COMIC STRIP: "A Visit to the Museum of Menstruation"
DIRECTORY of all topics (See also the SEARCH ENGINE, bottom of page.)
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation
and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links: homepage | LIST OF ALL TOPICS | MUM address
& What does MUM
mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs
this museum?? |
Amazing women! | the art
of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual)
| asbestos | belts
| bidets | founder bio
| Bly, Nellie | MUM board
| books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company
booklets for girls (mostly) directory | contraception
and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays
| essay directory | extraction
| facts-of-life booklets for girls | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ
| founder/director biography | gynecological
topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation
| media coverage of MUM | menarche
booklets for girls and parents | miscellaneous
| museum future | Norwegian
menstruation exhibit | odor | olor
| pad directory | patent
medicine | poetry directory | products,
current | puberty booklets for girls and parents
| religion | Religión
y menstruación | your remedies for
menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety
| science | Seguridad de
productos para la menstruación | shame
| slapping, menstrual | sponges
| synchrony | tampon
directory | early tampons | teen
ads directory | tour of the former museum
(video) | underpants
& panties directory | videos, films directory
| Words and expressions about
menstruation | Would you stop
menstruating if you could? | What did women
do about menstruation in the past? | washable pads
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.
Continued to next earlier News & Notes
NEW this month (news & letters BELOW):
Mon Docteur boxed vaginal douche set (complete?) with printed material, U.S.A., 1928-29? - "The Fallopian Tubes" by Dr. Nelson Soucasaux, Brazilian gynecologist - Humor
Would you stop
menstruating if you could? New
contributions
Words and expressions
about menstruation: England: Ladies'
nappies; Ireland & English-speaking countries:
The curse: does it really mean that? South Africa:
Jam rags; U.S.A.: BUD,
BV, Cut your finger, Going to Oklahoma, I am on, I have to go see Miss Fisher,
Mouse mummies,
What did European and American women use for
menstruation in the past?
Humor
Estimate your blood loss during menstruation on terrific site
A Scottish scientist, Dr. Steve Campbell, has created a Web site - here - which allows women to see if their menstrual blood loss is small, average, or too much - plus much more.
Read right below why he created the site - a funny story.
Description of the site
The concept behind the site is that women lack a visual reference (or calibration in scientific terms) when assessing menstrual loss. We have provided a reference using donated venous blood on sanitary towels [napkins or pads]. There is also an interactive blood loss calculator, record sheets, information on tests and treatments and a section for women with language difficulties, learning disabilities or for use by learning disability nurses.
The Story [of Menstrual-Blood-Loss.com, by Scotsman Dr. Steve Campbell, of Glasgow]
I should perhaps explain that I am a scientist, not medically qualified and male. In view of the site we have just launched you might think it hilarious that I have been shy about contacting mum.org. I know from your [MUM's] FAQ page you will understand this feeling.
During the course of research here it became obvious that a female research nurse measuring menstrual blood loss in research studies could very accurately estimate whether or not women were suffering heavy periods without making measurements. This was despite other studies, which suggest women have difficulty scoring loss and reporting it accurately to their doctors. The reason the nurse was so good at estimating was that she had measured loss many times and simply came to know what "heavy" looked like. The nurse, a fastidious person, had never undertaken laboratory work before and so kept a visual score to check that the results of her chemical tests made sense. She tried two methods, "a rough score" where she just looked at the collection and made a guess and a more precise method where she sorted the used tampons and towels into piles of increasing loss then giving a score to each. By attributing numbers to the visual score she became confident that she could make a good tally and so produce a very good guess about the volume of blood loss. We used her notes to show that her system produced very useful guesses and have presented these findings at two small medical research meetings.
One of my senior academic medical colleagues suggested that if women could be shown what loss looked like then they could report it better to the doctors and nurses involved in their health care. He stressed to me how women would often tell him how severe their loss in the toilet is and how concerned they become about it. He suggested having an Internet site to explain loss. Ironically it was a man, although admittedly a gynaecologist, who felt that menstruation should not be a taboo subject.
I discussed the gynaecologist's idea with my wife and mother, who also happened to be there at the time. Neither saw any problem with what my mother, despite her strict religious upbringing and socially conservative views, referred to as "a natural biological function." Encouraged by this I announced that when I was going out that Friday evening to buy the food I would purchase a large number of sanitary towels from the supermarket so that we could add known amounts of blood to them in the laboratory. Both of my wife and mother immediately jumped in saying that they would do that for me. "Nonsense" I said, "after having to buy heavy duty sanitary towels after childbirth this is nothing to me." I duly unloaded the food at the checkout then the small mountain of sanitary towels and placed the "next customer" divider between them and the food. In as masculine a voice as I could muster I asked for a "separate receipt for the sanitary towels please." My face started to grow crimson and felt if it was about to catch fire. I had to say something to the young female checkout assistant, who was possibly in her mid 20's. "It's for medical research," I said again in my most masculine voice. "Well, somebody's got to do it," she said softly with a gentle and unembarrassed smile. Of course! She was absolutely correct. It is a subject where more research is needed.
