13-Month Year + Birth Control: In or Out?
Proceed with caution: mentions of conspiracy and menstruation in this one. TLDR; the first month of the year should be April and maybe the moon can influence our biology.
Someone complimented my newsletter and it made me feel happy, followed immediately by guilt that I hadn’t even started on the next one. I was like, “Sunday already!?” because I’d kind of subconsciously planned on making this thing a leisurely Sunday read but I’d been too exhausted to look at another computer screen after 40 hours of doing it already for work. (LOL @ “leisurely” as if anything I have an opinion about would be shared light heartedly and not screamed from the rooftops.)
“I should do this weekly,” I thought. “I should’ve done a poll for subjects — I need inspiration.” Then the rational yet more rebellious, probably Aquarius, side of my brain came in like, “Why? It’s not a job. It’s a hobby. People aren’t depending on you for words. Be chill. Stop should'ing your pants.” It takes sooo much unlearning to pull away from the societal conditioning that what we do for fun should also be monetized in some way, or made in a way that suits a particular audience, rather than the creator making it. Not to mention it’s fucking winter still, and I refuse to follow established Western norms that go against what every part of my body tells me to do right now, which is to turn inward, be slow, and rest as much as I can.
Enter: inspiration for this week’s blog. And the thing that happens where I spend the next 48 hours straight exploring the internet to investigate any given concept that interests me.
Humans are mammals. We’re supposed to be in the middle of hibernation right now; stocking up on fat and sleeping a bunch. But instead it’s “OKAY EVERYBODY, BACK TO WORK! IT’S THE NEW YEAR NOW! TIME TO MAKE AND SPEND MONEY! LET’S GO!” And why are we being urged to act like it’s Summer in January? Because we live in a society that operates primarily under the tenets of capitalism.
But the new year is actually supposed to start in Spring, bro… Not to get all conspiracy theorist, because I do not know the answer as to why, but don’t you feel like if there were 13 months, each with 28 days (aligning to the lunar cycle), starting in April (Aries/ the first in the zodiac), we’d be more attuned to natural patterns and rhythms and therefore: our bodies? Why do you think so many people give up on their ‘resolutions’ so quickly after enacting them in the dead-ass-middle of winter? ‘Cause biology, that’s why.
Kind of like how, if we’re following Planetary Hours and other systems of Astrology which I frequently do, Monday is ruled by the moon which rules the body and is best served as a day of rest, but in the West, we see it as the first day of the week meant to dive head-first back into work. “Start the week off strong!” Ew.
If SEPTEM means 7 in Latin, and OCTO means 8, and NOVEM means 9… Something isn’t adding up. A few people tried to make the switch back (I say “back” because the Hindu calendar, for example, still uses a type of Lunisolar modality, and I believe it was the original, proper way), including many accountants, a camera company, and this British guy, Moses Cotsworth, who sent ads in the local papers trying to lobby for “International Fixed Calendar” supporters as seen in the image below, but it was always shut down by religious leaders. Shocker. Except for their versions just add an extra month to our existing Summer, which does sound fun, but the proper version (to me, anyway) aligns with the seasons: Spring starts the year, Winter ends it.
Speaking of 28-day cycles and the government suppressing the rhythms of nature. :)
I recently decided to stop taking hormonal birth control after being on it for over a decade. I took a couple month hiatus around the time I had to get a LEEP (procedure where a layer of your cervix is burned off) last year, but didn’t notice a huge change in my physical state or emotions other than my libido skyrocketed to the moon. I forgot about that little diddy until last week, when I was ovulating naturally again, and had to interrupt my scheduled programming to take… breaks… throughout the day. I was like, “UGGGHH NOT AGAIN!!! I’m tryna work here! Unless… ;)” when the urge came up for the 5th time. Is this what it’s always like to be off synthetic hormones? I literally wouldn’t know.
