I had my first period (Menstrual Cycle) at 13 in Alexandria, Louisiana while on a 2 week Girl Scout Camping trip at Camp Whispering Pines. It was a beautiful place. Smelled just like Pine Trees all of the time. We slept 4 to a tent in the middle of nowhere under the moon and stars. At night without a lantern you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face and when the night fell the many sounds of the wilderness created an unforgettable symphony that to this day, I still love to hear. My mother told me about my menses many times but in her absence I was bewildered, I didn’t know what it was. Thank God my cousin Allaina was there to guide me like a big sister through the process. I was actually really excited because I knew that this meant that I was finally a “Big Girl” now. It lasted the normal amount of days (about 3) but the following month it did not return or for months after that. In fact I did not see my menses again until I was 16 and it lasted forever.

My body reacted to this irregularity with a vengeance. My skin was very pimply on my face and back and actually you know what- that’s enough. A teenage girl in a small city like New Orleans with a VERY bumpy face was enough to make me want to leave town!

My mother took me to the local gynecologist who stuck cold metal things into my vagina to crank it open, then she proceeded to put her hand where it didn’t belong. “ This is doctoring?” I thought about this first encounter – “I really don’t like this”. She could have just asked me questions and I would have told her what she wanted to know. In fact after all of this drama the only thing she could offer was that nothing was wrong with me. She informed my mother and me that I just had an irregular period. She prescribed me 5 estrogen pills, which would force my menses on the 5th day. After this first period I was then to take birth control pills indefinitely in order to maintain regularity. Now I don’t know about you but for me even at 16 this sounded absolutely ridiculous. That this was all she was working with in her bag of tricks was profoundly an illusion killer for me. If the purpose of our menses is to reproduce and the purpose of birth control pills to arrest reproduction, why on earth would I take one to assist in the regulation of the other?

Still, I followed her instruction (as ridiculous as it was) for about 8 months, until at I went to New York to attend Parson’s School of Design. See, in New York I became free. I was a free thinker, on my own for the first time. Living in a dorm room with roommates and exploring life. I noticed that since I had been on the pill my mood was up and down, one minute feeling very exuberant and the next feeling melancholy for no reason at all. I spoke about it by telephone with my mother in New Orleans and together we decided that this was not the route for me.

However, without the birth control pills, my menses again was out of wack. From 16 until I was 28 I visited gynecologists in New York and New Orleans, saw a hormone specialist and several dermatologists. Everyone wanted to medicate me with the same ridiculous birth control pill remedy and no other option. At one point it was even suggested to me that I might have endometriosis an illness with which I am very familiar because this illness runs in my family. I have two Aunts who were diagnosed this as teenagers and hysterectomies were performed on them. The doctor who suggested this never saw me again. I visited the gynecologist for my irregular menses and my endless yeast infections, the dermatologist for my increasing acne and the harmone specialist because it occured to my dermatologist that my harmones were abnormal. No one ever suggested to me or realized for their own self that everything could be interconnected. It took me a while to realize that I was looking for my answer in the wrong place.

From 16 to 28 my menstrual cycle was irregular. It would come anywhere from once a year at the very least – not at all or up to 4 times a year. My cycle would last me anywhere from two weeks to 6 months. Yes, this is not a typo 6 months of bleeding. And I’m talking about bleeding heavy with large blood clots as large as a baby’s head coming out of me for weeks at a time. Going out during this time was awful because with a cycle like this comes accidents and I had many. One that stands out calls to mind a night on the town, I was about 25 with my girlfriends Bonitra and someone else. We were just leaving a club and I could feel that my menses was starting (out of nowhere, there was no pattern). I told my friends that we needed to get to a drugstore FAST! As I began to run to the only open deli that I could find blood began rolling down my legs, drenching my socks and shoes. Red streaks of blood on my legs like red pinstripe stockings. Needless to say, I was mortified.

As a young lady this didn’t stop me from moving around freely. As time went on, I do what most people do, I incorporated this problem into my lifestyle. Even though I experienced other problems as a result of my irregular menses. During this period, I did learn something of value, I didn’t realize it until later but I learned that at times my body produced too many male hormones. I learned this from my dermatologist.

During the time that my menses was off I also experienced other ailments like, extremely BAD yeast infections, and back then Monistat cream wasn’t over-the-counter, you need a prescription, severe acne and heavy bleeding. Once when I was out running with some friends, I began to have sharp pains in my abdomen. I ran home as fast as I could, bent over in pain. At home I found that I was actually bleeding (not my menses) but from internal pain. This also continued to happen whenever I over exerted myself. I never checked it out with doctors as I had become totally disillusioned with doctors. I was only about 26 years old with all of these problems.

When I met my husband Famed Astrologer, Kwame Adansi-Bona at 25, I had finally had enough. My menses showed up around my 28th birthday and stuck around for about 7 months. HONESTLY. Kwame told me that my menses should be in tune with the moon’s 28-day cycle. I insisted that what I have is an irregular period and that this runs in my family. He suggested that I use the head that GOD gave me in order to figure out the path to moon-harmony. I did that. I went to the library and took out several books on how the body actually works. Explaining the whole process: dropping progesterone and estrogen levels cause the hypothalamus in the brain to instruct the thyroid to release (Gonadotrophin releasing hormone, GnRH) which triggers bleeding. This causes the pituitary gland to release Follicle Stimulating Hormone, FSH and Luetenizing Hormone, LH, which cause the follicles to mature. The mature follicles then release the hormone estrogen. Which begins ovulation.

It became clear to me in one of my thinking and listening sessions with myself, my God (who lives inside of me) and my ancestors that since my body was not innately in tune with the universe that I needed to educate my mind to the science and order of the menses process in order for my mind to take over and ultimately teach my body. It also came to me in one of my sessions that I needed a very strict diet in all areas of my life, not just eating. I put myself on a program where by I went to bed every evening around 7pm, I awoke at 3am and napped at 2pm for 2 hours everyday. Everyday I drank 3 2-litter bottles of water straight down without stopping. My first bottle was at 3:30am before breakfast, my second bottle was at about 9:00am after breakfast and before 11am lunch and my last bottle was at about 5pm after snack and before bed. My meals consisted of wheat pancakes in the morning with maple syrup and potatoes and lunch was a salad with maybe a little fish. My salads consisted of raw collard greens, parsley, romaine lettuce, tomato, avocado, fresh basil, raw garlic, onions, fresh squeezed lime, a little sea salt and first pressed olive oil.

I also adjusted my attitude. I started to walk slowly, I thought of my sister who walks very slowly and tells everyone, “I don’t rush for no one!” I used to rush ALL of the time. I walked faster than a bike. I started breathing much easier, I rarely raised my voice or became angry. I fasted from talking and increased my listening and observing and then responding. I also closed myself off from the world only inviting very few people into my life and eliminating those who carry a lot of stress. And see ultimately what I learned from my Astrology Chart was that stress was interfering with the natural interplay going on inside of me.

First, I noticed that I could breath deeply for the first time. Secondly, my skin became very very clear and even had a perpetual glow. My teeth in the morning didn’t have that awful gritty feeling, my mind was sharp and I had a lot of energy. Also during this period I never had a yeast infection, or any pains down there at all. About 10 minutes after my meals, I was on the toilet emptying (as my father calls it) my body took on a very natural, healthy pattern. Lastly after about 7 weeks I finally stopped bleeding by this time, I had been bleeding for almost a year not a lot but enough that I needed to wear panty liners everyday for a year.

I continued this life change and diet for about 3 months before my menses returned this time for only 3 days. I was 29 years old. I have been regular ever since.