In order to find out whether or not women did have a visual reference for assessing loss I asked my wife whether anyone had ever shown her used sanitary towels either as girl, as a medical student or when she was undertaking a post-graduate medical diploma in obstetrics and gynaecology. No, not even when she was training in the most medically relevant speciality. I then asked my sister rather sheepishly, then my mother, and then some of my female colleagues. It was clear that the site of menstrual loss had become a taboo, at least in this country. Even if a woman were to show her doctor, gynaecologist or nurse what an example of heavy loss looked like would they know? By consulting www.menstrual-blood-loss.com they would at least have better idea.
Around this time I became aware of a research paper that tried to include estimates of loss in the toilet when assessing menses. We therefore simulated loss using my own blood in the toilet. The very academic medical immunologist who took my blood for this purpose said it was the first time in her life that somebody was going take the blood that she had just withdrawn and put it straight into the toilet. She obviously found the situation pretty bizarre, although understood why we were doing this. Never having suffered blood loss in the toilet myself, I was amazed how much it actually looked like. 5ml in a man's hospital toilet looks really alarming although this is not even half the volume of a bottle of nail varnish.
Later, when testing an early version of the web site on my sister it became obvious she did not really understand what the volume of loss looked like, partly because she baked and cooked in fluid ounces and how this related to the total amount of blood in her body. I therefore returned to the supermarket and purchased every-day household items on which the volume was marked and had these photographed in the elegant female hand of a trainee gynaecologist.
When my wife, a psychiatrist working with those with a learning disability, saw the pictures of household items she felt it would be helpful if women with a learning disability could get access to the site. She felt that the very visual aspect of the site would be useful to those who could not read and pointed me to a very excellent series of "books without words" used for medical education. This is why drawings appear on the site. A speech and language therapist, who my wife introduced me to, explained that when helping those with a learning disability it is best to start with the real thing, then in order of preference a photo, a drawing, a symbol and last of all writing. Not surprisingly there were no female volunteers to be patients in illustrative photographs, such is the taboo of menstruation, although one female gynaecologist who has carried out laboratory research with me offered to play the doctor.
The concept of the web site is a simple one. If the site helps women to understand when they are having heavy loss then my embarrassment will have been worth it. The subsequent effort in producing the site might also help medical professionals know when they are confronted by heavy loss.
Treatment is available and for many women can be very effective. Recent medical developments have made effective treatment less invasive and should therefore give women even more reason to go to www.menstrual-blood-loss.com. Hopefully a visit to the site should help them find their way around a subject their mother never taught them.
(Copyright 2005 Steve Campbell)
And an explanation for medical people and researchers:
An Academic Postscript
I did have another more academic reason for wanting to create this site that partly sprang from a conversation with a (male) pathologist with whom I collaborated in research. We were discussing why so many histopathology reports concerning the endometrial lining of uteruses removed at hysterectomies are described as 'normal' despite the complaint of heavy periods. He explained that often little or no clinically useful information is provided by the pathologist except when there is cancer (to simplify slightly). In other words, after examining microscope sections of human uterine tissue the pathologist usually does not send back a report to the gynaecologist that helps to explain why the patient had heavy bleeding. This might be partly due, he suggested, to the fact that pathologists and gynaecologists usually do not work together either on an individual patient basis or systematically in research on groups of patients to define what is normal and what tissue appearances are associated with particular clinical conditions. The classic but still relevant paper on the human endometrial cycle (by Noyes, Hertig and Rock) even includes infertile patients collected together with other women who have other types of complaints.
In addition, there might possibly be a great range of what is normal in terms of tissue appearance. The differences that cause problematic bleeding might also be so hard to detect that simple observation alone might not be productive even with ideal communication.
The other more obvious reason why it might be difficult to equate what the pathologist sees with what the gynaecologist deals with is the lack of accurate menstrual loss reporting by patients and their referring doctors. 80 ml of blood loss is regarded by many gynaecologists as the level at which menorrhagia (heavy periods) can be diagnosed. There is, and not surprisingly, a resistance amongst women to collect used towels and tampons so that chemical blood loss measurements can be made in hospital laboratories. However, even if women were to make such collections there are not routine services for measuring loss. These days many hospital laboratories are filled with very fast robotic machines measuring complex biochemical features on small blood samples. There is simply not the scope for rooms full of large receptacles hydrolysing blood on towels on tampons and then technicians later squeezing them out by hand wearing lots of protective clothing. The experience behind this web site suggests that there is perhaps no need for such procedures if reliable estimates can be made by a trained nurse. Presently however, about fifty percent of women recruited to some research studies on heavy menstrual loss have less than 80 ml blood loss per cycle. Could there be a way to improve research on dysfunctional endometrial bleeding by helping the patients report menstrual loss better to their doctors? Perhaps www.menstrual-blood-loss.com is one step on the way forward.
