Learn Body Literacy (2026)

30/03/2026

Let's teach more people about what a Menstrual Health Educator does and why we want to expand access to more teachers in our communities!

1. BODY LITERACY BASICS

The first thing a menstrual health educator aims to do is to teach the basics of body literacy. Menstrual health educators teach how to learn to observe, chart, and interpret our menstrual cycles. This knowledge can create new possibilities for self mastery and better advocacy within healthcare.

2. ABDOMINAL / PELVIC / REPRODUCTIVE ANATOMY

Menstrual health educators start by teaching anatomy. There’s no shortage of things to talk about in the ways that medicine has disregarded our anatomy.

3. THE FOUR PHASES OF THE MENSTRUAL CYCLE

Simultaneous changes occur in the
- uterus: endometrium
- o***y: ovarian follicle and corpus luteum
- cervix: changes in cervical fluid and sensation

4. WHAT A HEALTHY MENSTRUATION SHOULD LOOK LIKE AND HOW TO READ YOUR BLEED

Menstrual health educators help people understand the range of what constitutes “normal” or “healthy” physiological menstruation.

5. VAGINAL HEALTH

Menstrual health educators teach people how to manage their vaginal health so they can maintain a protective vaginal ecosystem.

6. TEACH FERTILITY AWARENESS AS A LIBERATION TOOL

Fertility awareness methods can be used as a way to monitor health, as a method of contraception, help people conceive naturally, help to navigate menstrual cycles after abortions, live birth, and during postpartum and breastfeeding.

7. MONITOR AND PROVIDE HOLISTIC SUPPORT FOR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CONDITIONS

Conditions such as chronic period pain, PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, PMS & PMDD, ovarian cysts, adenomyosis, endometrial hyperplasia, and thyroid issues can all be monitored and supported by utilizing cycle charting methods.

8. ADVISE ON TOPICS OF REPRODUCTIVE AND BIRTH JUSTICE

Menstrual health educators often provide resources regarding safe menstrual products, information about menstrual apps and data privacy, how to navigate informed consent while visiting the gynecologist, and more.

Our work hopes to improve gender equity, body literacy, and access to compassionate and holistic menstrual care!

28/03/2026

Let's teach more people about what a Menstrual Health Educator does and why we want to expand access to more teachers in our communities!

1. BODY LITERACY BASICS

The first thing a menstrual health educator aims to do is to teach the basics of body literacy. Menstrual health educators teach how to learn to observe, chart, and interpret our menstrual cycles. This knowledge can create new possibilities for self mastery and better advocacy within healthcare.

2. ABDOMINAL / PELVIC / REPRODUCTIVE ANATOMY

Menstrual health educators start by teaching anatomy. There’s no shortage of things to talk about in the ways that medicine has disregarded our anatomy.

3. THE FOUR PHASES OF THE MENSTRUAL CYCLE

Simultaneous changes occur in the
- uterus: endometrium
- o***y: ovarian follicle and corpus luteum
- cervix: changes in cervical fluid and sensation

4. WHAT A HEALTHY MENSTRUATION SHOULD LOOK LIKE AND HOW TO READ YOUR BLEED

Menstrual health educators help people understand the range of what constitutes “normal” or “healthy” physiological menstruation.

5. VAGINAL HEALTH

Menstrual health educators teach people how to manage their vaginal health so they can maintain a protective vaginal ecosystem.

6. TEACH FERTILITY AWARENESS AS A LIBERATION TOOL

Fertility awareness methods can be used as a way to monitor health, as a method of contraception, help people conceive naturally, help to navigate menstrual cycles after abortions, live birth, and during postpartum and breastfeeding.

7. MONITOR AND PROVIDE HOLISTIC SUPPORT FOR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CONDITIONS

Conditions such as chronic period pain, PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, PMS & PMDD, ovarian cysts, adenomyosis, endometrial hyperplasia, and thyroid issues can all be monitored and supported by utilizing cycle charting methods.

8. ADVISE ON TOPICS OF REPRODUCTIVE AND BIRTH JUSTICE

Menstrual health educators often provide resources regarding safe menstrual products, information about menstrual apps and data privacy, how to navigate informed consent while visiting the gynecologist, and more.

Our work hopes to improve gender equity, body literacy, and access to compassionate and holistic menstrual care!

24/03/2026

S/o to the lovely for asking this question on my last post - How do we handle a surgical consultation if organ removal is recommended as a way to prevent retrograde menstruation?

Current medical evidence does not support this theory as a complete explanation for endometriosis.

