
Period
The Real Story of Menstruation
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.57
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kate Clancy
-
By:
-
Kate Clancy
About this listen
This audiobook narrated by Kate Clancy shares a bold and revolutionary perspective on the science and cultural history of menstruation
Menstruation is something half the world does for a week at a time, for months and years on end, yet it remains largely misunderstood. Scientists once thought of an individual’s period as useless and some doctors still believe it’s unsafe for a menstruating person to swim in the ocean wearing a tampon. Period counters the false theories that have long defined the study of the uterus, exposing the eugenic history of gynecology while providing an intersectional feminist perspective on menstruation science.
Blending interviews and personal experience with engaging stories from her own pioneering research, Kate Clancy challenges many of the myths and false assumptions that have defined the study of the uterus. There is no such a thing as a “normal” menstrual cycle. In fact, menstrual cycles are incredibly variable and highly responsive to environmental and psychological stressors. Clancy takes up a host of timely issues surrounding menstruation, from bodily autonomy, menstrual hygiene, and the COVID-19 vaccine to the ways racism, sexism, and medical betrayal warp public perceptions of menstruation and erase it from public life.
Offering a revelatory new perspective on one of the most captivating biological processes in the human body, Period will change the way you think about the past, present, and future of periods.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Doppelganger
- A Trip into the Mirror World
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Naomi Klein
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you’d devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who.
-
-
Elite Psychobabble
- By A Reviewer on 09-30-23
By: Naomi Klein
-
The Poison Squad
- One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
- By: Deborah Blum
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the end of 19th century, food manufacturers had rushed to embrace the rise of industrial chemistry and were knowingly selling harmful products. Unchecked by government regulation, basic safety, or even labelling requirements, they put profit before health. Then, In 1883, Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, a chemistry professor from Purdue University, was named chief chemist of the agriculture department, and the agency began methodically investigating food and drink fraud, even conducting shocking human tests on groups of young men who came to be known as, "The Poison Squad".
-
-
Food Chemist
- By Lady K on 01-21-20
By: Deborah Blum
-
Democracy Awakening
- Notes on the State of America
- By: Heather Cox Richardson
- Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when the very foundations of American democracy seem under threat, the lessons of the past offer a road map for navigating a moment of political crisis. In Democracy Awakening, acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson delves into the tumultuous journey of American democracy, tracing the roots of Donald Trump’s “authoritarian experiment” to the earliest days of the republic.
-
-
We’d be in a much better position if everyone read this
- By Jeffrey Schwartz on 10-01-23
-
Superior
- The Return of Race Science
- By: Angela Saini
- Narrated by: Hannah Melbourn
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Superior tells the disturbing story of the persistent thread of belief in biological racial differences in the world of science. If the vast majority of scientists and scholars disavowed these ideas and considered race a social construct, it was an idea that still managed to somehow survive in the way scientists thought about human variation and genetics. Dissecting the statements and work of contemporary scientists studying human biodiversity, Angela Saini shows us how, again and again, even mainstream scientists cling to the idea that race is biologically real.
-
-
Lots of great info, underwhelming narrative
- By Amazon Customer on 04-08-21
By: Angela Saini
-
Womb
- The Inside Story of Where We All Began
- By: Leah Hazard
- Narrated by: Leah Hazard
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The size of a clenched fist and the shape of a light bulb—with no less power and potential. Every person on Earth began inside a uterus, but how much do we really understand about the womb? Bringing together medical history, scientific discoveries, and journalistic exploration, Leah Hazard embarks on a journey in search of answers about the body’s most miraculous and contentious organ.
-
-
I enjoyed the level of insight the author has acquired about female environment both external and internally
- By Anonymous User on 01-07-25
By: Leah Hazard
-
The Joy of Sweat
- The Strange Science of Perspiration
- By: Sarah Everts
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sweating may be one of our weirdest biological functions, but it’s also one of our most vital and least understood. In The Joy of Sweat, Sarah Everts delves into its role in the body - and in human history. Everts’ entertaining investigation takes listeners around the world - from Moscow, where she participates in a dating event in which people sniff sweat in search of love, to New Jersey, where companies hire trained armpit sniffers to assess the efficacy of their anti-sweat products. Along the way, Everts traces humanity’s long quest to control sweat.
-
-
Quirky topic, but engaging
- By K. Bachelor on 05-02-22
By: Sarah Everts
-
Doppelganger
- A Trip into the Mirror World
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Naomi Klein
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you’d devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who.
