January 2, 2025 • 42 mins
"Anything you can do, I can do bleeding." - Marley
There are unique challenges to cycling as a person with a uterus, and we're here to talk about it!
This episode we cover cycling while pregnant, and cycling while on your period. Marley and Ellen are joined by Ellen's friend and fellow parent-commuter cyclist, Rachel Epler, to discuss the disparate data, anecdotes, and advice—plus your questions related to both topics.
Disclaimer: We aren't doctors! Every pregnancy, period, and person is different. Talk to a trusted medical provider if or when it's your turn to make these decisions.
Resources:
Opening song: Female Body by Farideh (@Farideh on TikTok, Insta, YouTube). Listen on YouTube.
We discussed several period underwear brands, but upon closer inspection not all of them as size-inclusive as we remembered. We're sorry for not catching this before recording! We later found Ruby (up to 8x), Tomboyx (up to 6x), and The Period Co (up to 6x). Brands mentioned are Boody (up to 3x), Thinx (up to 4x), and Knix (up to 4x).
Marley previously wrote about cycling while on your period for Cascade Bicycle Club
New Zealand politician Julie Anne Genter cycles to hospital to give birth.
As always, follow @AllBodiesOnBikes to tell us what you think!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey Marley.
(00:01):
Hey Ellen.
I'm gonna play a song for you.
Okay,
Morning sickness, endometriosis,menopause, migraines, PCOS.
What's happening to your body?
We don't know, cause we've neverreally studied the female body.
Female body.
Say it's all in my head, butthe research is quite spotty.
No, we've never reallystudied the female body.
(00:23):
Go to the doctor, get dismissed.
Try losing weight, you're just anxious.
That's fine, that's cool, I'm not pissed.
Just wait ten years for a diagnosis.
Psychosomatic, you're so dramatic.
Hysterical, emotional, hormonal, erratic.
Heart disease, chronic fatigue,depression and anxiety.
(00:46):
Do you have pain?
No, you don't.
Cause we've never reallystudied the female body.
Female body.
More mysterious than the Illuminati.
No, we've never reallystudied the female body.
It's just like a man's body but with boobs
I love it the female body.
(01:06):
It's just like a man's body with boobswith boobs with boobs just with boobs
It's not like we don't know this but wehave a great episode coming up we wanted
to record a quick little intro to it, butwe've never really studied the female body
and what we've noticed is that there's nota lot of resources out there for people
who are cycling with uteruses, who aretrying to figure out how to be comfortable
(01:28):
on a ride or what to do differently.
So, how does that song make you feel?
It's funny, but it makes meangry because it's so true.
And I think about,, what I went throughover the years super heavy periods to.
Mental health issues to just weird stuff.
And I haven't even had a baby.
As far as like female bodies go, mine'spretty simple, like straightforward body
(01:50):
and still like getting doctors to takeyou seriously is really challenging.
I appreciate that shepresented it in a humorous way.
was farideh on Instagram, by theway, in case you haven't heard
that song yet, but I thought it waswildly accurate and very affirmative.
It is.
It is.
So as you'll hear on this episode, wetalk about all things cycling with the
uterus from being pregnant to dealingwith your period., and just a quick
(02:11):
caveat here, you'll hear us have adiscussion about period underwear and a
couple of the brands that we talk about.
Turned out to be not as size inclusive aswe had hoped when we were researching it.
So we've put some additionalbrands that go up to bigger
plus sizes in the show notes.
Yep.
And so that's just a small call outthere, we apologize for that, but
you got to do your research becausesometimes even if it says it's a two X.
(02:33):
That size chart mightnot actually be a 2x.
Yeah, that would not be a fun thingto have show up in your mailbox.
No.
Hoping for an Excel that's truly Excel.
Yeah.
So, agreed.
But yes, we've got links to some that aremore site inclusive in the show notes.
We hope you check those out.
Yeah.
Hope you enjoy the episode.
That's right.
Here we go.
A little intro music and thenyou'll hear us with our guest.
(02:56):
Welcome to all bodies on bikes.
The podcast where allbodies are good buddies.
All bikes are good bikes andall rides are celebrated.
All bodies on bikes is a movementto create and foster a radically
inclusive bike community.
So join your hosts.
I'm Ellen and I'm Marley.
As we explore.
Explore the complexitiesof the biking world.
Help us break down barriers andcreate the world that we want to see.
(03:18):
And don't forget that all bodiesreally means all bodies, not just
larger bodies, but bodies of allsizes, ages, races, abilities,
genders, sexualities, and beyond.
Come along for the ride.
Today we are talking about ridingwhile pregnant and we are also,
(03:39):
because it's wildly related, goingto talk about riding on your period.
So I recruited my friend and neighborand all around wonderful person, Rachel
Epler, who is here with me in Kansas City.
She's my neighbor, she is a businessdirector at a local hospital system and
a master gardener, and she also has akid who's similar to my kid's age and
another kid who's a, she, your baby,God, she's not really a baby anymore,
(04:03):
but she's not, is she 18 months?
Twenty.
Yeah.
Twenty months!
We both wrote while we were pregnantand now we are riding with children.
And our periods have been with us sincewe have been mature people with uteruses.
So, I will say, though, before we jumpinto things, while we are talking about
health related things, not a singleone of us on this call is a doctor.
(04:24):
And every pregnancy is unique.
And every kid is unique.
And every period is unique.
So, grains of salt all around, but we'rehoping to just kind of talk through a
lot of this, because as Marley learned,and as I learned when I was pregnant,
and as Rachel, you might have learnedor not there's not a central spot on the
internet that feels has brought all ofthis together, let alone, you know, is
(04:46):
an agreement on what should happen whileyou are cycling while bleeding, cycling
while pregnant, or cycling with kids.
So, yeah.
Hi, Rachel.
That was a long winded way of sayinghello and welcome to the show.
Hi, thanks for having me.
You might notice that Ellenis being very intentional with
the language that we are using.
We have not said cyclingwhile being a woman.
(05:06):
We We're specifically saying cyclingwith a uterus or riding with a uterus
because we know that people of all genderexpressions have uteruses and experience
pregnancy and experience periods.
So that is a very intentionalchoice on our part.
And we can get into that later ifwe want to, but just wanted to point
that out at the top of the show.
Yes.
A valid point.
I I do identify, I don't know if I'veactually said my pronouns on this show.
(05:29):
I identify as she, her.
And Rachel, do you wantto share yours too?
Also she, her.
And Marley, she, her as well.
But I have a lot offriends who are non binary.
I even have a couple friends who usehe, him pronouns and are transgender
men who have given birth in theirassigned female at birth bodies.
So this runs the specter of humanity andwe're excited to talk about it today.
(05:50):
So this was, Marley, when you askedme what, all bodies meant to me, this
was, the first thing I said, becauseit's one of the ways that I think
I have felt outside of the cyclingworld during my cycling experience.
I was pregnant in 2020, which isright when I moved back from living
in London, and like you do whenyou're early pregnant, you Google
(06:10):
all the things, you have suddenlydeveloped A freckle on your left cheek,
and is this related to pregnancy?
And the internet doesn't fucking know.
So, I googled, it's like, hey, isit okay to ride while I'm pregnant?
And I asked my doctor too.
The internet , because I waskind of in this nebulous zone
between London and the U.
S., Europe is like, yes, this isa wildly healthy way of staying
(06:32):
active while you're pregnant.
It's really good for your joints.
And in the U.
S.
and from my doctor, it was a whole lotof, oh my God, please be very careful.
Do not write after acertain point in time.
And so I felt very confused.
And so Rachel, I don't know if youwant to share how, what, if you
felt similarly when you started
yeah.
So I probably am going to mix up.
(06:52):
The experiences between twopregnancies, because I don't know,
it all runs together at this point.
But there was one big change betweenthe first pregnancy and the second
pregnancy, which was we got ane bike from my second pregnancy.
So that really changed the game.
But when I got pregnantwith my first, I was.
commuting the six or so milesinto the office at that point.
(07:17):
Not every day, but at least once a week.
And it's a pretty strenuous ride.
Kansas City is really hilly.
And and so it was one of myprimary forms of exercise as well
as, using it for transportation.
And similarly my midwife.
She was actually all for it.
She was, you know, thisis a great exercise.
You should keep up, doit as long as you want.
(07:39):
And then my.
My biking story includes havingvisited Amsterdam in 2017, and I have
a friend that lives there that hasa couple of kids, and so I kind of
leaned on her, and what's the norm?
I mean, apparently in Amsterdam, peoplejust, they will baby wear while they bike.
I did not try that..
For me, because it wasn'tclear in terms of Googling.
(08:01):
There wasn't like a standard.
I stopped when I felt the danger ofme, if I fell off the bike would have
been significant to the baby, but likewhen I got really big, basically, and I
got, I got big, my belly, I'm a petiteperson, my belly came out pretty far.
my center of gravity on the bike atsome point, Probably just a little
(08:23):
past the like into the second trimesterbecause it gets cold here so I didn't
ride in winter and then I don'tthink I picked it up again when it
got warm in the spring because I waseight months pregnant at that point.
That was going to be one of my questionswas about how your center of gravity and
how your body physically has to changeand adapt to riding while pregnant.
(08:43):
And I imagine, this is a broad overgeneralization and simplification,
but thinking about in Europe, youknow, so many more upright Dutch style
bikes seems like that would be moreaccommodating to a growing belly you
know, as a person who lives in a fat body.
I know that I.
Much prefer to be upright becausemy knees don't hit my belly.
But I'm curious what you, both of yourexperiences were you know, feeling your
(09:05):
body change and did you have to changethe position you ride in on your bicycle?
So I'm very strictly for leisureor, you know, previously.
For commuting, and I guess I take mykids now commuting to daycare, but so
upright was my preferred mode as well.
You know, my, my spouse, my husband ismuch more of a writing for sport sort,
(09:32):
and so he has like the more road bikes.