You can say something like:
“From what I’ve read in recent literature, retrograde menstruation happens in up to 90% of people, but endometriosis affects far fewer. (PMID: 36901685; NIH: NBK567777; DOI: 10.3390/ijms25115815; 10.1093/hropen/hoae045) This suggests it can’t explain the disease on its own.

- It doesn’t explain deep infiltrating endometriosis or extra-pelvic disease
- It doesn’t explain cases in people without typical menstrual flow
- Experimental models (like baboon studies) show retrograde menstruation is not a reliable predictor of disease

My understanding is that endometriosis is now considered multifactorial, involving immune dysfunction, inflammation, and possibly stem cell or developmental origins. Given my presentation (especially if deep infiltrating or extra-pelvic), are we considering mechanisms beyond retrograde menstruation?”

The goal here is to open a more up-to-date conversation grounded in current evidence and to make sure that the intervention you choose has a high rate of success. In my course, Endometriosis Essentials, I explore the roots of endo beyond retrograde theory and how we can use supportive strategies before and after surgical interventions.

23/03/2026

Endometrium & Endometriosis - What’s The Connection?

Getting accurate info out about endometriosis is always further complicated by the name.

The uterine lining, or endometrium, consists of both epithelial and stromal cells.
Epithelial cells form the surface epithelium and the lining of the uterine glands
Stromal cells make up the connective tissue that supports these structures. [slide 1]

While endometriotic lesions structurally resemble the uterine lining (with both epithelial and stromal cells), they are functionally different and dysfunctional.

So what's happening with them in the endometriosis lesion?

Epithelial cells in endometriosis lesions, shown in red here, form gland-like structures, similar to those in the normal uterine lining (eutopic endometrium). They act like the "surface lining" of these glands and are involved in secretion and barrier functions. [slide 2,3]

Stromal cells, shown in blue here, are the supporting cells around those glands. They provide structure, help regulate the local environment, and interact closely with immune and blood vessel cells. They're also hormonally responsive and key to how the lesion grows and behaves. [slide 2,3]

In slides 2,3 we see the interplay between a disrupted immune environment, and the progression of the lesion.

In short! Endometriotic tissue may look like endometrium under a microscope (same basic cell types), but it's biochemically, hormonally, and immunologically abnormal, a pathological mimicry, not a true copy of healthy uterine lining.

In 1927, John A. Sampson is credited with coining the term "endometriosis" - you might also recognize his name from the retrograde menstruation "Sampson" theory, since disproven, where the explanation for endo was that menstrual blood flows backward into the pelvis.

This was a major turning point in recognizing it as a distinct condition, but the name, and the original theory, are holding people back from getting the care they truly need.

In my course, , I take you on the journey of exploring root causes in immune dysfunction, supportive management tools, & introduce the skill of fertility awareness charting for deeper insight!

21/03/2026

In February I celebrated 10 years of fertility awareness charting! Ive taken my temperatures, studied my cervical fluid and cervical position, and tracked other relevant metabolic, hormonal, and overall health data, for ten years! It feels good to look back on these charts as my memories, and markers of time.

Currently on cycle 125 😍
No pregnancies in 125 ovulations.
If I still cared about "proving it," The system works.
Thankfully I've grown out of that impulse with 10 yrs to think about it 😂

One thing I can say is that ten years ago fertility awareness was not being spoken about in a widespread secular & educational way, and I was even reluctant to speak about charting because I got so much negative feedback about it from peers!

But I’m sure glad I did now.

And after the wonderful Body Literacy Symposium in Jan, I've been taking a little hiatus because I've been working on my next book! It goes into this transformation to becoming a body literacy educator in much greater detail, what I went through in the process of coming out publicly to post my charts, and how I encouraged people to learn the basic concepts of menstrual care while meeting surprising opposition from my political allies.

It expands on my thoughts after a decade in the game! I too subscribed to the narrative of menstrual concealment and indifference before all of this, and I had no idea finding this method would change me forever, or change my life in the way it did.

Swipe to the end to read a writing sample from the first chapter!

