramps because it was the night I had my first make out session. With so much emotion brimming within me, I assumed the stomach retching was nerves, something I knew well.

Dating Woes or That Time a "Perfectly Good Man" Called Me a Bitch
I guess I’ve been out of the dating loop for far too long.
There I sat, alone, in my fa...

Real Talk: Why I Decided to Try Celibacy and What I Miss Most
Anyone who has ever embarked on that crazy world called dating (which, these days, is mostly Netflixing and chilling), knows that it is a scary place out there. Even my married friends look on with the deepest pity and say things like, “If I had to date right now, I would literally kill myself.”

Real Talk: When I Thought I Only Had Two Holes Down There
I always thought that I only had two holes, one in the front and one in the back.

Real Talk: My Biological Clock is Ticking and I've Got Major FOMO
At 34 years old I still don’t feel "ready" to have a kid. I always thought my biological clock would manifest as this intense urge to hold babies or an ache in my ovaries at the sight of every toddler I past. The truth is that it’s not that straight forward and instead what I’ve encountered is just one more giant case of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).

Real Talk: Why Men Need to Know More About Periods
It’s a little funny, how clueless cisgender men can be about periods. But it’s also enraging how little interest some of them have in women’s biology, especially considering most them want to have relationships with us.