I was on the NuvaRing, which means I got to dictate when I did and didn’t bleed. I would force my body to have an extra week of, I don’t even know what I’d call it… “non-bleeding time?” Meaning my cycle was now, on average, 35 days instead of the typical ~28. I started on the pill when I was super young due to painful cramps, heavy bleeds and depression (ironically enough, as it’s also another potential side effect of BC) very soon after I even hit puberty. Before I was even sexually active, I was taking a pill to alter my natural hormones, daily. That’s bananas.
There are more recent studies that show hormonal birth control affects not only who we are emotionally, behaviorally and mentally now, but also who we’re attracted to. Some state that people on the pill choose mates less genetically compatible with their own sex hormones ie; people they wouldn’t otherwise reproduce with. Yikesy wikesy.
Dr. Sarah E Hill, author of “This is Your Brain on Birth Control,” talks about the aforementioned effects of BC on this episode I’ve linked below. I liked it a lot.
People want, and should be able to, be protected against unwanted pregnancy. It’s the very reason I stayed on birth control for so long, without really considering the other options. Now I’m learning that I have only been suppressing my own natural cycle and enduring shitty side effects, like so many other people, when cycle tracking has proven to be almost, if not equally as effective. If anything, more people should be getting vasectomies. It takes two to tango, and that form of contraception is side-effect free, and reversible. There are people with PCOS and other disabilities that affect their cycles and I want to recognize that, but I do believe there are ways to manage and track it effectively just the same. I’m not a doctor though. Back to my point.
Let’s say menstruation wasn’t related to the lunar cycle, and that the Latin word for month isn’t “mensis,” and Bob’s your grandma. The correlation could very well just be coincidence, IDK, I’m not a scientist either. I’m just a girl with a dream. But in that case, you’re telling me that a satellite powerful and magnetic enough to effect the tides of the ocean, which makes up 71% of planet Earth, has nothing to do with puny human beings who are also made mostly of water. It’s just toooo curious to me.
Charlotte Helfrich-Förster, a biologist in Germany, with the most German-sounding name, speculates that ‘synchronization of human reproduction with lunar cycles may have been stronger in ancient times, but exposure to artificial light in modern life has dulled the moon’s influence.’
But Dr.Christiane Northrup says, “Even in modern society, where we are cut off from the rhythms of nature, the cycle of ovulation is influenced by the moon. Studies have shown that peak rates of conception and probably ovulation appear to occur at the full moon or the day before. During the new moon, ovulation and conception rates are decreased overall, and an increased number of women start their menstrual bleeding. […] Environmental cues such as light, the moon, and the tides play a documented role in regulating women’s menstrual cycles and fertility.”
And that’s kind of been the theme of everything I’ve read and listened to so far, so we’re kind of rocking with conflicting information here.
I’m making the correlation between the 13 month calendar and full, natural menstruation cycles lining up with it because these were both plausible, recorded, and even spiritually and traditionally esteemed phenomena throughout history. Is it possible that maybe because we adapted to the random-ass Gregorian calendar and started taking hormonal birth control that women’s cycle’s fell off-kilter and that’s why so many 21st century articles write off the correlation as a coincidence? OR, is the goal to get us as disconnected from our true power as much as possible? That’s crazy, right? Cause why would that even be?
I’ll let you come to your own conclusions, but to me, the Gregorian Calendar is so last year. (Get it?) I’ll make my resolutions in the Spring, the way nature intends, and when I do, hormonal birth control will also be on my OUT list. Thanks for reading my whacky wonderings. Love you so much.
Sources, studies and reading material:
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/menstrual-cycles-intermittently-sync-with-moon-cycles-study-68429
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abe1358?intcmp=trendmd-adv
https://theinternetsaysitstrue.com/2022/03/28/13-months-the-kodak-calendar-experiment/
https://www.healthline.com/health/womens-health/menstrual-cycle-and-the-moon#spiritual-traditions
https://www.drnorthrup.com/wisdom-of-menstrual-cycle/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8003924
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23528282/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19818527/