And so it more changed the balanceequation because I wasn't pitched forward,
but You know, getting onto the bike is alot harder when you're trying to adjust
for you know, you see those Instagrams,like where people have like the
watermelon strapped to the front of them.
(09:53):
I mean, that's, it's actually a veryeffective analogy for what being pregnant
is cause it's just like 10 pounds outin front of you, like your, your body
is constantly trying to adjust for it.
I mean, not only are they veryentertaining, but yeah, I'm
sure very educational to thepartners that are trying it out.
But so imagine, you know, tryingto get on a bike with a watermelon.
(10:15):
Watermelon strapped to the front of you.
But luckily, you know, at the beginning itwas only like, It was only a mini melon.
And so, I think one of the more limitingfactors was like in my first trimester in
both pregnancies, I had pretty significantmorning sickness and that lasted all day.
And so I just didn't want to,didn't feel like getting off the
(10:36):
couch, let alone getting on a bike.
So, yeah, totally possible to work around.
Oh, I will say one otherthing with the body.
changes is I did feel like one ofthe weird things about pregnancy
is it like makes you more awkward.
Because your joints are like literallyloosening to accommodate having this
baby, so your joints are loosening andyour center of gravity is thrown off.
(10:59):
And that did affect my confidencewhile cycling because I didn't feel as
confident in like my reaction times.
You kind of couldn't trust thatyour body, if you were to set your
foot down really fast, is thatsuddenly going to roll your ankle?
Yeah.
Or , I've unfortunately countless timeshave people like back out of their
driveways really fast and and so, youknow, like having to make that kind
of fast adjustments or like where youhave to swerve or change course really
(11:23):
fast, because of like that insecurity,I think I chose different routes or
maybe didn't take on as ambitiousrides because I wasn't as confident
that matches a lot of what I was like,what happened to me, I felt fine.
Thank God through my whole pregnancy.
So I was on my, I was on a drop handlebarbike until the winter and then didn't
(11:45):
ride over the winter and then like overI was probably like second trimester
basically through the winter becausemy kid was born in mid June and so then
by the time winter ended I have a verydifferent shaped body and so I think I
just switched over more to the bike sharebikes here which are the like yeah the
drop the step through and it's an e bikewhich all made a huge difference but
(12:08):
so I guess I don't think I had to evenattempt to get on my My road bike while
I had a watermelon metaphorically slashliterally strapped like very permanently
strapped to me at that point in time.
I feel like I would haveprobably just bumped the top
bar with my belly at that point.
So one of the funny thingswas in my second pregnancy,
(12:30):
we had an e bike at that time.
But I also had a two year old.
And so, and we worked together.
commuting her into her daycare school.
And it was really important to me to keepdoing that because it was like such a
special time together, you know, and likeaware of the fact that this was like a
limited time of her being an only child.
And but she had a front mounted seat.
(12:52):
And so, in the second pregnancy,like the seat got in the way.
Oh, and you also get, well, I gotmany people get much bigger, much
faster in your second pregnancy.
And so like I looked like five monthspregnant before I was out of my first
trimester in my second pregnancy.
And so like my belly wasalready like out there.
And so my belly was like in the mixwith her seat and then you had the knees.
(13:16):
And so I think if we hadn't had thee bike making it the whole experience
much easier, I don't know that I.
Sure.
I had to fight through it.
Yeah, that's a good tip though,for folks who are considering
biking while pregnant is an e bikedoes make things so much easier.
I mean, even if you're not pregnant,e bikes make everything easier.
So I didn't get my e bike untilI was post pregnancy and I
(13:39):
promise it makes a difference.
So I've never been pregnant and ebikes make a difference in my life.
So, right.
But I think Quick summary thatlike, as far as even just like
thinking through what all we justtalked about changing on our bikes.
So it's we moved out of the drophandlebars just because to accommodate
the literal water, we're justgoing to call a baby a watermelon
for the rest of this whole podcastto accommodate the watermelon.
(14:00):
But then also I think I raised.
My handlebars, even on my e bike, on myother, I didn't have an e bike yet, but
it's just raised them up to even getme even a little bit further up, right?
And then, I would, I would have donethis on my road bike, I think, but
my hips got so wide towards the lasttrimester, the, the e bikes here, the
ride a chair bikes here are wide and thatwas actually part of why I was able to
(14:23):
keep riding my road bike seat was supernarrow and probably wouldn't have worked.
Yeah, you definitely want a wide seat.
Yeah.
Cause your hips just, like you said,like everything just gets bigger.
Spreads out.
You need a little bit more cushion.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm sure there are peoplethat do it on the road bike
seat, but I, I was not a hero.
(14:44):
Okay.
And this might be a dumb question.
I have maybe a dumb question for bothof you having never been pregnant.
At what point in pregnancy do your hipsstart widening and you start to that?
Like it would benoticeable on a bike seat.
What, at what point is that this isvery much where I will re underline.
We are not doctors.
But I'm thinking it's kind ofwhen the baby drops I'd expect.
(15:06):
Cause that's then whenRachel shook her head.
No.
It starts much earlier, so that'sthere's there's a hormone like
relaxin or something like that.
And I think it's it peaks inthe 3rd trimester, but to
have it in the 2nd for sure.
It starts loosening all of those joints.
And so it's very.
very subtle.
So I don't know, again, that theinternet agrees with you from the bump.
(15:32):
com.
Most commonly it'll begin in themiddle of the second trimester.
So probably like around week 20.
Yeah.
I think whether or not you notice dependson, your shape and size beforehand.
And and if you've had pregnanciesbefore, like I didn't notice it
as much the second pregnancy.
Cause my body had already gonethrough those changes and yeah,
(15:52):
so I think it kind of depends.
Interesting.
And I think, too, the the rule ofthumb there would be, like, if it
starts to be uncomfortable and painful,it means something needs to change.
Your body, you can't change yourbody whether you are pregnant right
now or bigger bodied all the time.
So, if it hurts, it's wrong.
So what's a good rule of thumb,regardless of if you're pregnant or
(16:12):
not, like cycling should not be painful.
It's not supposed to feel like sittingon a couch and like super comfortable,
but you should not be in pain,especially once you get off the bike.
And definitely just want toreiterate that for other, for folks
who are not in pregnant bodies.
So, I have a question.
Oh, sorry.
Go ahead, Rachel.
Yeah, go ahead.
Oh, I'm in the water with that.
But one of the weird just likedisagreements of medical advice
(16:35):
is like, For those that have beenpregnant, you sometimes experience
something called round ligamentpain, which is not nearly descriptive
enough for how painful it actually is.
The internet term forit is lightning crotch.
And so that's one of thosethings that's it is painful.
(16:55):
It's usually like quick spasm, butactivity can aggravate it because
you're stretching those ligamentsmore, but at least my midwife was
like, don't stop being active in thatcase, like play through the pain.
, I just Googled round ligament painand it sounds like it's like short
painful spasms which is differentthan I guess the pain that I'm
thinking of when you're on your bike.
(17:15):
You know, if your genitals are goingnumb or your hands, your feet are
going numb, like those are clearsigns that something in your setup
and your fit is not working for you.
But I'd never heard ofround ligament pain.
I'm learning all sorts of things today.
Pregnancy is wild.
The opening credits song thatwe played was we've never
really studied the female body.
And I think that it like justembodies the frustration that
(17:39):
people who have female bodies.
We didn't even test period products,with period blood until last year.
That is so wild to me because growingup, when I would see those commercials
for hygiene products and they werelike pouring the blood, I was like, my
period blood doesn't look like that.
It's not Liquidy, I guess.
And I thought there wassomething wrong with me.
(18:02):
And turns out, no, it was just, uh,the advertising, advertising and the,
the patriarchy taking over yet again.
But I really thought therewas something wrong with me.
Oh, that's sad.
To anyone who is just getting their periodlistening to this show, it is not liquid
blue any time, at any point in time.
Well, I knew it wasn't the sweet blue,but like that, that very viscous yeah,
(18:26):
almost watery type substance, so.
Postpartum periods are Wild.
At least mine have been to where itis not what I thought that it's like.
Well, plus I was coming off of, this isthe tmmi part of the show coming off of
Marina Coil where you have a dribble of aperiod and then pregnant where you don't
have a period and then postpartum where itlike newly postpartum is wild and you're
(18:48):
literally like, at least I was wearing.
adult diapers to keep everything in check.
And then when I finally did get my periodback, it was like Niagara Falls, which
I hadn't dealt with in a long time.
And even still, they're way heavier thanany period I had before I was pregnant.
So it's, it's an easysegue into the period talk.
I still have some pregnancyrelated questions.
(19:09):
Okay.
And, we asked Instagram, we put abox up on Instagram and we wanted
to get to those questions too.
Cause there are lots ofgood ones in there too.
So, okay.
That was a preview of the second half.
I want to talk a little bit about likethe cultural norms around riding your
bike while pregnant because as I wasresearching for this show, I found a
lot of anecdotal stuff from Europe,from New Zealand, you know, the prime
(19:30):
minister what was her actual title?
I wrote this down.
She was the women's minister.
in New Zealand rode herself to thehospital at 42 weeks to deliver her baby.
And to be fair, she wasnot actively in labor.
She rode there to get an induction.
But she was just like, yeah, this isa normal part of our everyday life.
And sure.
It made news probably becauseshe was the minister for women.
(19:51):
And their prime minister, Jacinda Ardernhad given birth a couple of months before
a couple of months after, so motherhoodand,, politics were in the news a lot.
But my question is, it seems to bea totally normal part of life in
Europe and other parts where cyclingis just part of everyday life.
I'm wondering if, youknow, because in the U.
S.
(20:12):
cycling is viewed as sport so much, ifthat's why there's such a stigma around it
or people kind of freak out when they hearabout pregnant people riding their bikes.
Curious to hear you two'sopinion and take on that.
