Last summer, before I set off on a two-month river trip on the Green River through Wyoming and Utah, I spent an obsessive amount of time going through my gear list. I debated base layers and nerded out over water treatment options, trying to guarantee that everything I packed was going to make my trip easier.
Some surprising things made long-term life in the canyons more pleasant (spray-on sunscreen and Pringles, for instance), but the one item that made the biggest difference wasn鈥檛 something I鈥檇 even considered when I was laying out drybags in my garage. Of all the feather-light, waterproof-breathable, high-tensile-strength pieces of gear I brought with me, I was most glad about my intrauterine device (). It鈥檚 a form of birth control that鈥檚 more than 99 percent effective at preventing pregnancy and lasts for five years. And for half of all women who use it, myself included, it eliminates monthly periods.
I didn鈥檛 get my period the whole two months I was gone. In the carefully calculated time-and-space Tetris of what I was bringing, where I was going to stop, and what I had to pack out with me, I didn鈥檛 have to in a remote Utah canyon.
There are . Likely number one: to prevent having a child they鈥檇 have to care for over the next 18 to forever years. Another important reason is to have control over their period鈥攌nowing when it鈥檚 coming, or if they鈥檙e going to have periods at all.
I don鈥檛 put much stock in the idea that men and women recreate differently. But since , and most dudes do not, it鈥檚 a dividing line that seems uncrossable. For women who do a lot of backpacking, raft trips, and other long-term outdoor activities, not getting your period makes things way easier.
To be clear, I don鈥檛 think periods change anyone鈥檚 athletic ability. And it鈥檚 not a safety thing. (I don鈥檛 think so, at least. Are we supposed to be worried about bears being attracted to the blood? Sharks? I can never remember.) But it is another major factor in the mental math of the backcountry鈥攇ear, garbage, and bodily functions. It鈥檚 added stress that an IUD eliminates.
Carrying around a bag of tampons soaked with uterine lining is not cool. Neither is trying to boil your DivaCup in your group鈥檚 ramen pot. Grossed out? That probably means you haven鈥檛 had to deal with it. It sucks, and not the sufferfest, it鈥檒l-be-a-good-story-later kind of suck. It鈥檚 the mundane, no-one-wants-to-hear-you-whine-about-it kind of suck.
Here鈥檚 the best advice the internet has on backcountry periods, courtesy of the : 鈥淏efore leaving home, you can make your own waste/biohazard bag by completely covering a zip-top plastic bag with duct tape and marking it with a skull and crossbones.鈥 It also advises keeping it in the bear hang. This is awkward, especially if you are traveling with anyone other than yourself. 鈥淪orry, bro, don鈥檛 mind my mystery pirate bag. I鈥檓 just going to stick it here next to your trail mix.鈥
I spent several summers leading backpacking trips with high school鈥揳ge kids who had been labeled 鈥渢roubled.鈥 Most had never been higher than a top-floor elevator, so we navigated them through everything about being outside and camping. The night before we headed into the mountains, we鈥檇 give them a personal hygiene talk, and inevitably one of the tweenage girls would pull me aside after the cat-hole jokes and quietly ask, 鈥淢iss, but what if鈥?鈥
is funny and easy to talk about. Periods are not. And the weird, awkward stress of can prevent people from going into the woods in the first place.
A 2016 study found that 51 percent of girls had stopped playing sports by the end of puberty. Periods aren鈥檛 the only reason for that, but they don鈥檛 help, especially if they鈥檙e coupled with a new, uncomfortable environment. I saw the girls tick through questions as they tried to figure out how to live in the backcountry. Am I different? Am I gross? What do I do with this? Where is the hand sanitizer?
Being able to remove your period takes away some of those questions. It gives you agency. And isn鈥檛 that what we鈥檙e trying to teach girls in all other areas of life?
, maybe more than it ever has been. At the root is the question of how women exert control over their bodies. When the , which will restrict access to birth control, I can鈥檛 imagine anyone was thinking about river trips or whether to put tampons in the bear hang. But that鈥檚 part of the fundamental problem with separating reproductive rights from any other kind of health care: it doesn鈥檛 line up with real life.
I take my whole body into the backcountry with me, and .