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Menstruation And Social Norms

In most every culture, having sex during a woman's menstruation is considered a serious taboo. Because of these built-in social norms, most women approach the idea of having sex during the menstrual flow as one worthy of embarrassment and disgust. But not everyone feels this way.

Forbidden Fruit

Some couples have no problem with having sex during menstruation. There are couples who even find it preferable to have sex during this time. For one thing, forbidden fruit is somehow tastier: the thought of sex during a forbidden time is exciting—the ultimate turn on.

But you're not going to find a lot of couples willing to admit they indulge during the woman's period. It's only natural that those couples who are willing to talk about their predilection insist that there's nothing wrong with the sex act during menstruation. The only glitch, so they say, is that things are a bit messier at this time.

From the woman's point of view, there is an entrenched belief, stemming from the time of young adulthood, that menstrual blood is somehow unclean or even dirty. Of course, from a factual point of view, menstrual blood is just another body fluid. There's no logical reason to label this substance as bad or dirty. 

As far as the medical community goes, no doctor has ever found anything deleterious about engaging in intercourse during a woman's period. Even oral sex would not be unhealthy or dangerous at this time. Of course, menstrual blood can transmit sexually transmitted diseases (STD's) like HIV. For this reason, a condom is the safest way to have sex at this or any other time of the month, even though the possibility of pregnancy is quite low during menstruation.

Research suggests that 83% of those women who have sex during their menses have a heavier blood flow, while 90% of women who refrain from having sex during this time have lighter flows. Some studies have also found that a woman has a higher sex drive during the time she menstruates.

Relieves Cramps

Are there physical advantages to sex during menstruation? It appears that there is a benefit: pelvic pain and cramps are relieved by engaging in sex and the female climax can be very beneficial in reducing such symptoms.

Perhaps the most important benefit for some women is that it's near impossible to become pregnant while having your period. It's not an absolute, but the physical setting is not conducive for egg fertilization. Since the menses, by definition, is the time when the lining of the uterus and the eggs are being shed, becoming pregnant at this time would be a very faraway possibility.