Well, I don't know how to get into thiswithout immediately going super political,
but I think the part of it has to dowith kind of this cultural American idea
(20:34):
that when you are pregnant, like yourmost important and really only job is
as a vessel for your child, your infant.
And so all decisions need to kindof be made with the safety and
priority of your fetus and mind.
And so in cycling, because itisn't, A cultural norm here, it is
(20:58):
thankfully getting safer, but it isnot seen as a super safe activity.
Especially not road cyclingyou know, our commuting.
And so I think people kind ofhave this idea that if you are.
Riding your bike while pregnant,you're needlessly putting
your unborn child in danger.
It's just that a cultural patriarchal.
(21:22):
It's with everything else.
Yeah, I will.
I second all of that.
My brain went more into the.
built environment and what thesafety truly looks like in the U.
S.
versus Europe, to where cyclingin the Netherlands is, there is a
divided bike lane, any direction,any street, no matter what.
(21:43):
And so it's inherently safebecause you're not weaving in
traffic just because you want toride your bike to go somewhere.
Versus, you know, Even insome pretty well developed U.
S.
cities, it's not connected, it's notstraight lines, it's very much that
you'll, you'll find yourself interactingwith traffic that's probably not
ready for you at much higher levels.
(22:04):
So it's one of my go to stats tothrow back at people if they're
sitting here telling me thatcycling's inherently dangerous.
No it isn't.
Cars are dangerous to cyclists.
So if you're much more likely to getin a car accident in your life than
you are even as an avid cyclist,to have it be something that.
changes your life thanif you're riding a bike.
And so it isn't inherently dangerous.
(22:25):
It feels like it if you aren't used to it.
And a lot of America is not used to it.
So it feels very scary.
And then layer on everything Rachelsaid about now you're thinking for
two and now you're making all thesedecisions as if you weren't making that
decision for yourself the whole time.
As if you were, well, it'sfine to risk your own life.
We don't, we're not gonna, we're not gonnawarn you about risking your own life, but.
(22:49):
There's a baby.
And now it's different.
Which, your brain chemistry is alsowildly concerned about that baby
immediately, but it's also, there's,I think a lot of, my perspective of
being pregnant was like, people assumedthat I wanted to give up a whole lot
of autonomy, and I felt fine I, ifI didn't have the visible watermelon
(23:12):
below me, I would have told you I'm notpregnant, because I felt that normal.
Physically and mentally throughoutmy entire pregnancy and so like to
for people to come out to me andbe Assuming that I want to be doing
things differently got under my skin.
That is totally understandable.
Yeah.
Yeah So I feel like we got on asoapbox off of what you actually asked
, I think you explained it really well andI think that explanation makes Perfect
(23:36):
sense, both with the built environmentand our views of pregnant people that
it there only exists as a vessel.
So I think both of thosemade a ton of sense.
Yeah, it's just somethinginteresting to think about.
Well, I'm curious before we move onto the, the Bleeding part of the show.
If either of you have tips that you wantto share for maybe folks who are pregnant
(23:56):
and curious about riding their bikes orare thinking about becoming pregnant and
like to ride their bike a lot and areworried about that impeding it what are
some tips that you would share to makecycling while pregnant more enjoyable.
Well yeah, e bike if you can afford it.
Or you can have a city bike share program.
One thing that was kind of weird that Ididn't know was a pregnancy thing until
(24:16):
it happened to me is carpal tunnel.
You can get pretty bad.
I actually, in my first pregnancy,had carpal tunnel so severely that
I ended up with nerve damage in bothhands that took about six months.
Oh my gosh.
repair and as you can imagine that makesriding a bike much more difficult and so
it is not cool but wrist guards and alsodo it early because i one kind of didn't
(24:41):
realize what happened it was happeningtoo i was in denial about it and so i just
didn't start wearing them because they'resuper dorky but get get your carpal
tunnel wrist guards like sleep in themsleep in both sides And and keep doing
it because it, it can really negativelyimpact your, your cycling experience.
And then obviously everything elsethat comes with not being able
(25:03):
to have feeling in your fingers.
Sure.
Yeah.
I would say, I think everything we'vementioned about adjusting your bike,
, maybe my recommendation would be.
check in with yourself every sooften and make sure this is a
decision you still want to be making?
It's a very personal decisionand just about everything in
pregnancy and in parenting is what,where are you on this spectrum?
(25:24):
Is everything feeling safe still?
Do you feel comfortable?
If you're going to go crazy,if you're not writing, what can
you be doing to keep yourself?
So I think that's where I'd go.
Cool.
, we got a few questions.
I'm going to, I, I like being theone to ask because I feel like both
of you are the experts on this assomebody who has never been pregnant.
I don't feel like I have a lot tocontribute to this part of the show, so
I will ask the questions if that's okay.
(25:45):
Thank you.
So one of the questions is actuallyhow should someone approach
getting back on after birth?
Rachel, you look like you've got thoughts.
I do have thoughts.
Also, two wildly different experiences.
So my first pregnancy, I had an episiotomyand Which for the non birthing public
is I had a pretty significant tear,or in this case, I was cut and and
(26:10):
it took a long, long time to heal andthere was, and there was scar tissue.
And so writing was painful for much longerthan of course, what they tell you, right?
Like it's Oh, this is realfast, you know, in our world.
amazing United States of America.
Like I would have only been given fourweeks of, of time to recover from that.
(26:33):
But I was also like, and I experiencedthis in both pregnancies, but
like really itchy to be active.
But especially with the episiotomy, takeit, take it slow, take it slower than you
think you should, because you can actuallydo really long term pelvic floor damage.
If you, Are active soonerthan your core is ready.
And so, like 1, there's likethe pain of sitting on the seat.
(26:56):
So, you know, once you don't havepain, I think you're okay to proceed,
but I would highly recommend if you'vehad a traumatic birth in any way.
Working with a pelvic floor therapistand like doing those exercises to rebuild
your pelvic floor in your core beforeyou're doing anything strenuous in that
way, because you can do long term damage.
And I will say like with my secondpregnancy, it wasn't traumatic
(27:18):
or the delivery wasn't traumatic.
And I was able to be active again,like much quicker, but because I
had that framework for knowing.
Like the importance ofpallet floor health.
I, I went a lot slower than my body waslike, again, itching to be active after
having not been active for so long.
But take it slow.
(27:39):
Cool.
That covers it.
Yeah.
This question we kind of talked abouta little bit with the politicians,
but thoughts on if you can ridesafely until the end of pregnancy?
I think so.
Yeah, again, it's, it has a lot todo with just your comfort levels, but
there's no reason if you feel like youhave a safe environment and your body
is up for it that you shouldn't be ableto ride throughout the entire pregnancy.
(28:04):
Your body is designed tokeep that baby really safe.
, I guess I'll say, too, the waythat I took risks at the end
of my pregnancy was different.
I think Rachel kind oftouched on this, too.
I would be super choosyabout the routes I take.
I'm not gonna be trying to swerve inand out of traffic because I would have,
like, when I was in London where it'slike, throwing middle fingers up to people
who I thought were in the wrong place.
(28:25):
I'm probably not going to dothat if I'm pregnant because
again , everything has changed.
You can't ignore that, but there'splenty of safe ways to ride.
But I would say that my opinionis that cycling is safe.
I would agree.
The one caveat is of course, if you'reunder the advice of your provider like
on my second pregnancy, I was on bedrest the last seven weeks or so of my
(28:46):
pregnancy, which, you know, researchsays doesn't help, but when you're.
You're doing whatever you can.
You're like, I don't know, it doesn'thelp, but we might as well try it.
Again, this is, you know, tryingto not speak too politically.
Anyone who's made it to that point inyour pregnancy, you're gonna be doing
everything you can to have that baby.
You want that baby.
(29:07):
So, we're, like, I don't, I think,trust your brain at that point.
If you feel like You can have thisbaby healthily and be on your bike.
That's the right answer for you.
So that totally makes sense.
And then just the last question.
And there might not be a good answer forthis, but I'm curious if either of you
have any experience or have heard of it.
Has anybody ever gone into laborwhile riding their bicycle?
(29:30):
Oh, what a good question.
I don't know.
I didn't, I didn't do a Google beforehand.
My only thought when I saw this onecome in was by like, if you're at
week 39 or 40, or like me at 41,you're gonna be trying a lot of
things to get that baby out naturally.
And there are like, Recommendationsto go walk the stairs, go keep
(29:51):
active to try to induce labor.
So I would expect that it doesn't hurt,you know, again with the caveat that
your doctor has said, this is fine orthat you and your, I would, you know
what, I'm going to rephrase that.
That you and your doctor together havedecided it's fine for you to be on a bike.
Because my doctor actually did say, whenI was, early in pregnancy don't ride.
And I said, no.
(30:12):
Things.
Back to her.
I didn't, that's not true, I'mwildly I do not like conflict, so
I didn't say anything back to her,but I kept writing, obviously.
So, that is, I guess, I think I startedout saying this, but that was one of
my main frustrations to even thinkabout this topic because I got such,
you'll get such opposites ends of thespectrum from medical professionals.
And there is a lot of culture and alot of society that plays into those
(30:34):
recommendations and again, like anypregnancy, like any person, your health
is your health . I will say when I wasresearching this, Reddit has a lot of
advice and Reddit sometimes gets a badreputation, but there's especially in
the lady cyclists and the, I think itwas the fit pregnancy subreddits, lots
and lots of firsthand accounts frompeople who have ridden until the end.
(30:55):
And one, one woman said, yeah,I rode while I was in labor.
So I'm, I'm giving the leadnow, but she also said her
labor was almost 40 hours long.
So she rode during the beginning partsto try and speed it up a little bit.
Okay.
And lots of, lots of folks talking aboutriding on their trainers indoors to
try and keep their fitness levels up.
So I don't think it's uncommonto, well, it's probably not
(31:16):
common, but I don't think it'sunheard of to ride while in labor.
So, especially around the globe wherepeople ride themselves to the hospital.
