By Sahiba Bhatia

Originally published on 31 January 2018.

When I hear the term period sex, I am always reminded of an episode of Californication. The sultry writer Hank Moody and Mrs Patterson, his daughter Becca’s teacher, are getting hot and heavy when she suddenly interrupts their furious making out to tell him that she is on her period.

Hank, the naughty character that I was already growing to love, says something then that makes him even more appealing: “I don’t care about that.” And then they resume.

And now it looks like the (in)famous porn website PornHub agrees with Moody. PornHub is offering a monthly five-day free membership to women on their cycle. With a campaign aptly titled ‘Fuck Your Period’, the website hopes to help women dismiss the stigma that’s chained with sex when they’re red.

PornHub has made a scintillating advertising video which begins with the problems that women attach to period sex, and later moves on to how it is actually a good thing to pleasure yourself while you are experiencing a bloody crime scene in your underwear.  They’ve added that the dopamine (the feel-good hormone) level in your body increases when you orgasm and that, in turn, helps to ease the emotional and physical ordeal that you are undergoing.

For years, I was under the clichéd impression that sex during period was just impossible. That during this five-day duration, women all over the world were deprived of an orgasm although this was probably the exact period when they desperately needed some pleasurable solace.

Hank Moody (and now PornHub) may have charmed but, sadly, not a lot of men think like that. Many are grossed out by the thought of period sex.

So, the next time you want some when you can’t get some, just remember that it’s about time you start helping yourself.