Jazmina Cininas, (author of Beware the Full Moon: Female Werewolves and That Time of the Month) writes, “Werewolves are linked to the cycles of the moon, comparing that with the menstrual cycle”. She says after realizing this, she knew her movie had to be made about female werewolves, which is pretty uncommon. Among reading this and many other writings about female werewolves, I found that the moon and the menstrual cycle are very well connected in werewolf stories, using the moon's changing once a month as a comparison to menstruation.
If this is the case, then why is lycanthropy seen as being so masculine? Menstruation will always be characteristic of femininity, so why are there so few female werewolves? The comparison of what humans go through during puberty and lycanthropy could give insight answering this question. In society, girls going through puberty are going through changes such as becoming more “lady-like”, rather than bigger and stronger, like males are typically known to do.