Yeah, I will say the one thing I justcan't imagine, but I'm sure people do my
my labor would not have allowed for that.
I know
(31:36):
The one thing I just looked at ournotes that we haven't mentioned as
from just like the physical sideeffect is that because there's a
baby growing and your lung capacityis usually pretty restricted too.
So like you probably aren't gonna have thesame amount of endurance Unless you are
training very purposefully to keep thatendurance up, which is, I think, very,
a very small portion of any population,let alone the pregnant population.
(31:58):
So, so yeah, we can, we havea lot of good questions too,
moving into the period talk.
Yeah.
What did we want to, did we want to kindof do any Thoughts about periods before we
jump in, we have kind of a fun anecdote.
I was riding a big race a coupleof years ago and I got my period.
I knew it was going to happen likeeither that that day or the next day.
(32:20):
And I was kind of hoping that Iwould just have this gush of blood.
And I feel like there was a marathonrunner who like free bled and made
the news for like free bleeding andI kind of hoped that would happen to
me like I would just have like bloodrunning down my legs and I would look
incredibly badass and I, I didn't I freebled and we'll talk about this because
lots of questions came up about how tomanage your blood flow while cycling.
(32:43):
But.
Long story short, my shammy justabsorbed all of it, and the world
had no idea that I was bleedinguntil I put it on Instagram later.
One of my favorite things to say is,anything you can do, I can do bleeding.
Which, especially towards the first coupledays of my cycle, if I get out for a
ride or if I'm in a race or something, itjust makes me think about all the people
who don't have uteruses, who complainabout how hard the race was, and I'm
(33:06):
like, I just did that same thing while myinsides were actively coming out of me.
Visual and wildly accurate.
And yeah, , it is exactly that.
, so as previously mentioned,my period came back with a
vengeance once I was done nursing.
And I've just had a few days where,because my chamois are so padded,
I will just wear them as my shorts.
(33:27):
Not even going on a bike becausethey're, they are absorbent.
And I think, I want to say, I foundthis on Reddit for this that's a
question about how to handle it,and a lot of people say, yeah, just
free bleeding into your chamois.
You will want to make sure that you areprepared to clean them pretty quickly.
Get those things soaking as soonas you can when you get off the
ride just to keep them hygienic.
Yeah, what's a chamois?
(33:47):
Oh, that's a great question.
That's the padded part of yourshorts, of your bike shorts.
Oh.
Okay.
If it's I'm not a paddedbike short person.
That's okay.
I've never tried it.
So, yeah.
Well, also, if you've ever seen it spelledout, you don't think that it's pronounced
chammy because it's freaking French.
It's a chamois.
I actually know the word,but yeah, it's chamois.
(34:09):
It's funny because I knowthat word in context of people
use them to clean their cars.
Oh, totally.
Could also be wildly absorbent.
Do you use them in your pants?, weactually did a deep dive on this many,
many episodes ago, and it does comefrom that same, it was, so the chamois
in bike shorts was originally leather.
And over the years it has evolvedinto kind of the absorbent, thick,
(34:32):
dense foam that we know it as today.
But originally, the first cycling chamoiswere like leather hides basically.
And this wasn't that long ago,like a hundred years ago or so.
Wow.
Yeah, I did not know that.
I'll throw this out there for the folksthat are not padded by shorts wearers.
I am a committed period underwear person.
(34:53):
And some of them come in I thinkwhat you're saying shorts are
like full coverage with padded.
And so those are also great doyou feel comfortable recommending
the brand that you use?
Because I have yet to be I've tried many.
I've tried many.
Well, that's where, that's where I'm at.
And I'm sitting herethis might not be for me.
Do not buy on Amazon, first of all.
(35:13):
Not just because, you know, the Bezosboutique is You know has its own
issues, but the Amazon ones crinkle.
They make like a Walk in that you don'tyou don't want to deal with so stay away
from those even though the five packprice is very tempting The thinks ones
have no give to them like they're cuteon the outside, but there's no stretch
(35:35):
my favorite that I have seen foundso far is the booty brand b o d d y.
Okay.
And those also, I would mostrecommend for exercise because
based on like what absorbency youchoose, like it changes, like how
much of the part is cotton, but the.
Part that isn't the period absorbentcotton part is like a, a poly blend.
(35:58):
So it's like more moisturewicking, like it is better for
being active and it's stretchy.
So you get that sweet, sweet stretch.
Cause you don't need anything digginginto you on your period either.
Right.
But they have some likefull coverage ones.
Oh, and there, wait,there's one other brand.
That I'm blanking on and Icould find later, but they have
like more of a shorts style.
(36:20):
That's like for sleeping, but youcan also of course use it for working
out if that's your preference.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you for sharing.
I love this.
Yeah.
I'm on this journey.
Right.
And that was one of the big questionsthat we got was besides menstrual cups
and tampons, what options are there?
And I was kind of racking my brain to go.
I, I don't actually know, butperiod panties make so much sense.
(36:42):
And Rachel, you've successfullyridden your bike while wearing those.
How's that experience?
So one, this is, I don't know if this isresearch based actually, probably no one
knows if this is research based becauseof the song at the beginning, like no one
studied it, but I find that my cramps.
They've improved dramatically sinceI started wearing period panties.
. Versus if you'd beenusing a cup or a tampon?
(37:03):
Yeah.
And like for, I mostly was using cupsbefore I got pregnant and I should say
I've had six periods in the last fiveyears, y'all, because I have been pregnant
or breastfeeding since August, 2019.
But yeah.
So, and I, while my periods happenheavier, I tend towards being lighter.
So, it's, I can wear, I usuallyhave like enough that I just
(37:26):
change them twice a day.
It's so I'll wear one like all dayand then change it for a night.
So I, if you're like on the heavier endof the spectrum, I would say Like either
you want to have more pairs so you canchange them more often or experiment
with the different like absorbencyLike, cause I usually, I think I get
like the light to medium or the medium.
(37:48):
And, but it's, I've never,never had a problem.
It's, it's easy forriding a bike and right.
I'll say for, yeah, I have a heavierflow and it's not always been easy for
me, but the ones that are like, I'llhave to look up what brand I have.
I have some that are called sleepshorts and they are like the gusset
and that is like wildly absorbentand I think it actually works.
(38:10):
It's it's very full coverage too.
Like it's like a bigger gusset and likeyou're getting, whereas like the other
ones, like the light ones, like thecoverage is more just kind of bright.
Only one exact spot that'sgoing to leak right over.
We did get a question about , ifyou use pads, how do you ride your,
on your period if you wear pads?
(38:31):
, and wasn't there another question too?
Yes.
I know they say you shouldn'twear underwear with your riding
shorts, but I don't want to bleedon them, so what should I do?
So this is kind of, we coveredthis a little bit with the shammy.
I think I would, I would agree.
I've tried panty liners at certain points.
When writing and I just the cottonon must myself is never comfortable
after about I don't know two minutesYeah, it's very dry plastic seems to
(38:55):
like chafe and find those little yeahsensitive skin areas And yeah, I wouldn't
ride with a pad or a panty liner.
I think it's It's again that culturalconditioning that it's oh, I can't
bleed into this because that's eithergross or unhygienic or something, but
like you're washing it right away.
(39:15):
There's no, there's, there'snothing dirty about it.
Nothing gross.
In fact, like it's going to pull thatmoisture away more effectively than a pad.
And so I think you're goingto be less likely to have
complications from that moisture.
Yeah.
I would agree.
And I think, it would have not occurredto me until someone told me that.
So it's a really valid question, your shammy is designed , to wick
(39:38):
liquid, and to a certain extent,that's what your period is.
It's different liquid, obviously,but it's designed to do just that.
So knowing that that's just, you canjust do that, ta da, you, it's okay.
You don't have to putanything else with it.
For folks who maybe don't want to dothat though I personally use a menstrual
cup, and I use it when I'm writingand I don't have any issues with it.
(40:00):
I have tried the discs, which are sitright up around your cervix, and I did
not have very good success with those.
I think each user'sexperience is different.
differs depending on your anatomy.
But I highly recommend a menstrual cup.
And again, going back to Reddit,because I did quite the deep dive on
this, because obviously we each onlyhave our own experiences, but a lot
(40:20):
of folks said tampons work well, butif you are going to wear a tampon to
make sure you really tuck the string upbecause that can cause some additional
chafing that you might not want as well.
So lots of options there fromfree bleeding to cups to tampons
Basically being on your period, itshouldn't be a barrier to riding.
But I also know like the first orsecond days of my period, like riding
(40:41):
my bike is the last thing I want to do.
So , just listen to your body.
You know, sometimes you'll have a raceor some event on a day that you don't
get to choose and that's your body'sgoing to do what it's going to do.
But ideally your period won't stopyou from Enjoying your activities.
But if it does, we know it.
We all know it does.
And you just want to take a bathand do nothing and that's okay.
(41:01):
Yeah.
I think you wrote an article about thistoo, Marley, though, it's if you can nudge
yourself out the door, cycling is a goodway of helping your body work through
some of the cramping and just throughsome of that general malaise, though, too.
So I completely agree thatthere's gonna, there will be days
where that is not the answer.
But if you're having a day whereyou're just kind of, who doesn't
(41:26):
think that a bike ride, who listeningto this podcast doesn't think that
a bike ride, Might be the solutionto your problems spot on spot on.
Another listener brought up a good pointin our in our Instagram comments that I
want to make sure we give a little bitof airtime to is that post hysterectomy
writing can look different as well.
And I don't think any of thethree of us on here right now
have experience with that.
(41:47):
But I want to acknowledge that asbeing very real and that you might have
other challenges to deal with, whetherthat's dryness or Different things and
hopefully your health care provider.
I love your suggestion, Rachel, ofworking with a pelvic floor therapist.
Because I think that can help with somany things related to this, this topic.
But everybody's journey is goingto look a little bit different.
(42:08):
Yes, totally agree.
I think that's everything.
I think so too.
