Consider the implications of menstruation:
1) menstruation is a sign that woman is not fertile, in that she can not be
impregnated while the flow is present.
2) menstruation is a sign of fertility, in that only women of fertile age
experience the menstual cycle.
3) lack of menstruation may be a sign of fertility or infertility, in that the
woman may be past menopause or she may be pregnant.
4) blood is a symbol of life
5) spilt blood is a symbol of death
There is quite the complex of paradoxical symbols of life and death mixed up with menstruation. There has got to be deep magical significance in it. Different cultures probably interpret it in different ways.
For example, the solar cults, who mostly denigrate women's power (in part because they fear it) probably would look on the flow as a dangerous time and would have a taboo against a man going into a woman then. In contrast, the Orlanthi, who acknowledge and accept women's power more, probably accept it as a sign of that power and merely take a few extra precautions.
As an aside, we have only had one incident in our game where the topic came up. The party had enlisted the aid of a Maran Gor priestess to destroy a temple of chaos. She timed their arrival for when her flow was present. The blood was symbolic of death and destruction as she used it to mark the curses upon the cavern to focus the power of Maran Gor there. (Another part of the ceremony involved her disembowelling a party member and scattering his giblets to the corners of the temple.)
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