1: First chart ever - started mid cycle!
2: Cervical fluid posts early on which got me censored on here
3: Using my charting book to chart by hand
4: When my blood changed from clotted to liquid
5: When I studied how I went into migraine remission after 10 years of pain
6: When I became so enamored with anatomy I illustrated a book about it
7: When I hosted the public health series "Menstrual Health Through The Five Senses"
8: When I used a microscope to study my cervical fluid
9: Writing samples from "MY FIRST 100 CYCLES: A MENSTRUAL MEMOIR"
10: "

This is what we call GROWTH!
Thank you for being here. I love you all!
Onward toward body literacy ❤️❤️❤️

16/02/2026

The Menstrual Concealment Imperative

“Because menstruation is conceptualized from a biomedical perspective as a form of illness, women are encouraged to transform their bodies to prevent potential hazards of menstruation. Technological and pharmaceutical interventions promise menstrual concealment to women as an individual “choice” (for example, menstrual suppression) by transforming women’s menstrual bodies into non-bleeding ones.”

In addition to a culture of concealment in the larger society, concealment has also become an “imperative that women adopt through their internalization of and adherence to menstrual discourse”

Menstruators own hyper vigilance about concealing menstruation is a form of self-policing and self-objectification, which is fostered through medicalization of menstruation and neoliberal conceptions of health (such as the emphasis on “choice”).

Because these conceptions frame menstrual concealment as freedom, “the internalization of the culture of concealment is a form of social control and a body project that keeps women disembodied and oppressed.”

Persdotter also introduced the concept of menstrunormativity as an aggregate of menstrual norms, stigmas, etiquette, and discourse describing the regulation of certain menstrual subjectivities as "good" or "bad"

This is all a part of self-surveillance and self-discipline, where menstruators go on to adopt this internalized male gaze of their menstrual bodies, which results in self-objectification.

"The menstrual concealment imperative is a body project that keeps women in a psychological state of self-hatred and constantly preoccupied with their physical bodies as a way to keep women busy and “in their place.”"

"If menstrual concealment can be disentangled from menstrual discourse that dictates self-surveillance and self-objectification of women’s self-shamed bleeding bodies, the possibility exists for women to navigate their menstrual experiences with embodied subjectivity."

Have you ever experienced the menstrual concealment imperative, either as enforced from another person or how menstrual concealment is or was a part of your own self surveillance?

Let me know in the comments.

05/02/2026

Black history is inseparable from the fight to know, protect, and reclaim Black reproductive bodies from systems designed to control them.

This , let's celebrate Black women's contributions to the development of and .

In 1994, a group of Black women calling themselves the Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice convened in Chicago for a conference sponsored by the Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance and the Ms. Foundation for Women.

They published a statement titled “Black Women on Universal Health Care Reform” in response to the Clinton administrations proposed plan for universal healthcare.

In 1997, 16 different women-of-color organizations representing four communities of color - Native American, African American, Latin American, and Asian American - launched the nonprofit SisterSong to build a national reproductive justice movement.

The SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice collective was the first org founded to build the reproductive justice movement.

Reproductive justice was a response to the “reproductive rights movement” of the 1970’s, which favored exclusionary politics that were too narrowly focused on the interests of classed, white women of the western world.

Black women, brown women, LGBTQI+ people, impoverished women, incarcerated women, homeless women, immigrant women, and disabled women were marginalized and outcast from the reproductive rights movement, which focused on abortion’s pro-choice versus pro-life debates.

Reproductive justice sought to acknowledge the ways in which social forces like race and class intersected with gender to limit the freedom to make informed choices and exercise their bodily autonomy.

This extended past the issue of abortion and extended into pregnancy, access to menstrual health and gynecological services, emergency contraception, contraception, abortion, treatment and prevention of STI’s, domestic violence assistance, out of hospital birth options access to midwives, doulas, and lactation consultants, domestic violence assistance, support services after medical trauma and harm, safe homes, childcare, and s*x education.

03/02/2026

The Body Literacy Symposium playlist is now live on Youtube!

8 fantastic lectures from our 2026 session.
Thank you to everyone who joined us live! I am truly appreciative of the participation and engagement with the topic of body literacy. As we continue to refine this subject of research, investigation, experimentation, and advocacy, I hope that these presentations can help be a guide for all of us. What I concluded is that we all have so much to offer this work and one another. Let's keep building more bonds.

To watch the playlist you can click the link in the bio under Body Literacy Symposium 2026 or visit my youtube channel! And if you registered, look out for an email from me soon with some extra resources and links from our presenters!!

In solidarity! Onward towards body literacy!

23/01/2026

The Body Literacy Symposium starts tomorrow! 🥰

After many months of planning and years of envisioning a conference like this, I'M SO EXCITED FOR THIS WEEKEND! I'm driven by the hope that we can come together as body literacy practitioners of all kinds, to discuss the topics that are most important to us. We all have so much to say, and I hope this platform helps us say it to as many people as possible.