Did we miss anything that we wanted to sayabout babies and periods and pregnancies?
Just people that bleed areincredibly strong and badass.
And it's remarkable that we're able togive birth and have periods and do all
this stuff and keep the world moving,because we all know that we are the ones
(42:29):
keeping the world moving most of the time.
Parents get shit done.
They do.
Well, Rachel, it's beenan absolute pleasure.
Thank you for joining us onthe all bodies on bikes podcast
and lending us your experience.
Thanks for having me.
It was great to meet you.
Great to meet you.
And until next time, this hasbeen Marley and Ellen on the
all bodies on bikes podcast.
(42:50):
Bye.
Hey Marley.
(00:01):
Hey Ellen.
I'm gonna play a song for you.
Okay,
Morning sickness, endometriosis,menopause, migraines, PCOS.
What's happening to your body?
We don't know, cause we've neverreally studied the female body.
Female body.
Say it's all in my head, butthe research is quite spotty.
No, we've never reallystudied the female body.
(00:23):
Go to the doctor, get dismissed.
Try losing weight, you're just anxious.
That's fine, that's cool, I'm not pissed.
Just wait ten years for a diagnosis.
Psychosomatic, you're so dramatic.
Hysterical, emotional, hormonal, erratic.
Heart disease, chronic fatigue,depression and anxiety.
(00:46):
Do you have pain?
No, you don't.
Cause we've never reallystudied the female body.
Female body.
More mysterious than the Illuminati.
No, we've never reallystudied the female body.
It's just like a man's body but with boobs
I love it the female body.
(01:06):
It's just like a man's body with boobswith boobs with boobs just with boobs
It's not like we don't know this but wehave a great episode coming up we wanted
to record a quick little intro to it, butwe've never really studied the female body
and what we've noticed is that there's nota lot of resources out there for people
who are cycling with uteruses, who aretrying to figure out how to be comfortable
(01:28):
on a ride or what to do differently.
So, how does that song make you feel?
It's funny, but it makes meangry because it's so true.
And I think about,, what I went throughover the years super heavy periods to.
Mental health issues to just weird stuff.
And I haven't even had a baby.
As far as like female bodies go, mine'spretty simple, like straightforward body
(01:50):
and still like getting doctors to takeyou seriously is really challenging.
I appreciate that shepresented it in a humorous way.
was farideh on Instagram, by theway, in case you haven't heard
that song yet, but I thought it waswildly accurate and very affirmative.
It is.
It is.
So as you'll hear on this episode, wetalk about all things cycling with the
uterus from being pregnant to dealingwith your period., and just a quick
(02:11):
caveat here, you'll hear us have adiscussion about period underwear and a
couple of the brands that we talk about.
Turned out to be not as size inclusive aswe had hoped when we were researching it.
So we've put some additionalbrands that go up to bigger
plus sizes in the show notes.
Yep.
And so that's just a small call outthere, we apologize for that, but
you got to do your research becausesometimes even if it says it's a two X.
(02:33):
That size chart mightnot actually be a 2x.
Yeah, that would not be a fun thingto have show up in your mailbox.
No.
Hoping for an Excel that's truly Excel.
Yeah.
So, agreed.
But yes, we've got links to some that aremore site inclusive in the show notes.
We hope you check those out.
Yeah.
Hope you enjoy the episode.
That's right.
Here we go.
A little intro music and thenyou'll hear us with our guest.
(02:56):
Welcome to all bodies on bikes.
The podcast where allbodies are good buddies.
All bikes are good bikes andall rides are celebrated.
All bodies on bikes is a movementto create and foster a radically
inclusive bike community.
So join your hosts.
I'm Ellen and I'm Marley.
As we explore.
Explore the complexitiesof the biking world.
Help us break down barriers andcreate the world that we want to see.
(03:18):
And don't forget that all bodiesreally means all bodies, not just
larger bodies, but bodies of allsizes, ages, races, abilities,
genders, sexualities, and beyond.
Come along for the ride.
Today we are talking about ridingwhile pregnant and we are also,
(03:39):
because it's wildly related, goingto talk about riding on your period.
So I recruited my friend and neighborand all around wonderful person, Rachel
Epler, who is here with me in Kansas City.
She's my neighbor, she is a businessdirector at a local hospital system and
a master gardener, and she also has akid who's similar to my kid's age and
another kid who's a, she, your baby,God, she's not really a baby anymore,
(04:03):
but she's not, is she 18 months?
Twenty.
Yeah.
Twenty months!
We both wrote while we were pregnantand now we are riding with children.
And our periods have been with us sincewe have been mature people with uteruses.
So, I will say, though, before we jumpinto things, while we are talking about
health related things, not a singleone of us on this call is a doctor.
(04:24):
And every pregnancy is unique.
And every kid is unique.
And every period is unique.
So, grains of salt all around, but we'rehoping to just kind of talk through a
lot of this, because as Marley learned,and as I learned when I was pregnant,
and as Rachel, you might have learnedor not there's not a central spot on the
internet that feels has brought all ofthis together, let alone, you know, is
(04:46):
an agreement on what should happen whileyou are cycling while bleeding, cycling
while pregnant, or cycling with kids.
So, yeah.
Hi, Rachel.
That was a long winded way of sayinghello and welcome to the show.
Hi, thanks for having me.
You might notice that Ellenis being very intentional with
the language that we are using.
We have not said cyclingwhile being a woman.
(05:06):
We We're specifically saying cyclingwith a uterus or riding with a uterus
because we know that people of all genderexpressions have uteruses and experience
pregnancy and experience periods.
So that is a very intentionalchoice on our part.
And we can get into that later ifwe want to, but just wanted to point
that out at the top of the show.
Yes.
A valid point.
I I do identify, I don't know if I'veactually said my pronouns on this show.
(05:29):
I identify as she, her.
And Rachel, do you wantto share yours too?
Also she, her.
And Marley, she, her as well.
But I have a lot offriends who are non binary.
I even have a couple friends who usehe, him pronouns and are transgender
men who have given birth in theirassigned female at birth bodies.
So this runs the specter of humanity andwe're excited to talk about it today.
(05:50):
So this was, Marley, when you askedme what, all bodies meant to me, this
was, the first thing I said, becauseit's one of the ways that I think
I have felt outside of the cyclingworld during my cycling experience.
I was pregnant in 2020, which isright when I moved back from living
in London, and like you do whenyou're early pregnant, you Google
(06:10):
all the things, you have suddenlydeveloped A freckle on your left cheek,
and is this related to pregnancy?
And the internet doesn't fucking know.
So, I googled, it's like, hey, isit okay to ride while I'm pregnant?
And I asked my doctor too.
The internet , because I waskind of in this nebulous zone
between London and the U.
S., Europe is like, yes, this isa wildly healthy way of staying
(06:32):
active while you're pregnant.
It's really good for your joints.
And in the U.
S.
and from my doctor, it was a whole lotof, oh my God, please be very careful.
Do not write after acertain point in time.
And so I felt very confused.
And so Rachel, I don't know if youwant to share how, what, if you
felt similarly when you started
yeah.
So I probably am going to mix up.
(06:52):
The experiences between twopregnancies, because I don't know,
it all runs together at this point.
But there was one big change betweenthe first pregnancy and the second
pregnancy, which was we got ane bike from my second pregnancy.
So that really changed the game.
But when I got pregnantwith my first, I was.
commuting the six or so milesinto the office at that point.
(07:17):
Not every day, but at least once a week.
And it's a pretty strenuous ride.
Kansas City is really hilly.
And and so it was one of myprimary forms of exercise as well
as, using it for transportation.
And similarly my midwife.
She was actually all for it.
She was, you know, thisis a great exercise.
You should keep up, doit as long as you want.
(07:39):
And then my.
My biking story includes havingvisited Amsterdam in 2017, and I have
a friend that lives there that hasa couple of kids, and so I kind of
leaned on her, and what's the norm?
I mean, apparently in Amsterdam, peoplejust, they will baby wear while they bike.
I did not try that..
For me, because it wasn'tclear in terms of Googling.
(08:01):
There wasn't like a standard.
I stopped when I felt the danger ofme, if I fell off the bike would have
been significant to the baby, but likewhen I got really big, basically, and I
got, I got big, my belly, I'm a petiteperson, my belly came out pretty far.
my center of gravity on the bike atsome point, Probably just a little
(08:23):
past the like into the second trimesterbecause it gets cold here so I didn't
ride in winter and then I don'tthink I picked it up again when it
got warm in the spring because I waseight months pregnant at that point.
That was going to be one of my questionswas about how your center of gravity and
how your body physically has to changeand adapt to riding while pregnant.
(08:43):
And I imagine, this is a broad overgeneralization and simplification,
but thinking about in Europe, youknow, so many more upright Dutch style
bikes seems like that would be moreaccommodating to a growing belly you
know, as a person who lives in a fat body.
I know that I.
Much prefer to be upright becausemy knees don't hit my belly.
But I'm curious what you, both of yourexperiences were you know, feeling your
(09:05):
body change and did you have to changethe position you ride in on your bicycle?
So I'm very strictly for leisureor, you know, previously.
For commuting, and I guess I take mykids now commuting to daycare, but so
upright was my preferred mode as well.
You know, my, my spouse, my husband ismuch more of a writing for sport sort,
(09:32):
and so he has like the more road bikes.
And so it more changed the balanceequation because I wasn't pitched forward,
but You know, getting onto the bike is alot harder when you're trying to adjust
for you know, you see those Instagrams,like where people have like the
watermelon strapped to the front of them.
(09:53):
I mean, that's, it's actually a veryeffective analogy for what being pregnant
is cause it's just like 10 pounds outin front of you, like your, your body
is constantly trying to adjust for it.
I mean, not only are they veryentertaining, but yeah, I'm
sure very educational to thepartners that are trying it out.
But so imagine, you know, tryingto get on a bike with a watermelon.
(10:15):
Watermelon strapped to the front of you.