It is possibly not just patients who misreport. Research done by interviewing patients from hospital clinics has suggested that community based medical general practitioners over-report menstrual blood loss as a major problem when referring women to hospital-based gynaecologists. (Or at least the women report other symptoms such as pain and discomfort as important when they arrive at the hospital.) Perhaps the community based doctors, or the nurses who work with them might also benefit from even a brief look at the site.
Copyright 2005 Steve Campbell
Does menstruation lengthen life?
Excerpted from sciencedaily.com: Getting on the Road to a Long Life: Secrets of the Very, Very Old (here)
"The average person has the ability to reach about 88," says Thomas Perls, MD, MPH, Director of the New England Centenarian Study, "but there's a great deal of variation around that with the average person falling short about 10 years."
...
Being born with two X chromosomes certainly helps, too, as 85 percent of centenarians are female. It is somewhat unclear why this is, but, according to Perls, the female secret to long life lies in menstruation. While only preliminary evidence exists, it is thought that iron levels are responsible; women tend to have lower iron counts than men because they lose a considerable portion of blood every four weeks or so during their period. Iron produces free radicals in the body, the element that drives aging. So, less iron means slower aging. Many centenarian women reported having a child after the age of 40, indicating they had a slowly aging body, possibly due to their increased number of menstrual periods that lowered iron levels.
So, how can a man compete with a woman? Well, Perls, for example, donates blood every eight weeks, in part to be altruistic, but also to lower the number of free radicals in his body. (He says that he'd do it every four weeks if he were allowed.) In one study, men that donated blood just twice a year had a 20 percent reduction in the formation of preoxidized lipids, the predecessor of artery-clogging plaque.
Many Brazilian women in a focus group oppose menstrual suppression
(From Contraception 2005; 72: 157-61)
"Most women, although they would like to be free from menstruation, feared negative consequences of induced amenorrhea and even regarded the proposition as a male intrusion into what they consider a natural female condition."
Letters to your MUM
Australian looking for coming-of-age ritual for daughter
Can anyone give me info of female rite of passage traditions, ceremonies, etc, for 12-to-13-year-olds?
I'm looking for a social ritual, as in passing knowledge, as my daughter has lost two very important female role models (grandmother and aunt) to cancer in the past 18 months. They were a huge influence on her in ways of intellect, social, economic, philosophic and political ideology. They had planned a walking tour of China for this year, and as my daughter observed, "If I had been a boy or Jewish I would have had a defined celebration." So If anyone can share any thoughts I'd be most grateful. We have thought of establishing a memorial scholarship for them, (an economics professor & lawyer), but that doesn't help with this as her 13th birthday is the end of August.
Cheers
****
PS: We live in Australia.
[Reply to nadinetowler_2@hotmail.com]
Her mother learned to knit her pads
Interesting site!!
Regarding earlier 20th century use of pads in America: My mother, at about age 10 or 11 in 1936/7, was taught to knit sanitary pads by her stepmother. By the time she started menstruating at 14, Kotex pads were available for purchase in town (Hannibal, Missouri) and she never used her cache of knitted pads. I believe her stepmother, born in 1905 in Missouri, was also taught as a young girl to knit sanitary pads.
A friend's mother, born about 1915 in an Idaho/Utah farming family, used, washed, and reused rags as menstrual pads. I remember this being a topic of amazement to my 12-year old friend and me, who in the 1960's had the advantage of Kotex and belts. Now even these are antiquated!
I know that two anecdotes don't mean that most late-19th century American women wore pads (as opposed to nothing), but I suspect that the two older women above (both English descent, one definitely poor and rural, the other more middle class) must have had history of pad use in their families, at least by their mothers in the 1880's and 90's. Otherwise my friend and I would have heard even more amazing stories from our mothers: Not just "My mother taught me to knit my own sanitary pads" or "I had to wash and reuse old rags", but also "and Grandma didn't wear ANYTHING when she was young!!"
Thanks!!
[Read what evidence I have that some women in Europe (at least) wore no protection.]
Read about hysterectomy and alternatives
Dear Harry:
Please publicize our site http://www.hysterectomy-and-the-alternatives.com
Hysterectomy and the Alternatives: Your resource for information on hysterectomies and alternative treatments for fibroid tumors and other conditions.
