How did September sneak in here?!? I wasn’t finished with August.

• Do you miss Sarah Haskins as much as we do? Listen to her talk about pregnancy and the Apocalypse.
• Melissa McEwan tells it like it is: Grown-ups aren’t embarrassed to buy tampons. Even when they’re for someone else.
• Susie Bright discusses the history of the naughtiest word in English: Tell Him He’s a Cunt From Me.
• re:Cycling – along with some of our favorite period writers – was featured in Zosia Bielski’s Globe & Mail article about the new Canadian Stayfree ads.

The abundance of recommendations for this week makes up for the sparseness of last week’s list!

• Linda Falcao of Moms Rising publishes the letter she didn’t send to Wells Fargo, when they demanded a status report of uterine contents before issuing a mortgage.
• Robin Marty reports on a Utah state legislator’s proposal to save money by deny epidurals for any pregnant woman on Medicaid.
• Lauredhel of FWD (feminists with disabilities for a way forward) explains one of the reasons women avoid Pap smears: too many docs use the lithotomy position as a trap.
• A male advertising and design consultant talks about how innovative (and aggressive) he finds LunaPads ads.
• Vulva Activism: The New View Campaign takes it on the road, holding a counter-meeting during the Second Global Symposium on Cosmetic Vaginal Surgery in Las Vegas.
• More vulva activism: The International Vulva Knitting Circle is going to Vegas, too.
• It’s not about the menstrual cycle or reproductive health, but it’s definitely a women’s health issue: I wrote about the million-dollar diet at Stephens College for Ms. blog

• Are you a menstrual activist? Tell the Lunapads ladies what menstrual activism means to you, and you could win a copy of Chris Bobel’s brilliant new book, New Blood: Third-Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation, or a set of Jen Vaughn’s delightful zines, Menstruation Station and Don’t Hate, Menstruate.
• Health risks of nipple piercings.
• The New York Times acknowledges that there are birth control methods besides the Pill. The emphasis is still on hormonal methods, though. [via I Am Dr. Tiller]
• Blogging for Ms., Stephanie Hallett speculates on the relationship between sex, menstrual taboo, and hot, sexy vampires (inspired by the current cover of Rolling Stone featured naked, undead cast members of True Blood).

EWU's new red turf

This week’s picks:

• Ella, a new emergency contraceptive that is effective for up to five days after unprotected sex, was approved by the FDA yesterday.
• New study of 2000 Chinese women indicates the IUD is effective for emergency birth control.
• Contrary to most previous research, a new study suggests that the Pill is equally effective in thin and fat women.
• There is almost certainly a connection between emotions and health, but blaming the Angry Vagina seems another way telling the ladies it’s all in their heads, albeit a different body part.
• The sports columnist in my local newspaper can’t enough bloody puns about the new RED turf being installed in the football field at my university, but no period jokes?!?

• Advice from the LunaPad Ladies about the best menstrual products to use while swimming.
• Will the Pill make you fat? RH Reality Check says probably not.
• University of Texas researchers discover — surprise! — that race and ethnicity affect how women experience menopause.
• Elizabeth Tamny of Jezebel documents how fashion/beauty standards have become increasingly invasive: Don’t show the toe. (Camel toe, that is.)

• Two from Leslie Botha:
  • Another method of period elimination, endometrial ablation, is marketed as easy-breezy menstrual suppression, claiming “64% reduction in women reporting pain” and “71% reduction in women reporting a lack of self-confidence”. (Note the happy ladies dressed all in white on NovaSure’s website.)
  • Yet another period-tracking app for dudes: FloJuggler is designed for men to track periods of multiple ladies – girlfriends, mom, wife, boss. Surprisingly, the slogan is not “For men who are afraid of women”.
• The FDA warns that women using Evamist, a spray formulation of estradiol, should stay away from children and pets. Adverse effects include “premature puberty, nipple swelling, and breast development in girls, and breast enlargement in boys” and similar effects in canines.
• The new, improved version of the female condom is being aggressively promoted in Washington, D.C., to prevent the spread of HIV.
• Apparently some viewers of the ITV soap Emmerdale were upset when the phrase “jam rags” appeared on a blackboard shopping list.

• A couple of our favorite ladies were interviewed in a couple of great lady blogs this week: Chris Bobel spoke with Adina Nack of Girl with Pen about her new book, New Blood: Third-Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation (Rutgers University Press, 2010), and Shameless interviewed Madeleine Shaw and Suzanne Siemens of Lunapads.
• Dr. Petra Boynton pointed us to this engaging discussion of the seemingly endless debates over usage of the word vagina, noting that often “those who feel it doesn’t matter what we call sex, our genitals, or experiences are already in a privileged place.”
• Our Bodies, Our Blog rounds up the news about tenofovir gel, a vaginal microbicide that has the potential to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS through sexual contact.
• Ms. Magazine’s Blog points out that Sarah Palin’s animal role model, the mama grizzly, is pro-choice. (Sarah Palin is not pro-choice.)