But luckily, you know, at the beginning itwas only like, It was only a mini melon.
And so, I think one of the more limitingfactors was like in my first trimester in
both pregnancies, I had pretty significantmorning sickness and that lasted all day.
And so I just didn't want to,didn't feel like getting off the
(10:36):
couch, let alone getting on a bike.
So, yeah, totally possible to work around.
Oh, I will say one otherthing with the body.
changes is I did feel like one ofthe weird things about pregnancy
is it like makes you more awkward.
Because your joints are like literallyloosening to accommodate having this
baby, so your joints are loosening andyour center of gravity is thrown off.
(10:59):
And that did affect my confidencewhile cycling because I didn't feel as
confident in like my reaction times.
You kind of couldn't trust thatyour body, if you were to set your
foot down really fast, is thatsuddenly going to roll your ankle?
Yeah.
Or , I've unfortunately countless timeshave people like back out of their
driveways really fast and and so, youknow, like having to make that kind
of fast adjustments or like where youhave to swerve or change course really
(11:23):
fast, because of like that insecurity,I think I chose different routes or
maybe didn't take on as ambitiousrides because I wasn't as confident
that matches a lot of what I was like,what happened to me, I felt fine.
Thank God through my whole pregnancy.
So I was on my, I was on a drop handlebarbike until the winter and then didn't
(11:45):
ride over the winter and then like overI was probably like second trimester
basically through the winter becausemy kid was born in mid June and so then
by the time winter ended I have a verydifferent shaped body and so I think I
just switched over more to the bike sharebikes here which are the like yeah the
drop the step through and it's an e bikewhich all made a huge difference but
(12:08):
so I guess I don't think I had to evenattempt to get on my My road bike while
I had a watermelon metaphorically slashliterally strapped like very permanently
strapped to me at that point in time.
I feel like I would haveprobably just bumped the top
bar with my belly at that point.
So one of the funny thingswas in my second pregnancy,
(12:30):
we had an e bike at that time.
But I also had a two year old.
And so, and we worked together.
commuting her into her daycare school.
And it was really important to me to keepdoing that because it was like such a
special time together, you know, and likeaware of the fact that this was like a
limited time of her being an only child.
And but she had a front mounted seat.
(12:52):
And so, in the second pregnancy,like the seat got in the way.
Oh, and you also get, well, I gotmany people get much bigger, much
faster in your second pregnancy.
And so like I looked like five monthspregnant before I was out of my first
trimester in my second pregnancy.
And so like my belly wasalready like out there.
And so my belly was like in the mixwith her seat and then you had the knees.
(13:16):
And so I think if we hadn't had thee bike making it the whole experience
much easier, I don't know that I.
Sure.
I had to fight through it.
Yeah, that's a good tip though,for folks who are considering
biking while pregnant is an e bikedoes make things so much easier.
I mean, even if you're not pregnant,e bikes make everything easier.
So I didn't get my e bike untilI was post pregnancy and I
(13:39):
promise it makes a difference.
So I've never been pregnant and ebikes make a difference in my life.
So, right.
But I think Quick summary thatlike, as far as even just like
thinking through what all we justtalked about changing on our bikes.
So it's we moved out of the drophandlebars just because to accommodate
the literal water, we're justgoing to call a baby a watermelon
for the rest of this whole podcastto accommodate the watermelon.
(14:00):
But then also I think I raised.
My handlebars, even on my e bike, on myother, I didn't have an e bike yet, but
it's just raised them up to even getme even a little bit further up, right?
And then, I would, I would have donethis on my road bike, I think, but
my hips got so wide towards the lasttrimester, the, the e bikes here, the
ride a chair bikes here are wide and thatwas actually part of why I was able to
(14:23):
keep riding my road bike seat was supernarrow and probably wouldn't have worked.
Yeah, you definitely want a wide seat.
Yeah.
Cause your hips just, like you said,like everything just gets bigger.
Spreads out.
You need a little bit more cushion.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm sure there are peoplethat do it on the road bike
seat, but I, I was not a hero.
(14:44):
Okay.
And this might be a dumb question.
I have maybe a dumb question for bothof you having never been pregnant.
At what point in pregnancy do your hipsstart widening and you start to that?
Like it would benoticeable on a bike seat.
What, at what point is that this isvery much where I will re underline.
We are not doctors.
But I'm thinking it's kind ofwhen the baby drops I'd expect.
(15:06):
Cause that's then whenRachel shook her head.
No.
It starts much earlier, so that'sthere's there's a hormone like
relaxin or something like that.
And I think it's it peaks inthe 3rd trimester, but to
have it in the 2nd for sure.
It starts loosening all of those joints.
And so it's very.
very subtle.
So I don't know, again, that theinternet agrees with you from the bump.
(15:32):
com.
Most commonly it'll begin in themiddle of the second trimester.
So probably like around week 20.
Yeah.
I think whether or not you notice dependson, your shape and size beforehand.
And and if you've had pregnanciesbefore, like I didn't notice it
as much the second pregnancy.
Cause my body had already gonethrough those changes and yeah,
(15:52):
so I think it kind of depends.
Interesting.
And I think, too, the the rule ofthumb there would be, like, if it
starts to be uncomfortable and painful,it means something needs to change.
Your body, you can't change yourbody whether you are pregnant right
now or bigger bodied all the time.
So, if it hurts, it's wrong.
So what's a good rule of thumb,regardless of if you're pregnant or
(16:12):
not, like cycling should not be painful.
It's not supposed to feel like sittingon a couch and like super comfortable,
but you should not be in pain,especially once you get off the bike.
And definitely just want toreiterate that for other, for folks
who are not in pregnant bodies.
So, I have a question.
Oh, sorry.
Go ahead, Rachel.
Yeah, go ahead.
Oh, I'm in the water with that.
But one of the weird just likedisagreements of medical advice
(16:35):
is like, For those that have beenpregnant, you sometimes experience
something called round ligamentpain, which is not nearly descriptive
enough for how painful it actually is.
The internet term forit is lightning crotch.
And so that's one of thosethings that's it is painful.
(16:55):
It's usually like quick spasm, butactivity can aggravate it because
you're stretching those ligamentsmore, but at least my midwife was
like, don't stop being active in thatcase, like play through the pain.
, I just Googled round ligament painand it sounds like it's like short
painful spasms which is differentthan I guess the pain that I'm
thinking of when you're on your bike.
(17:15):
You know, if your genitals are goingnumb or your hands, your feet are
going numb, like those are clearsigns that something in your setup
and your fit is not working for you.
But I'd never heard ofround ligament pain.
I'm learning all sorts of things today.
Pregnancy is wild.
The opening credits song thatwe played was we've never
really studied the female body.
And I think that it like justembodies the frustration that
(17:39):
people who have female bodies.
We didn't even test period products,with period blood until last year.
That is so wild to me because growingup, when I would see those commercials
for hygiene products and they werelike pouring the blood, I was like, my
period blood doesn't look like that.
It's not Liquidy, I guess.
And I thought there wassomething wrong with me.
(18:02):
And turns out, no, it was just, uh,the advertising, advertising and the,
the patriarchy taking over yet again.
But I really thought therewas something wrong with me.
Oh, that's sad.
To anyone who is just getting their periodlistening to this show, it is not liquid
blue any time, at any point in time.
Well, I knew it wasn't the sweet blue,but like that, that very viscous yeah,
(18:26):
almost watery type substance, so.
Postpartum periods are Wild.
At least mine have been to where itis not what I thought that it's like.
Well, plus I was coming off of, this isthe tmmi part of the show coming off of
Marina Coil where you have a dribble of aperiod and then pregnant where you don't
have a period and then postpartum where itlike newly postpartum is wild and you're
(18:48):
literally like, at least I was wearing.
adult diapers to keep everything in check.
And then when I finally did get my periodback, it was like Niagara Falls, which
I hadn't dealt with in a long time.
And even still, they're way heavier thanany period I had before I was pregnant.
So it's, it's an easysegue into the period talk.
I still have some pregnancyrelated questions.
(19:09):
Okay.
And, we asked Instagram, we put abox up on Instagram and we wanted
to get to those questions too.
Cause there are lots ofgood ones in there too.
So, okay.
That was a preview of the second half.
I want to talk a little bit about likethe cultural norms around riding your
bike while pregnant because as I wasresearching for this show, I found a
lot of anecdotal stuff from Europe,from New Zealand, you know, the prime
(19:30):
minister what was her actual title?
I wrote this down.
She was the women's minister.
in New Zealand rode herself to thehospital at 42 weeks to deliver her baby.
And to be fair, she wasnot actively in labor.
She rode there to get an induction.
But she was just like, yeah, this isa normal part of our everyday life.
And sure.
It made news probably becauseshe was the minister for women.
(19:51):
And their prime minister, Jacinda Ardernhad given birth a couple of months before
a couple of months after, so motherhoodand,, politics were in the news a lot.
But my question is, it seems to bea totally normal part of life in
Europe and other parts where cyclingis just part of everyday life.
I'm wondering if, youknow, because in the U.
S.
(20:12):
cycling is viewed as sport so much, ifthat's why there's such a stigma around it
or people kind of freak out when they hearabout pregnant people riding their bikes.
Curious to hear you two'sopinion and take on that.
Well, I don't know how to get into thiswithout immediately going super political,
but I think the part of it has to dowith kind of this cultural American idea
(20:34):
that when you are pregnant, like yourmost important and really only job is
as a vessel for your child, your infant.
And so all decisions need to kindof be made with the safety and
priority of your fetus and mind.
And so in cycling, because itisn't, A cultural norm here, it is
(20:58):
thankfully getting safer, but it isnot seen as a super safe activity.
Especially not road cyclingyou know, our commuting.
And so I think people kind ofhave this idea that if you are.
Riding your bike while pregnant,you're needlessly putting
your unborn child in danger.
It's just that a cultural patriarchal.
(21:22):
It's with everything else.
Yeah, I will.
