Let me start this with a question. What is your gender? Let me clarify to you, I am not asking about your biological sexuality. I am asking about GENDER. Yes, you have read it right. Gender and sex are different terms. Since our childhood, we are conditioned to see them equally. Let me take the pleasure to differentiate both of them and clear your confusion.

Generally, organisms reproduce in two ways to pass the genetic information and increase the number of members in their respective species. Those two ways are 1) Sexually 2) Asexually In an asexual reproduction system, the parent cell simply divides into daughter cells to form off springs. Humans come under those species that reproduce sexually. What makes the difference is just one chromosome. Human cells contain 22 pairs of non-sex chromosomes (autosomes) and ONE PAIR of sex chromosomes. During fertilization, each parent contributes 22 autosomes and one sex chromosome. In males, the pair XY, and females it is XX. That’s our biology. It is the game of genetic permutations and combinations played by nature. The result of that game becomes your sex. Now coming to the term “Gender”, it is the internal sense of an individual. How a person acts and feels about himself is considered to be as gender. When a person’s biological sex aligns with his gender then he/she is called a cisgender. If sex and gender mismatch then they are called “Transgenders”. A male can feel like a woman and a female can feel like a man. Researchers have found that SRY is the genetic element that differentiates between male and female is responsible for the mismatch in transgenders. It is neither a disease nor a psychological disorder. Just because the probability of cis is greater than that of trans doesn’t mean that they should not exist.

The rate of suicide is dangerously high in Trans when compared to cis due to various reasons like depression, family rejection, social acceptance, etc.

Now when it comes to the word “PERIODS”, humans with a uterus have periods. Precisely, people whose biological sex is female or XX have periods. Last year, the sanitary pads manufacturing company ‘Always’ has announced that it was removing the ‘Venus symbol’ (female emblem) from the wrappers of sanitary napkins in response to the requests from nonbinary and transgender customers. The company stated that it believes in gender inclusivity in periods. This decision has received a backlash from women saying that it is an attack on womanhood itself. I understand that. We, women, relate ourselves and bond with each other by sharing common experiences like bleeding, pain, breastfeeding, etc. But folks, that is not our only identity. We should not limit our identity to these physical things, indeed we should focus on personal achievements and create our own identity. It is not appreciable to connect womanhood and periods. Of course, we go through a lot of pain during periods and we want others to acknowledge it. Trans women have no uterus and they don’t menstruate and some trans men bleed but they are not women. Connecting womanhood and menstruation makes them feel abnormal and alone. Despite dealing with so many difficult situations, they have to deal with this also. A study published in The Journal of Homosexuality shows that transgender college students are at a significantly higher risk for suicide and suicide attempts when denied access to bathrooms and gender-appropriate housing on campus. It is an immoral act for us to be an indirect cause for someone’s murder. Our body is not our only identity, we are more than that. It is our basic responsibility to respect a person and let them follow their gender. We should celebrate womanhood together not bleeding. Every woman doesn’t need to bleed and not everyone who bleeds need to be a woman.

“Just because you are a man, doesn’t mean you have a right to discriminate women”. Right? Similarly, just because you are a cis doesn’t mean that you should discriminate Trans. So, let’s take an oath to avoid gender discrimination by accepting and supporting “Gender inclusivity in periods”.

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References:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/casr.30167