February 21st, 2010 by Chris Hitchcock
The American Psychiatric Association has pushed back their timeline for the 5th version of the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual. The new psychiatric bible was originally scheduled to come out in 2011, but has now been delayed to 2013 .
Initial drafts have been posted to the web page, but the controversial and provisional (that is, not yet officially accepted) diagnosis of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) does not yet appear ready for comment. Which is a shame, because traditionally SMCR and its members have had a lot to say about PMDD, and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to consider and critique its new incarnation. Here’s a recent post as an example.
PMDD was first introduced in the DSM-III-R as Late Luteal Phase Dysphoric Disorder. The “late luteal” was meant to include cycling women who did not bleed, for example, those with a hysterectomy but preserved ovaries, but was criticized because “luteal phase” implies ovulation, and assessing ovulation was not part of the diagnosis.
Paula Caplan (e.g. this article) and other members of the SMCR were vocal in their challenge to the psychiatric label. Paula Caplan wrote a book about her experiences with the DSM process (They Say You’re Crazy), and the SMCR produced the following position statement: Continue reading...
Tags: American Psychiatric Association, APA Diagnostic and Statistics Manual, DSM, DSM-V
Posted in Activism, Health Care, Menstruation, PMDD, PMS, Pharmaceutical, ovulation | Comments Off
February 20th, 2010 by Chris Hitchcock
In honour of the fabulous Laurie Anderson (whose Delusion performance I will be attending this evening), I wanted to share a link to her song Beautiful Red Dress from the Strange Angels album. It’s full of powerful imagery, and, as always for her, that bit of strange.
Cause the moon is full and look out baby -
I’m at high tide.
I’ve got a beautiful red dress
And you’d look really good
standing beside it..
I’ve got some beautiful new red shoes
and they look so fine
I’ve got a hundred and five fever
and it’s high tide.
And here’s a nice piece of rich poetry about menstrual cyclicity of mood:
Well they say women shouldn’t be the president Cause we go crazy from time to time
Well push my button, baby
Here I come
Yeah, look out, baby
I’m at high tide
I’ve got a beatiful red dress and you’d look really good standing beside it..
I always love the way she plays with words, and she captures both the power and the double-edge of being a menstruating woman, being a woman at all. What can I say, I’m a fan, and looking forward to tonight. I hope you enjoy it. Continue reading...
Posted in Media, Menstruation, Music, PMS | 1 Comment »
January 1st, 2010 by Chris Hitchcock
The bioidentical hormone therapy industry has been getting a bad rap lately in the US, and this press release is an example of why. Among other things, the writer confuses estrogen and progesterone, in one paragraph saying their product is a “safe and scientifically-proven, all-natural estrogen delivery cream[]“, and in the next describing it as a “natural progesterone cream” (emphasis is mine). Moreover, the press release springboards from another estrogen-positive press release that claims that estrogen may be the cure for female depression, citing an ob/gyn author of a book, and promoting a soon-to-be-launched web page.
So, in one breath the product is an estrogen delivery cream that will help with low estrogen, but in the next breath (on the linked product page) it is argued that it will help with estrogen that is too high (which is more accurate). The product website emphasizes that it is “without dangerous pharmaceuticals”:
This remarkable product contains NO risky synthetic estrogens or progestins. [Product] Cream is similar to the progesterone your body naturally produces, so there are no worries about dangerous interactions or nasty side effects.
Continue reading...
Tags: bioidentical hormone therapy, critical thinking, estradiol, hormone therapy, Menopause, postmenopause, progesterone
Posted in Health Care, Menopause, Pharmaceutical | 3 Comments »
December 24th, 2009 by Chris Hitchcock
A recent press release from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists announces that Hormonal Contraceptives Offer Benefits Beyond Pregnancy Prevention. This is in the same vein as similar articles published over the years about “non-contraceptive benefits of the pill” – a laundry list of the many benefits women may obtain by using hormonal contraception. It’s not clear how they should be used by practicing obgyn’s. One use is certainly as additional talking points to convince women who are cautious or reluctant to replace their body’s own menstrual physiology with a pharmaceutical product.
I haven’t been able to read the full document (for some reason my university access seems to only find the first page of the full document), but it appears that, like previous reviews I have read, it is a biased list, including benefits but not risks. Perhaps what is most in common is the sense that a spontaneous menstrual cycle is somehow suspect, that fluctuations over time are unnatural, and that pharmaceutical control is a good solution. Continue reading...
Tags: ACOG, adolescents, birth control pill, Dysmenorrhea, heavy bleeding, menstrual cramps, Menstruation, NSAIDs, off-label use, oral contraceptives, pain, PMS
Posted in Birth Control, Dysmenorrhea, Health Care, Menorrhagia, Menstruation, PMS, Pharmaceutical | 2 Comments »
October 29th, 2009 by Chris Hitchcock
According to this article, a surprising number of women seeking infertility care don’t know when to effectively focus their efforts. Australian researcher (and SMCR member) Kerry Hampton asked women seeking infertility advice about the normal ovulatory menstrual cycle, and found that most women lack basic knowledge about the menstrual cycle, ovulation, and when the optimal time is to conceive.
A study of 204 women who attended assisted-reproduction clinics in Melbourne during 2007 and 2008 showed only 13 per cent had a good knowledge of the ”fertility window” in their monthly menstrual cycle when pregnancy can occur.
Fertility nurse specialist and Monash University researcher, Kerry Hampton, told the Fertility Society of Australia’s annual scientific meeting yesterday that 11 per cent of the women had no knowledge of the fertility window and 52 per cent had poor levels of awareness.
Ms Hampton said most of the women had been trying to conceive for one year or more when they were surveyed, and that if they had of known more about natural conception, they would have had a better chance of success.
”A lot of these women were not able to optimise their chance of natural conception because they didn’t understand the window,” she said.
Continue reading...
Tags: fertility, ovulation
Posted in Menstruation | 2 Comments »
October 8th, 2009 by Chris Hitchcock
In a review article in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, University of Sheffield researchers Alexandra Alvergne and Virpi Lummaa [1] present a range of evidence that using oral contraceptives influences women’s preferences for mates, and men’s sexual interest. Some of the research shows that women’s preference for human odors while taking the pill are for odors from men who are more likely to be close relatives, with similar variants of the majorhistocompatibility locus (MHC), but that women who are ovulating prefer odors from men who are less similar. There is speculation that the degree of similarity in the MHC locus may affect fertility.
Further evidence comes from a study by Geoffrey Miller and colleagues, looking at men’s willingness to pay professional lap-dancers for sexual access over the menstrual cycle. This was a difficult study to do, and assumed that ovulation occurred on a standard day during the menstrual cycle, which we know is not valid, because women vary in ovulatory timing and may not ovulate in otherwise normal menstrual cycles. Nonetheless, the average curves for women selling sexual access through lap-dancing show a menstrual pattern in profits that is strikingly similar to the pattern of estrogen over the menstrual cycle. Women taking oral contraceptives both made less money, and did not show the same pattern as those who were naturally cycling. Continue reading...
Tags: mate choice, mate preference, MHC locus, oral contraceptive pills, sexuality
Posted in Birth Control, New Research, Pharmaceutical | 1 Comment »
Readers should note that statements published in re: Cycling are those of individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Society as a whole.
RSS 