With that said, I wanted this conference to be free and accessible. We've had over 350 people sign up from all over the world. This far exceeded my expectations for the first go at it! Thank you all for making this a success. From our gracious presenters sharing their knowledge, to the power of you all sharing this through social media, I am so grateful to open up space.

For awhile I've felt like our movement is too disjointed, sometimes subsumed by chasing grants or booking new clients. I've been asking myself, where is our "FORUM?" Where do we go to debate ideas in a public setting? Where do go to ask questions directly to experts and cross paths with other experts? Where do we do our organizing in the fight for reproductive and birth justice? I don't have the answer to all of these questions but I know that my heart led me to creating The Body Literacy Symposium because I know that only good things will come from our convergence.

May this weekend teach you something, create connections, and build upon the work that we are all doing individually and collectively. It's an honor to host this event and I look forward to seeing you there!

22/01/2026

Join us on Sunday Jan 25 @ 4pm ET for "The Myth of the Magic Bullet: A Brief History of Hormonal Birth Control". Sabrina Rose () will help us better contextualize the history of birth control, its social implications, and its political applications. I'm so excited for this talk!

Sabrina Rose is an herbalist, women's health educator, and founder of Moonbeam by Sabrina, a practice supporting young women’s reproductive wellbeing through holistic care and body literacy. She is also the writer, producer, and host of Chaos & Control, a documentary podcast series examining the complex history of birth control in America.

Some things I'm thinking about before this presentation are...

1. How does the uneven burden of birth control affect the ability to gain body literacy and make informed decisions about ones reproductive health?

2. What are the most effective communication strategies for having meaningful and nuanced conversations about birth control with friends as well as with medical professionals?

This will be the final presentation for our Symposium this year and I'm deeply grateful to Sabrina for closing it out strong, sharing this important work, and having this conversation with us!

You can still sign up to join the Symposium - Register for free via the link in the bio or www.learnbodyliteracy.com/symposium

20/01/2026

Coming up on Saturday! At The First EVER Body Literacy Symposium!!
Join me for my talk "The Immuno-Menstrual Axis: Emerging Connections In Reproductive Health"

I'll introduce the Immuno-Menstrual Axis, a concept I've been developing to describe the communication and interrelationship between the immune system and the menstrual cycle. I hope to increase our understanding of how the immune system supports, and even facilitates, normal functioning of the reproductive system. So what is the Immuno-Menstrual Axis?

- The ovulatory menstrual cycle is tightly regulated by hormones which are in constant cross communication with the immune system and play a key role in both the process of healthy menstruation and during pregnancy.

- The menstrual cycle’s immune function operates in balance, with major immune changes occurring at ovulation and menstruation

- The menstrual cycle is affected by acute immune events and its dysregulation is associated with chronic immune conditions

- Most all reproductive health conditions have an immune component, and we'll go through some examples from PCOS, endometriosis, to fibroids and PMDD. Systemic immune health is always a factor to consider in the complex puzzle of reproductive health!

My talk is on 01/24/26 @ 5:00pm Eastern Time, but please come see all of our presenters starting at noon on both Saturday and Sunday! Read the full list of symposium presentations at www.learnbodyliteracy.com/symposium and don't forget to sign up!

17/01/2026

Dr. Rosita Arvigo DN () will be joining us at 2pm on January 25th for the Body Literacy Symposium. She will be discussing her work - "Painful Periods and the Wandering Womb"

"When the uterus is out of proper position in the pelvic bowl it does not allow the free flow of arteries, veins, lymph and nerves to move to and from the pelvis. This has proven to be one of the major anatomical causes of painful periods."

Dr. Rosita Arvigo DN is a doctor of Naprapathy, author, international lecturer, founder of The Arvigo Institute and The Abdominal Therapy Collective. She's also a part of The Traditional Healer’s Association of Belize, and has been a guest on hundreds of podcasts.

A fun anecdote: I first found Dr. Rosita's work many years ago when dealing with my own painful cramps and have been a student of her work ever since! I attribute my healing to many of the techniques she practices. Many years later, Dr. Rosita surprised me when she commented on my youtube podcast on vaginal steaming, and this is what prompted me to reach out to her about the conference! It's my honor to host her this year at The Body Literacy Symposium and learn from all her wisdom.

I hope you'll join us Jan 24-25 for this event which is free and open to the public. You can sign up via the link in my bio or go to www.learnbodyliteracy.com/symposium

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