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From the sheer joy of getting your period when you’re not ready for a baby, to the utter devastation of seeing blood when you’re trying to conceive, life with a womb brings the highest highs and lowest lows – and they’re perfectly captured in a new advert.
The ad, from Bodyform, is designed to “push back against the assumption that there is one accepted biological timeline that women live by”.
It shows emotional depictions of periods, pregnancy, endometriosis, miscarriage, infertility, IVF, menopause and more, proving that when it comes to womb health, there’s “no one size fits all” story.
The ad shines a light on the fact that one woman’s disappointment or tragedy might be another’s desire or joy – and that all hopes and dreams are valid.
Bodyform’s short film is certainly a marked change from the period product adverts we grew up with – where blue liquid, white peddle pushers and ecstatic, cramp-free women were the norm.
The campaign, called #Wombstories, coincides with research by Bodyform’s parent company, Essity, which found 62% of people don’t think women’s anatomy and health issues are talked about openly.
In the survey of more than 8,000 men and women, 40% of women felt their mental wellbeing was negatively impacted as a result of not being able to openly share their experiences.
Around half of women who don’t want children said they feel people are constantly trying to change their mind. Meanwhile 37% of women who experienced a miscarriage said they couldn’t grieve openly without fear of judgement and 42% who’ve had fertility treatment tried to keep it a secret.
Around four in 10 of women surveyed felt they would be labelled for “over sharing” if they were to talk about an everyday period occurrence, such as leaking, coming on, or a sudden rush. And a third of women also tried to keep their menopause or perimenopause a secret and suffered in silence.
Clearly, there’s still a lot of work to do in breaking reproductive health taboos – something we aim to do on HuffPost UK’s weekly podcast Am I Making You Uncomfortable?
The comments on YouTube also reflect how much an advert like this is needed, for men as well as woman.
“I was crying while watching it,” one woman said. “It was so, so important for me to finally see [the] reproductive system as something normal, something human, connected to a woman herself, in its whole complexity.”
Another viewer added: “As a new dad this speaks to me a lot, having been through the excitement and pain of trying to have a baby for two years, almost giving up and then succeeding. I cried a little bit to be honest. Bravo.”
The ad was created by Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated director, writer and producer Nisha Ganatra, alongside six female animators. Ganatra said it had been an important and personal project to work on.
“When they’re at their best, our bodies are incredible machines that give us pleasure, and, if we want them to, help us propagate the human race,” she said.
“But they don’t always work. Hell, they don’t often work. Irregular periods. Endometriosis. Miscarriages and infertility. Our bodies can bring joy, but also pain and devastation. It’s an emotional rollercoaster that lasts a lifetime. This is what bonds women in sisterhood.”