-
-
Elite Psychobabble
- By A Reviewer on 09-30-23
By: Naomi Klein
-
The Poison Squad
- One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
- By: Deborah Blum
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the end of 19th century, food manufacturers had rushed to embrace the rise of industrial chemistry and were knowingly selling harmful products. Unchecked by government regulation, basic safety, or even labelling requirements, they put profit before health. Then, In 1883, Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, a chemistry professor from Purdue University, was named chief chemist of the agriculture department, and the agency began methodically investigating food and drink fraud, even conducting shocking human tests on groups of young men who came to be known as, "The Poison Squad".
-
-
Food Chemist
- By Lady K on 01-21-20
By: Deborah Blum
-
Democracy Awakening
- Notes on the State of America
- By: Heather Cox Richardson
- Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when the very foundations of American democracy seem under threat, the lessons of the past offer a road map for navigating a moment of political crisis. In Democracy Awakening, acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson delves into the tumultuous journey of American democracy, tracing the roots of Donald Trump’s “authoritarian experiment” to the earliest days of the republic.
-
-
We’d be in a much better position if everyone read this
- By Jeffrey Schwartz on 10-01-23
-
Superior
- The Return of Race Science
- By: Angela Saini
- Narrated by: Hannah Melbourn
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Superior tells the disturbing story of the persistent thread of belief in biological racial differences in the world of science. If the vast majority of scientists and scholars disavowed these ideas and considered race a social construct, it was an idea that still managed to somehow survive in the way scientists thought about human variation and genetics. Dissecting the statements and work of contemporary scientists studying human biodiversity, Angela Saini shows us how, again and again, even mainstream scientists cling to the idea that race is biologically real.
-
-
Lots of great info, underwhelming narrative
- By Amazon Customer on 04-08-21
By: Angela Saini
-
Womb
- The Inside Story of Where We All Began
- By: Leah Hazard
- Narrated by: Leah Hazard
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The size of a clenched fist and the shape of a light bulb—with no less power and potential. Every person on Earth began inside a uterus, but how much do we really understand about the womb? Bringing together medical history, scientific discoveries, and journalistic exploration, Leah Hazard embarks on a journey in search of answers about the body’s most miraculous and contentious organ.
-
-
I enjoyed the level of insight the author has acquired about female environment both external and internally
- By Anonymous User on 01-07-25
By: Leah Hazard
-
The Joy of Sweat
- The Strange Science of Perspiration
- By: Sarah Everts
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sweating may be one of our weirdest biological functions, but it’s also one of our most vital and least understood. In The Joy of Sweat, Sarah Everts delves into its role in the body - and in human history. Everts’ entertaining investigation takes listeners around the world - from Moscow, where she participates in a dating event in which people sniff sweat in search of love, to New Jersey, where companies hire trained armpit sniffers to assess the efficacy of their anti-sweat products. Along the way, Everts traces humanity’s long quest to control sweat.
-
-
Quirky topic, but engaging
- By K. Bachelor on 05-02-22
By: Sarah Everts
-
Eve
- How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
- By: Cat Bohannon
- Narrated by: Cat Bohannon
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why do women live longer than men? Why do women have menopause? Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer’s? Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly their scores plummet? And does the female brain really exist? In Eve, Cat Bohannon answers questions scientists should have been addressing for decades. With boundless curiosity and sharp wit, she covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex.
-
-
Stronger on reproductive bio, flimsy on sexuality
- By curiouscolugo on 12-20-23
By: Cat Bohannon
-
Fuzz
- When Nature Breaks the Law
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Mary Roach
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.
-
-
The footnotes
- By Alex on 09-24-21
By: Mary Roach
-
Bitch
- On the Female of the Species
- By: Lucy Cooke
- Narrated by: Lucy Cooke
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Studying zoology made Lucy Cooke feel like a sad freak. Not because she loved spiders or would root around in animal feces: All her friends shared the same curious kinks. The problem was her sex. Being female meant she was, by nature, a loser. Since Charles Darwin, evolutionary biologists have been convinced that the males of the animal kingdom are the interesting ones—dominating and promiscuous, while females are dull, passive, and devoted. But Cooke tells a new story.
-
-
So entertaining
- By Jackie on 03-05-23
By: Lucy Cooke
-
Spillover
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 20 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia - but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. David Quammen tracks this subject around the world.
-
-
Fascinating, but not Riveting
- By L. M. Roberts on 03-08-14
By: David Quammen
-
The Patriarchs
- The Origins of Inequality
- By: Angela Saini
- Narrated by: Sohm Kapila
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For fans of Sapiens and The Dawn of Everything, a groundbreaking exploration of gendered oppression—its origins, its histories, our attempts to understand it, and our efforts to combat it.
