Lara Owen - Her Blood is Gold: Awakening to the Wisdom of Menstruation

By Christiane Northrup, Md

In medical school, I learned how to manipulate and regulate the natural female cycle with powerful synthetic hormones. I learned, albeit indirectly, that the menstrual cycle is inherently untrustworthy, and responsible for all kinds of female woes. I learned how to be prepared when women came in to be cured from the effects of this female adaptation. I learned every possible thing that could go wrong with this cycle, and a corresponding way to stop the symptoms, usually with drugs or surgery such as hysterectomy.

But I never learned in medical school or residency training what I really needed to know if I were ever going to help women truly heal their menstrual woes at the deepest level. What I needed to know is the subject of this extraordinary book, Her Blood Is Gold , which eloquently shows us why the monthly cycle of menstruation is a microcosm through which we can understand physically, emotionally, spiritually our connection with nature and with the process of creation itself. Nature did not make a mistake when it comes to menstruation. We forget that without the female menstrual cycle there would be no human life on Earth. When you stop fighting your period and stop considering it a nuisance and a pain, a whole new world opens up and the pain begins to abate.

When we stop fighting our natural monthly cycles, we realize that our periods contain magic and mystery that plays out in an incredibly fine-tuned dance each month. Then we are ready to begin to heal ourselves and our female heritage at the deepest possible levels. We come to see that any imbalance in our cycles is signaling an imbalance in our lives. And we become grateful for the message of healing that our bodies and nature are sending us. Through the work of courageous women like Lara Owen, who have dared to address the culturally taboo subject of menstruation so gracefully, I personally reclaimed the wisdom of my own cycle, and was able to recover from years of debilitating menstrual cramps as well as health-destroying ideas about the menstrual cycle. As I healed myself, I was able to pass this information on to my patients and as a result have seen hundreds of other women heal from a wide variety of menstrual problems, a process which starts with rethinking menstruaton. Together we are all breaking the chain of pain and silence about this vital cycle that has been handed down to women for generations.

The first step towards healing yourself is being open to the idea that menstruation is an inherently worthy process. From there youll soon discover the magic in your own cyclic wisdom. Through the beautifully written Her Blood Is Gold , Lara Owen has provided women everywhere, and those who love them, with a gentle guide through the tender process of reclaiming menstrual wisdom and the power of this creative process. May the healing message in Laras graceful prose reach women the world over with its message of hope, wholeness, and celebration.

Christiane Northrup, MD FACOG author, Womens Bodies, Womens Wisdom (Bantam 1994) website: drnorthrup.com