How the Female Menstrual Cycle Reflects The Image of God and the Gospel Story
The female menstrual cycle is not usually talked about concerning God, and many women feel like they shouldn’t talk about it at all. This has an immense impact on the self-esteem and body image of the female population when their body goes through a process every month that they are expected to hide, pretend is not happening, or feel shameful about. I believe that God has a deeper purpose for the female menstrual cycle that we are missing. In shaming and silencing talk about women's menstrual cycles, could it be that we are missing a crucial opportunity for women and men to have a deeper understanding of scripture, theology and ourselves? I believe so.
In this post, I am going to walk through the three phases of the female menstrual cycle and highlight how this process reflects the image of God and the story of the Gospel. This may seem like a post written just for women, but it certainly is not. I believe this information is just as significant for men as it is for women because it teaches us more about who God is and has the potential to bring even more meaning to the passages of scripture that are so central to our faith.
The Menstrual Cycle
The female menstrual cycle has three phases, the follicular phase, days 1-14, ovulation, day 14, and the Luteal Phase, days 14-28. Before we go through each phase I want to set the stage by pointing out what the cycle is all about. The menstrual cycle is a process, and every process has an end goal in mind. The process of the menstrual cycle is all about the EGG.
Preparation (The Follicular Phase)
The goal of the first phase of the menstrual cycle, the follicular phase, is all about preparing for the egg. In the menstrual cycle, this process begins with a message sent from the brain, the pituitary gland, sends hormone messages through the bloodstream to the ovaries, telling them to produce the hormone estrogen. Estrogen then sends a message to the Endometrium (which is in the uterus) to grow tiny blood vessels and glands. The endometrium continues to build up each day in preparation to provide nutrients to the egg when it arrives.
The Arrival (Ovulation)
In the process of the menstrual cycle, Ovulation is when the egg arrives. At this point, a chosen egg is released from an ovary and guided by finger like structures into the fallopian tube. To become fertilized, there needs to be sperm waiting in the fallopian tube and when one sperm joins with it, it becomes fertilized and new life is created. The egg will only wait for one day (24 hours) to be fertilized, and then whether it is fertilized or not, it will journey three more days to travel through the fallopian tube to the uterus.
Death or New Life (Luteal Phase)
While the egg is on its way down the fallopian tube, the pituitary gland tells the ovaries to make a hormone called progesterone, which tells the glands and blood vessels to pour out their fluid into the endometrium so that nutrients are prepared for the egg when it arrives. If the egg is fertilized it will attach to the wall of the endometrium and will feed off of the blood and nutrients that were prepared. If the egg is not fertilized, all of the blood and nutrients created for the egg will break down and be removed from the woman’s body in the form of menstrual bleeding. This bleeding then begins the next menstrual cycle.
The Image of God Reflected in the Menstrual Cycle
The menstrual cycle process resembles Christ pouring out his blood to create new life for the world (John 19: 34). The female body is set to a continuous self-giving cycle every month for the sole purpose of creating and feeding another being. In this process of the menstrual cycle, the female body reflects the Holy Trinity’s strength in forbearance and vulnerability. When the cycle does not complete with a fertilized egg, all of the blood and nutrients created for the baby are poured out, they are not used for anything else. When we give of ourselves to others, such as the female body does in the menstrual cycle, we are physically weaker because of it, but this is not a deficiency of the human body. Vulnerability through the act of forbearance is the aspect of the human body that most clearly reflects God’s character. Both men and women can choose to reflect this, but the menstrual cycle was created to reflect this truth on its own.
When Christ commands us to drink his blood and eat his body it alludes to a fetus being fed by the blood of their mother and protected by her body(John 6:53-57). In Jesus Christ’s willingness to sacrifice himself on the cross and carry the sins of the world as his own, we find the ultimate example of forbearance; Christ bore our sins and suffered death for the sake of community with us (Isaiah 53:4-5, 1 Peter 2:24). The act of forbearance demands strength, but not in the way the world thinks of strength; it is strength acted on through vulnerability. Christ's forbearance on the cross was powered by love, and acts of love demand vulnerability. Christ's strength in his vulnerability allowed him to make the ultimate sacrifice, leading to the creation of the ultimate community; the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-13). In the same way that a mother’s body and blood give her baby everything it needs physically to grow in the womb, so also do we receive everything we need for our spiritual life from the blood and body of Christ Jesus our Lord .
““Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” ”