-
-
Patriarchys over time and space
- By Lynda Dickson on 12-22-23
By: Angela Saini
-
Nine Nasty Words
- English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever
- By: John McWhorter
- Narrated by: John McWhorter
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Profanity has always been a deliciously vibrant part of our lexicon, an integral part of being human. In fact, our ability to curse comes from a different part of the brain than other parts of speech - the urgency with which we say "f--k!" is instead related to the instinct that tells us to flee from danger. Language evolves with time, and so does what we consider profane or unspeakable. Nine Nasty Words is a rollicking examination of profanity, explored from every angle: historical, sociological, political, linguistic.
-
-
Wonderful book!
- By BrittPet on 06-25-21
By: John McWhorter
-
Drinking
- A Love Story
- By: Caroline Knapp
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifteen million Americans a year are plagued with alcoholism. Five million of them are women. Many of them, like Caroline Knapp, started in their early teens and began to use alcohol as "liquid armor", a way to protect themselves against the difficult realities of life. In this extraordinarily candid and revealing memoir, Knapp offers important insights not only about alcoholism, but about life itself and how we learn to cope with it.
-
-
The Big Picture of Alcohol Dependence
- By Karen K on 07-26-16
By: Caroline Knapp
-
Period Power
- By: Maisie Hill
- Narrated by: Maisie Hill
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Period Power is a profound but practical blueprint for aligning daily life with the menstrual cycle, to give all menstruators a no-nonsense explanation of what the hell happens to us every month and how we can use each phase to its full advantage. Ninety per cent of people who have periods experience symptoms of PMS, a syndrome which features a wide range of signs and symptoms, and yet there's an enduring lack of understanding about what it actually is and a disappointingly meagre range of treatment options.
-
-
This book is LIFE-CHANGING
- By Maggie Devers on 06-19-19
By: Maisie Hill
-
Outlive
- The Science and Art of Longevity
- By: Peter Attia MD, Bill Gifford - contributor
- Narrated by: Peter Attia MD
- Length: 17 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.
-
-
Too Much Filler
- By J. Badaracco on 04-09-23
By: Peter Attia MD, and others
-
Get Well Soon
- History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them
- By: Jennifer Wright
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1518, in a small town in Alsace, Frau Troffea began dancing and didn't stop. She danced until she was carried away six days later, and soon 34 more villagers joined her. Then more. In a month more than 400 people had been stricken by the mysterious dancing plague. In late-19th-century England an eccentric gentleman founded the No Nose Club in his gracious townhome - a social club for those who had lost their noses, and other body parts, to the plague of syphilis for which there was then no cure.
-
-
Didn't know syphilis could be so fascinating.
- By Kindle Customer on 02-09-17
By: Jennifer Wright
-
This Is Your Brain on Birth Control
- How the Pill Changes Everything
- By: Sarah Hill
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This paradigm-shattering book provides an even-handed, science-based understanding of who women are, both on and off the pill. It will change the way that women think about their hormones and how they view themselves. It also serves as a rallying cry for women to demand more information from science about how their bodies and brains work and to advocate for better research. This book will help women make more informed decisions about their health, whether they're on the pill or off of it.
-
-
Alright.
- By brenda on 01-18-20
By: Sarah Hill
-
Raw Dog
- The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs
- By: Jamie Loftus
- Narrated by: Jamie Loftus
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hot dogs. Poor people created them. Rich people found a way to charge fifteen dollars for them. They’re high culture, they’re low culture, they’re sports food, they’re kids' food, they’re hangover food, and they’re deeply American, despite having no basis whatsoever in America's Indigenous traditions. You can love them, you can hate them, but you can’t avoid the great American hot dog. Raw Dog is part investigation into the cultural and culinary significance of hot dogs and part travelogue documenting a cross-country road trip researching them as they’re served today.
-
-
Not really about hot dogs
- By Amazon Customer on 06-25-23
By: Jamie Loftus
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Period
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- tetrahymena
- 07-01-24
An excellent book with mostly solid informa
The book provides a good summary of the biology, mythology, and cultural traditions surrounding menstruation. It is an excellent source of basic information in a world replete with false beliefs and misogynistic ideas about the process. It dispels the idea that there must be a "normal" period and that any woman who deviates from the norm is ill and in need of hormone therapy, and the book links the origin of this thinking to the discredited eugenics movement. Although it gets a bit off track toward the end with a few bits that extend beyond what can be said, the overall structure of the book is well done, readable, and a good starting point for information on a biological function half the world engages in.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- HaHaHannah
- 06-13-23
Incredibly Informative
I’m not sure why this book has a low rating. I listened to it on 1.5x in less than a day. The way she goes into detail of the science of menstruation keeps me satisfied without being overly esoteric. And the history of science in women’s studies is so eye-opening and explains so much about the public lack of knowledge on menstruation. Fantastic work
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!