Sincerely,
Michael Caroff
Webmaster
She likes the Diva cup
I just came across your website and really enjoyed it. In reading the section about menstruation cups, I noticed that one product is missing. The Diva Cup is almost identical to the Keeper but is made of medical grade silicone, so it can be boiled if one so desires and is safe for people with latex allergies. I have just started using one myself and think it's amazing.
When I'm around the house I use washable cotton Lunapads to let things "air out" a bit. I wish I had known about the alternatives to disposable products sooner.
Thanks for such an informative Web site!
****
[Read a short history of cups.]
He sang of Mrs. Pinkham
We used to sing it (in college days - 1950s):
Oh, we'll sing, we'll sing, we'll sing
To Lydia Pinkham, Pinkham, Pinkham,
And her gift to the human race:
A wonderful compound,
A dollar a bottle,
And on the label was her face (her ugly face).
I've forgotten the verses, but no doubt they were similar to the ones you've listed.
Thanks for tickling a fun memory!
****
[Read and see more of the very successful inventor of Mrs. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound here. You can buy the patent medicine here:
[ http://www.medichest.com/lydiapinkham.html ]
Uh, oh
Dear Sister, [Um, Hi!]
I write to you in appreciation of your wonderful site.
As a women, I am sensitive to the stigma that surround the fact of menstruation. Ours is a world whose agenda is set by male constructs and your museum is a refreshing change.
In fact, I am French and live in France. Here there is no such institution as the museum of menstruation. I would like to embark on a project to found one.
Is there any advice you could give me?
With best regards,
And in the sisterhood of the blood,
****
[I wrote her that I'm male and that many people will criticize her for starting it. I wished her lots of luck!
[She never responded. Gee, maybe it's not so wonderful and refreshing since a man made it.
[See the next letter for more sexism.]
"I am woman" confuses facts with feelings
From viewing your Web site and hearing of your former "museum" housed in your basement [here] I am again saddened but not shocked at the endless display of sexism exhibited by men in this world. Your fetish on menstruation and women's bodies is disrespectful and creepy. Since you have never and will never know what it means to be female or to have to suffer the physical burdens that women do you have no right and no authority or authenticity in this field. Every single time you speak or write or present your opinion on this you are mocking what real women know and have to endure. Your suggestion that because you are a man you are taken more seriously on this issue is quite frankly a joke and it is insulting that you are so arrogant to think a male who does not experience menstruation knows more about it then women do. Your continue to insult by suggesting that women either gay and or feminist (and no one does not mean the other) would not be able to present the context of menstruation in a fair minded way. Ironic that you believe a male (you) are not biased when obviously this is a perversion for you. Men such as yourself and the women who support your fetish are unfortunately very present in this world. Lack of integrity, lack of authenticity always seem to win out no matter how hard those of us who fight for women's rights and women's justice work. So you can laugh at women on your site and you can disrespect us and most likely you even jerk off to all your period stories and props from your little basement enterprise but you should know that there are those of us who do not think you are clever or that you are offering anything of value. I hope you are one day treated to the same level of disrespect you are showing women.
****
Post my letter if you wish I assumed you would. I stand by it and at least I have the authority to do so since I am woman and you are not. And you can enjoy being all the advocacy groups watch lists for sexism.
Good day.
****
[I dare I-am-woman to immediately e-mail the female collaborators in the study below and tell them they had no business participating because they don't have penises. By her criterion, what can they know?
The article, "Inactivation of phosphorylated endothelial nitric oxide synthase (Ser-1177) by O-GlcNAc in diabetes-associated erectile dysfunction," appears in the Aug. 16 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was published online Aug. 5 [2005]. Melissa F. Kramer and Robyn E. Becker, also of the Brady Urological Institute [of The Johns Hopkins University], collaborated on this study.
[I-am-woman's sexism - it's the purest sexism since it's explicitly and obsessively based on gender - puts down women everywhere who want to research any subject that interests them.
[I-am-woman: don't write me again unless you send me your e-mail and the collaborators' replies.]
[I-am-woman's sexual accusations probably reflect her own desires, not mine.
[I endorse the words of Louis Menand, professor of English at Harvard, who wrote of the great American critic Edmund Wilson in a recent New Yorker magazine (August 8 & 25, 2005 issue, p. 88):
"His whole career was devoted to the opposite principal: that an educated, intelligent person can take on any subject that seems interesting and important, and, by doing the homework and taking care with the exposition, make it interesting and important to other people." The principal he says Wilson disagreed with is for a professor "to pick out a single furrow and plow it for life."
[The culture of menstruation is interesting and important - surely you agree, I-am-woman - so where is your museum that you're willing to endure such calumny for?]