I second all of that.
My brain went more into the.
built environment and what thesafety truly looks like in the U.
S.
versus Europe, to where cyclingin the Netherlands is, there is a
divided bike lane, any direction,any street, no matter what.
(21:43):
And so it's inherently safebecause you're not weaving in
traffic just because you want toride your bike to go somewhere.
Versus, you know, Even insome pretty well developed U.
S.
cities, it's not connected, it's notstraight lines, it's very much that
you'll, you'll find yourself interactingwith traffic that's probably not
ready for you at much higher levels.
(22:04):
So it's one of my go to stats tothrow back at people if they're
sitting here telling me thatcycling's inherently dangerous.
No it isn't.
Cars are dangerous to cyclists.
So if you're much more likely to getin a car accident in your life than
you are even as an avid cyclist,to have it be something that.
changes your life thanif you're riding a bike.
And so it isn't inherently dangerous.
(22:25):
It feels like it if you aren't used to it.
And a lot of America is not used to it.
So it feels very scary.
And then layer on everything Rachelsaid about now you're thinking for
two and now you're making all thesedecisions as if you weren't making that
decision for yourself the whole time.
As if you were, well, it'sfine to risk your own life.
We don't, we're not gonna, we're not gonnawarn you about risking your own life, but.
(22:49):
There's a baby.
And now it's different.
Which, your brain chemistry is alsowildly concerned about that baby
immediately, but it's also, there's,I think a lot of, my perspective of
being pregnant was like, people assumedthat I wanted to give up a whole lot
of autonomy, and I felt fine I, ifI didn't have the visible watermelon
(23:12):
below me, I would have told you I'm notpregnant, because I felt that normal.
Physically and mentally throughoutmy entire pregnancy and so like to
for people to come out to me andbe Assuming that I want to be doing
things differently got under my skin.
That is totally understandable.
Yeah.
Yeah So I feel like we got on asoapbox off of what you actually asked
, I think you explained it really well andI think that explanation makes Perfect
(23:36):
sense, both with the built environmentand our views of pregnant people that
it there only exists as a vessel.
So I think both of thosemade a ton of sense.
Yeah, it's just somethinginteresting to think about.
Well, I'm curious before we move onto the, the Bleeding part of the show.
If either of you have tips that you wantto share for maybe folks who are pregnant
(23:56):
and curious about riding their bikes orare thinking about becoming pregnant and
like to ride their bike a lot and areworried about that impeding it what are
some tips that you would share to makecycling while pregnant more enjoyable.
Well yeah, e bike if you can afford it.
Or you can have a city bike share program.
One thing that was kind of weird that Ididn't know was a pregnancy thing until
(24:16):
it happened to me is carpal tunnel.
You can get pretty bad.
I actually, in my first pregnancy,had carpal tunnel so severely that
I ended up with nerve damage in bothhands that took about six months.
Oh my gosh.
repair and as you can imagine that makesriding a bike much more difficult and so
it is not cool but wrist guards and alsodo it early because i one kind of didn't
(24:41):
realize what happened it was happeningtoo i was in denial about it and so i just
didn't start wearing them because they'resuper dorky but get get your carpal
tunnel wrist guards like sleep in themsleep in both sides And and keep doing
it because it, it can really negativelyimpact your, your cycling experience.
And then obviously everything elsethat comes with not being able
(25:03):
to have feeling in your fingers.
Sure.
Yeah.
I would say, I think everything we'vementioned about adjusting your bike,
, maybe my recommendation would be.
check in with yourself every sooften and make sure this is a
decision you still want to be making?
It's a very personal decisionand just about everything in
pregnancy and in parenting is what,where are you on this spectrum?
(25:24):
Is everything feeling safe still?
Do you feel comfortable?
If you're going to go crazy,if you're not writing, what can
you be doing to keep yourself?
So I think that's where I'd go.
Cool.
, we got a few questions.
I'm going to, I, I like being theone to ask because I feel like both
of you are the experts on this assomebody who has never been pregnant.
I don't feel like I have a lot tocontribute to this part of the show, so
I will ask the questions if that's okay.
(25:45):
Thank you.
So one of the questions is actuallyhow should someone approach
getting back on after birth?
Rachel, you look like you've got thoughts.
I do have thoughts.
Also, two wildly different experiences.
So my first pregnancy, I had an episiotomyand Which for the non birthing public
is I had a pretty significant tear,or in this case, I was cut and and
(26:10):
it took a long, long time to heal andthere was, and there was scar tissue.
And so writing was painful for much longerthan of course, what they tell you, right?
Like it's Oh, this is realfast, you know, in our world.
amazing United States of America.
Like I would have only been given fourweeks of, of time to recover from that.
(26:33):
But I was also like, and I experiencedthis in both pregnancies, but
like really itchy to be active.
But especially with the episiotomy, takeit, take it slow, take it slower than you
think you should, because you can actuallydo really long term pelvic floor damage.
If you, Are active soonerthan your core is ready.
And so, like 1, there's likethe pain of sitting on the seat.
(26:56):
So, you know, once you don't havepain, I think you're okay to proceed,
but I would highly recommend if you'vehad a traumatic birth in any way.
Working with a pelvic floor therapistand like doing those exercises to rebuild
your pelvic floor in your core beforeyou're doing anything strenuous in that
way, because you can do long term damage.
And I will say like with my secondpregnancy, it wasn't traumatic
(27:18):
or the delivery wasn't traumatic.
And I was able to be active again,like much quicker, but because I
had that framework for knowing.
Like the importance ofpallet floor health.
I, I went a lot slower than my body waslike, again, itching to be active after
having not been active for so long.
But take it slow.
(27:39):
Cool.
That covers it.
Yeah.
This question we kind of talked abouta little bit with the politicians,
but thoughts on if you can ridesafely until the end of pregnancy?
I think so.
Yeah, again, it's, it has a lot todo with just your comfort levels, but
there's no reason if you feel like youhave a safe environment and your body
is up for it that you shouldn't be ableto ride throughout the entire pregnancy.
(28:04):
Your body is designed tokeep that baby really safe.
, I guess I'll say, too, the waythat I took risks at the end
of my pregnancy was different.
I think Rachel kind oftouched on this, too.
I would be super choosyabout the routes I take.
I'm not gonna be trying to swerve inand out of traffic because I would have,
like, when I was in London where it'slike, throwing middle fingers up to people
who I thought were in the wrong place.
(28:25):
I'm probably not going to dothat if I'm pregnant because
again , everything has changed.
You can't ignore that, but there'splenty of safe ways to ride.
But I would say that my opinionis that cycling is safe.
I would agree.
The one caveat is of course, if you'reunder the advice of your provider like
on my second pregnancy, I was on bedrest the last seven weeks or so of my
(28:46):
pregnancy, which, you know, researchsays doesn't help, but when you're.
You're doing whatever you can.
You're like, I don't know, it doesn'thelp, but we might as well try it.
Again, this is, you know, tryingto not speak too politically.
Anyone who's made it to that point inyour pregnancy, you're gonna be doing
everything you can to have that baby.
You want that baby.
(29:07):
So, we're, like, I don't, I think,trust your brain at that point.
If you feel like You can have thisbaby healthily and be on your bike.
That's the right answer for you.
So that totally makes sense.
And then just the last question.
And there might not be a good answer forthis, but I'm curious if either of you
have any experience or have heard of it.
Has anybody ever gone into laborwhile riding their bicycle?
(29:30):
Oh, what a good question.
I don't know.
I didn't, I didn't do a Google beforehand.
My only thought when I saw this onecome in was by like, if you're at
week 39 or 40, or like me at 41,you're gonna be trying a lot of
things to get that baby out naturally.
And there are like, Recommendationsto go walk the stairs, go keep
(29:51):
active to try to induce labor.
So I would expect that it doesn't hurt,you know, again with the caveat that
your doctor has said, this is fine orthat you and your, I would, you know
what, I'm going to rephrase that.
That you and your doctor together havedecided it's fine for you to be on a bike.
Because my doctor actually did say, whenI was, early in pregnancy don't ride.
And I said, no.
(30:12):
Things.
Back to her.
I didn't, that's not true, I'mwildly I do not like conflict, so
I didn't say anything back to her,but I kept writing, obviously.
So, that is, I guess, I think I startedout saying this, but that was one of
my main frustrations to even thinkabout this topic because I got such,
you'll get such opposites ends of thespectrum from medical professionals.
And there is a lot of culture and alot of society that plays into those
(30:34):
recommendations and again, like anypregnancy, like any person, your health
is your health . I will say when I wasresearching this, Reddit has a lot of
advice and Reddit sometimes gets a badreputation, but there's especially in
the lady cyclists and the, I think itwas the fit pregnancy subreddits, lots
and lots of firsthand accounts frompeople who have ridden until the end.
(30:55):
And one, one woman said, yeah,I rode while I was in labor.
So I'm, I'm giving the leadnow, but she also said her
labor was almost 40 hours long.
So she rode during the beginning partsto try and speed it up a little bit.
Okay.
And lots of, lots of folks talking aboutriding on their trainers indoors to
try and keep their fitness levels up.
So I don't think it's uncommonto, well, it's probably not
(31:16):
common, but I don't think it'sunheard of to ride while in labor.
So, especially around the globe wherepeople ride themselves to the hospital.
Yeah, I will say the one thing I justcan't imagine, but I'm sure people do my
my labor would not have allowed for that.
I know
(31:36):
The one thing I just looked at ournotes that we haven't mentioned as
from just like the physical sideeffect is that because there's a
baby growing and your lung capacityis usually pretty restricted too.
So like you probably aren't gonna have thesame amount of endurance Unless you are
training very purposefully to keep thatendurance up, which is, I think, very,
a very small portion of any population,let alone the pregnant population.
(31:58):
So, so yeah, we can, we havea lot of good questions too,
moving into the period talk.
Yeah.
What did we want to, did we want to kindof do any Thoughts about periods before we
jump in, we have kind of a fun anecdote.
