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Hello, I'm Matthew Price.

This is Beyond Today from BBC Radio 4.

Every day we ask one big question about one big story. Today why should we talk about periods?

So on Fridays we often talk to one guest about themselves and what they're thinking.

Today Emma Barnett, she's becoming one of the most respected broadcasters in the country.

She's on 5-live, on news night, all over the place, making her interviewees,

often politicians feel extremely awkward just by asking them simple questions and they stumble around

trying to answer her. Now when Emma got in touch

with us a couple of days ago she asked if we wanted to talk about periods because

she's just written a book about them. Period. It's about bloody time. Period.

People go either way, it seems. It's about bloody time. And I realized I've never done a story about periods.

In fact, I've barely spent any time talking to any woman at all in detail

about them and actually that's Emma's whole point.

I decided to write a book about periods and I've quite enjoyed it when people have said which

period of time have you been focusing on I said no the one in my pants and then you really get a look

depending on who's asked it but yes the history of the taboo around them, the shame of them, some of the hilarious

stories that we missed by not being able to talk about them easily, some of the very sad and harrowing

tales around them, and also around some of the more serious ramifications

of not being able to talk about them in terms of our health.

Which are?

Well for me personally I didn't get diagnosed with something called endometriosis for nearly 21 years and

...