How Tamika Dealt With Having Her Period For 30 Days On Alone Australia

Alone Australia is no walk in the park. In fact, it's a walk in the most isolated parts of New Zealand's South Island. The show sees ten survivalists dropped by boat into Te Waipounamu, where they settle into life in the wilderness, completely alone and isolated, in the bid to win a $250,000 prize. There, they navigate not just staying safe, but also making fire, sourcing food, water and making shelters from scratch.

But contestant Tamika had an extra layer of worry — dealing with her period.

The 51-year-old from Queensland has spent the last decade living off the grid, growing and foraging food for her family. She is a keen camper, hunter, and fisher (despite being vegetarian for over eight years). But while she's well prepared for survivalist situations, Tamika reveals in this week's episode that there's something that she wasn't anticipating when going into the wilderness — that she would get her period and end up bleeding for almost 30 days.

"I expected to deal with drop shock, freezing temperatures and general discomfort — I didn't expect to be managing bleeding only a couple of days after finishing my previous cycle," she tells Refinery29 Australia. "I couldn't believe it. I was a little angry. I barely had a roof over my head, let alone a fire to heat water to clean myself, or a dry bed to lay down to relieve any pain."

Extended menstrual bleeding increases iron loss by up to six times, and if left untreated, it can lead to anemia. In a situation where every calorie counts and nutrition is key, it's a huge blow to any contestant. For Tamika, the added curveball of navigating her menstrual health in the wilderness was not one she expected, so much so that the off-gridder believes that it impacted her ability to win the show (at this stage, Tamika has not tapped out or been medically evacuated).

"I can’t speak for other female participants on Alone Australia, but I know it had a bloody big impact on me (no pun intended)," she says. "The odds of winning took a downturn when I didn't stop bleeding. It was a constant pressure."

Logistically, Tamika's challenge with bleeding has prompted viewers to question what accommodations are given to those with periods on the show, with Tamika revealing that, thankfully, menstruating people are provided with pads, tampons or the contraceptive pill. "The show supplies sanitary items for women to use, but moon cups were not available as they would have been too hard to clean. It was a health and safety issue," she explains. "I chose to use pads. Lots of them."

Some viewers have questioned whether these items count as part of the allocated items list, which Tamika thankfully tells us is not the case. "Women are allowed sanitary items. I needed a lot," she says. "These items are not part of the essential items list, thank goodness. Otherwise, I would have gone out bare-arsed and toolless!" 

When it comes to how her lengthy period impacted her day-to-day in Te Waipounamu, Tamika explains that the bleeding meant she had to prioritise vaginal health over other things. "I had to prioritise vaginal health over stinky armpits and comfort," she says. "It was a matter of dealing with the most essential when you have no backup. I sacrificed a shirt, tore it into strips and made sure I washed every day, even if that meant a freezing yoni for the next four hours."

"I am fortunate that my periods are not debilitating in the sense of pain, but my moods are greatly affected," she continues. "I found just trying to keep my spirits steady was difficult on the show."

While viewers might be wondering about whether animals can smell menstrual blood or if this is a myth, Tamika puts our concerns to rest. "Luckily in New Zealand, there are no large predators that will take humans for food, so I didn’t have to deal with the extra worry of animals coming in from the smell," she explains. "I think it’s a real issue in survival situations though. Blood has a smell. Animals are curious. But I don’t think it’s the scary ravenous images we create in our minds!"

For Tamika, the experience was a lesson in intuition, self-care, and tuning into her body, especially given she didn't have the creature comforts of home. "In a survival situation, there is no external support, no soothing chocolate or wheat packs, no shoulder to cry on or warm fire-lit baths," she says. "I had to accept I was bleeding and there was nothing I could do to stop that, so I had to get on with business."

"I took things slow. I listened intuitively to what my body said it needed on that day and tried to find a way of giving it that," she continues. "Being angry or disappointed with my body was sending all the wrong messages back to my mind and, in turn, was making my experience less enjoyable, so I simply tried to accept what was."

"Somewhere in my journey, I had to surrender and trust that my body knew best," she says.

Alone Australia Season 2 now streaming on SBS On Demand.