I was riding a big race a coupleof years ago and I got my period.
I knew it was going to happen likeeither that that day or the next day.
(32:20):
And I was kind of hoping that Iwould just have this gush of blood.
And I feel like there was a marathonrunner who like free bled and made
the news for like free bleeding andI kind of hoped that would happen to
me like I would just have like bloodrunning down my legs and I would look
incredibly badass and I, I didn't I freebled and we'll talk about this because
lots of questions came up about how tomanage your blood flow while cycling.
(32:43):
But.
Long story short, my shammy justabsorbed all of it, and the world
had no idea that I was bleedinguntil I put it on Instagram later.
One of my favorite things to say is,anything you can do, I can do bleeding.
Which, especially towards the first coupledays of my cycle, if I get out for a
ride or if I'm in a race or something, itjust makes me think about all the people
who don't have uteruses, who complainabout how hard the race was, and I'm
(33:06):
like, I just did that same thing while myinsides were actively coming out of me.
Visual and wildly accurate.
And yeah, , it is exactly that.
, so as previously mentioned,my period came back with a
vengeance once I was done nursing.
And I've just had a few days where,because my chamois are so padded,
I will just wear them as my shorts.
(33:27):
Not even going on a bike becausethey're, they are absorbent.
And I think, I want to say, I foundthis on Reddit for this that's a
question about how to handle it,and a lot of people say, yeah, just
free bleeding into your chamois.
You will want to make sure that you areprepared to clean them pretty quickly.
Get those things soaking as soonas you can when you get off the
ride just to keep them hygienic.
Yeah, what's a chamois?
(33:47):
Oh, that's a great question.
That's the padded part of yourshorts, of your bike shorts.
Oh.
Okay.
If it's I'm not a paddedbike short person.
That's okay.
I've never tried it.
So, yeah.
Well, also, if you've ever seen it spelledout, you don't think that it's pronounced
chammy because it's freaking French.
It's a chamois.
I actually know the word,but yeah, it's chamois.
(34:09):
It's funny because I knowthat word in context of people
use them to clean their cars.
Oh, totally.
Could also be wildly absorbent.
Do you use them in your pants?, weactually did a deep dive on this many,
many episodes ago, and it does comefrom that same, it was, so the chamois
in bike shorts was originally leather.
And over the years it has evolvedinto kind of the absorbent, thick,
(34:32):
dense foam that we know it as today.
But originally, the first cycling chamoiswere like leather hides basically.
And this wasn't that long ago,like a hundred years ago or so.
Wow.
Yeah, I did not know that.
I'll throw this out there for the folksthat are not padded by shorts wearers.
I am a committed period underwear person.
(34:53):
And some of them come in I thinkwhat you're saying shorts are
like full coverage with padded.
And so those are also great doyou feel comfortable recommending
the brand that you use?
Because I have yet to be I've tried many.
I've tried many.
Well, that's where, that's where I'm at.
And I'm sitting herethis might not be for me.
Do not buy on Amazon, first of all.
(35:13):
Not just because, you know, the Bezosboutique is You know has its own
issues, but the Amazon ones crinkle.
They make like a Walk in that you don'tyou don't want to deal with so stay away
from those even though the five packprice is very tempting The thinks ones
have no give to them like they're cuteon the outside, but there's no stretch
(35:35):
my favorite that I have seen foundso far is the booty brand b o d d y.
Okay.
And those also, I would mostrecommend for exercise because
based on like what absorbency youchoose, like it changes, like how
much of the part is cotton, but the.
Part that isn't the period absorbentcotton part is like a, a poly blend.
(35:58):
So it's like more moisturewicking, like it is better for
being active and it's stretchy.
So you get that sweet, sweet stretch.
Cause you don't need anything digginginto you on your period either.
Right.
But they have some likefull coverage ones.
Oh, and there, wait,there's one other brand.
That I'm blanking on and Icould find later, but they have
like more of a shorts style.
(36:20):
That's like for sleeping, but youcan also of course use it for working
out if that's your preference.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you for sharing.
I love this.
Yeah.
I'm on this journey.
Right.
And that was one of the big questionsthat we got was besides menstrual cups
and tampons, what options are there?
And I was kind of racking my brain to go.
I, I don't actually know, butperiod panties make so much sense.
(36:42):
And Rachel, you've successfullyridden your bike while wearing those.
How's that experience?
So one, this is, I don't know if this isresearch based actually, probably no one
knows if this is research based becauseof the song at the beginning, like no one
studied it, but I find that my cramps.
They've improved dramatically sinceI started wearing period panties.
. Versus if you'd beenusing a cup or a tampon?
(37:03):
Yeah.
And like for, I mostly was using cupsbefore I got pregnant and I should say
I've had six periods in the last fiveyears, y'all, because I have been pregnant
or breastfeeding since August, 2019.
But yeah.
So, and I, while my periods happenheavier, I tend towards being lighter.
So, it's, I can wear, I usuallyhave like enough that I just
(37:26):
change them twice a day.
It's so I'll wear one like all dayand then change it for a night.
So I, if you're like on the heavier endof the spectrum, I would say Like either
you want to have more pairs so you canchange them more often or experiment
with the different like absorbencyLike, cause I usually, I think I get
like the light to medium or the medium.
(37:48):
And, but it's, I've never,never had a problem.
It's, it's easy forriding a bike and right.
I'll say for, yeah, I have a heavierflow and it's not always been easy for
me, but the ones that are like, I'llhave to look up what brand I have.
I have some that are called sleepshorts and they are like the gusset
and that is like wildly absorbentand I think it actually works.
(38:10):
It's it's very full coverage too.
Like it's like a bigger gusset and likeyou're getting, whereas like the other
ones, like the light ones, like thecoverage is more just kind of bright.
Only one exact spot that'sgoing to leak right over.
We did get a question about , ifyou use pads, how do you ride your,
on your period if you wear pads?
(38:31):
, and wasn't there another question too?
Yes.
I know they say you shouldn'twear underwear with your riding
shorts, but I don't want to bleedon them, so what should I do?
So this is kind of, we coveredthis a little bit with the shammy.
I think I would, I would agree.
I've tried panty liners at certain points.
When writing and I just the cottonon must myself is never comfortable
after about I don't know two minutesYeah, it's very dry plastic seems to
(38:55):
like chafe and find those little yeahsensitive skin areas And yeah, I wouldn't
ride with a pad or a panty liner.
I think it's It's again that culturalconditioning that it's oh, I can't
bleed into this because that's eithergross or unhygienic or something, but
like you're washing it right away.
(39:15):
There's no, there's, there'snothing dirty about it.
Nothing gross.
In fact, like it's going to pull thatmoisture away more effectively than a pad.
And so I think you're goingto be less likely to have
complications from that moisture.
Yeah.
I would agree.
And I think, it would have not occurredto me until someone told me that.
So it's a really valid question, your shammy is designed , to wick
(39:38):
liquid, and to a certain extent,that's what your period is.
It's different liquid, obviously,but it's designed to do just that.
So knowing that that's just, you canjust do that, ta da, you, it's okay.
You don't have to putanything else with it.
For folks who maybe don't want to dothat though I personally use a menstrual
cup, and I use it when I'm writingand I don't have any issues with it.
(40:00):
I have tried the discs, which are sitright up around your cervix, and I did
not have very good success with those.
I think each user'sexperience is different.
differs depending on your anatomy.
But I highly recommend a menstrual cup.
And again, going back to Reddit,because I did quite the deep dive on
this, because obviously we each onlyhave our own experiences, but a lot
(40:20):
of folks said tampons work well, butif you are going to wear a tampon to
make sure you really tuck the string upbecause that can cause some additional
chafing that you might not want as well.
So lots of options there fromfree bleeding to cups to tampons
Basically being on your period, itshouldn't be a barrier to riding.
But I also know like the first orsecond days of my period, like riding
(40:41):
my bike is the last thing I want to do.
So , just listen to your body.
You know, sometimes you'll have a raceor some event on a day that you don't
get to choose and that's your body'sgoing to do what it's going to do.
But ideally your period won't stopyou from Enjoying your activities.
But if it does, we know it.
We all know it does.
And you just want to take a bathand do nothing and that's okay.
(41:01):
Yeah.
I think you wrote an article about thistoo, Marley, though, it's if you can nudge
yourself out the door, cycling is a goodway of helping your body work through
some of the cramping and just throughsome of that general malaise, though, too.
So I completely agree thatthere's gonna, there will be days
where that is not the answer.
But if you're having a day whereyou're just kind of, who doesn't
(41:26):
think that a bike ride, who listeningto this podcast doesn't think that
a bike ride, Might be the solutionto your problems spot on spot on.
Another listener brought up a good pointin our in our Instagram comments that I
want to make sure we give a little bitof airtime to is that post hysterectomy
writing can look different as well.
And I don't think any of thethree of us on here right now
have experience with that.
(41:47):
But I want to acknowledge that asbeing very real and that you might have
other challenges to deal with, whetherthat's dryness or Different things and
hopefully your health care provider.
I love your suggestion, Rachel, ofworking with a pelvic floor therapist.
Because I think that can help with somany things related to this, this topic.
But everybody's journey is goingto look a little bit different.
(42:08):
Yes, totally agree.
I think that's everything.
I think so too.
Did we miss anything that we wanted to sayabout babies and periods and pregnancies?
Just people that bleed areincredibly strong and badass.
And it's remarkable that we're able togive birth and have periods and do all
this stuff and keep the world moving,because we all know that we are the ones
(42:29):
keeping the world moving most of the time.
Parents get shit done.
They do.
Well, Rachel, it's beenan absolute pleasure.
Thank you for joining us onthe all bodies on bikes podcast
and lending us your experience.
Thanks for having me.
It was great to meet you.
Great to meet you.
And until next time, this hasbeen Marley and Ellen on the
all bodies on bikes podcast.
(42:50):
Bye.
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