July 19th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
It’s been two weeks since Chris Hitchcock and I returned from San Diego’s recent Endocrine Society meetings. We are feeling incredibly happy with the success of our protracted, intense commitments to a controlled trial of oral micronized progesterone (marketed in the USA and Canada as Prometrium®) for night sweats and hot flushes/flashes. At the Endocrine Society we presented the first-ever trial showing that the molecularly identical progesterone by mouth is effective treatment for vasomotor symptoms (VMS = hot flushes/flashes and night sweats)(1). We were also invited to present our data at an Endocrine Society-sponsored press conference.
Why did a scientific study require so much from us? First, this trial started in 2003 as the initial scientific venture of the newly founded Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research–thus CeMCOR’s reputation became tied to this trial. Second, despite concerted efforts, we were never able to obtain peer reviewed funding for this study—we successfully supported it with individual private donations. Finally, because of the “estrogen myth” and its corollary negatives about progesterone, I wanted to gain additional accurate information about how Prometrium® works in women’s cardiovascular system from this same study. For that reason we decided to enroll only very healthy women who were within 1-10 years since their final flow—they had to be non-smokers, without obesity, diabetes, or high blood pressure, and further to have normal measured waist circumference, blood pressure, cholesterol, and fasting blood sugar levels. Therefore many women were interested but few were eligible. Continue reading...
Tags: CeMCOR, clinical trial, estrogen, guest post, hormones, hot flashes/flushes, Menopause, progesterone
Posted in Menopause, New Research, Pharmaceutical | 1 Comment »
June 28th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Collage by Merlinprincesse | Creative Commons 2.0
Guest Post by Heather Dillaway, Wayne State University
I keep seeing news articles about a “new Iranian study” that hopes to better predict “age at menopause” for women, and the authors of this study supposedly discovered a “blood test” that will be able to “predict menopause” within the next few years. It is touted as a way to judge when women will be “done” or be at the “end” of “menopause” and also to predict by default when they will be at the “end” of their “fertile” years (so that maybe they can know when they have to pop out that first or last baby). After seeing so many references to this study over the last week and having studied how women feel about the “beginning” and “end” of menopause for the last ten years myself, I can’t just sit back and not critique the underlying assumptions that are part of this study and air some of the concerns that I have about this impending blood test. Continue reading...
Tags: blood test, fertility, guest post, Menopause
Posted in Media, Menopause, New Research, Newspapers | 15 Comments »
May 13th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Guest Post by Jerilynn Prior, M.D., Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research
Yes! I’m sure you can hear my whoop of excitement and vindication. Finally, something negative about estrogen and positive about progesterone in the mainstream media. According to this article by Emily Anthes in the current issue of Scientific American: Mind, women’s risk for addiction, and potential for successful withdrawal, are both linked to our menstrual cycle hormones. Estrogen increases women’s addictive behaviors while progesterone assists with successful addiction recovery.
Why am I feeling vindicated? Because I recently declared that hot flushes/flashes and night sweats are estrogen addiction (1). That wild but supportable hypothesis is based on the evidence that prolonged or high-dose estrogen exposure is required for hot flushes to occur. But, it is the subsequent abrupt decrease in estrogen levels that triggers vasomotor symptoms. Drug exposure—drug withdrawal symptoms. And do women feel high on estrogen? Perhaps. Clearly the withdrawal is miserable—as one woman said, “I continued to take it only because I couldn’t stand being off the hormone. I really couldn’t function.” (p. 2130 (2). Just ask any woman taking estrogen for hot flushes who has tried to stop it. Continue reading...
Tags: addiction, anatomy, estrogen, guest post, hormones, physiology, progesterone
Posted in Menopause, New Research, anatomy, magazines | 4 Comments »
May 5th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Guest Post by Nicole Luna, Marymount Manhattan College
Elizabeth Kissling’s March 16 post on the launch of the U by Kotex campaign and the comments that followed touched on the implications of the “new” Kotex products and their accompanying empowerment crusade. Comments ranged from how the new tampon applicators resemble glow sticks to how, with the new “menstruation optional” pills and implants, tampon and pad manufacturers are grasping any marketing ploy to keep girls menstruating and buying their products. Indeed, “empowering” women about their menstrual cycle and encouraging women to “celebrate their bodies” is a smart marketing move by Kotex in the face of the menstrual suppression option. The following comment from Giovanna Chesler’s on Kissling’s March 16 post sums up my own opinion about the “radical new product”.:
“Might I add that when I heard that Kotex was bringing a new, radical product to market, I assumed it would be a menstrual cup. What’s new about painting a tampon applicator? Still plastic. Still disposable. Shows how naive I am. Kotex selling menstrual cups… that would be the day!”
Let us not forget, these products still have the same pesticide-infused cotton and the same one-time-use, land fill-bound plastic applicators and wrappers. Continue reading...
Tags: Activism, advertising, FemCare advertising, feminism, guest post, internet, Kotex, racism, tampons, women of color
Posted in Advertising, Disposable menstrual products, Internet, Menstruation | 13 Comments »
May 3rd, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Back in 2000, when my Menstrual Monday journey began, an ever-reasonable friend had pointed out it took 13 years for Julia Ward Howe to establish Mother’s Day. Being a holidaymaker, and more on the creative side than reasonable, I poo-poo’d my friend’s caution. Seriously – Julia Ward Howe didn’t have the Internet! Thirteen years is two centuries in Internet time!
Eleven Menstrual Mondays later, I humbly look forward to the year 2012, and raising a glass (of tomato juice) to Julia Ward Howe, unmoved by any doomsday scenarios erroneously attributed to the Mayan calendar. Holidaymaking is just not as easy as it looks!
Display of Uterine Flying Objects (UFOs)
On the other hand, Menstrual Monday parties are rather easy to throw. Here’s all you need to do:
- Check out the official mission statement for Menstrual Monday – of note, the first goal is to create “a sense of fun around menstruation.” One benefit of “silly” party favors and decorations, such as the U.F.O. (Uterine Flying Object), PMS Blowt-Out, and Tampose (tampon + rose = tampose), is that women from all walks of life are put at ease, wondering “what is that?” rather than being focused on menstrual negativity (taboo and shame are such heavy words, aren’t they?).
- Ask everyone to bring something from the Five Menstrual Monday Food Groups: Green stuff, red stuff, chocolate, poppy seed, egg. Or serve a spinach salad with tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs and poppy seed dressing, with chocolate for dessert. Before sitting down to eat, why not chant “green stuff, red stuff, chocolate, poppy seed, egg” a few times, just for fun?
- To get the discussion going, you can download A Cuppa Questions from MOLT – the questions are printed on drawings of human ova. Cut the ova out, drop them into a cup, and let each guest select a question. Make sure to download the answer sheet as well. You can also cut out extra circles, for guests to write their own questions on.
- If you haven’t tried reusable menstrual pads or menstrual cups before, a Menstrual Monday party is a good time to learn about them. Two such companies are LunaPads and Glad Rags. You and your friends can decide to try these products yourselves – as well as donate pads to young women, who would otherwise be kept out of school.
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Display of MOLTwheels and FloFlags
If you like working with fabric, check out Have a Hester at MOLT, and learn about scarlet letters and flow-dyeing. Right now I’m enamored of red shop rags – I add glitter glue, and use them to package MOLTwheels – the mini-frisbees in the photo. See what ideas you and your guests can come up with.
- Individuals can purchase a DVD copy of the documentary Period: The End of Menstruation? for $29.95. For more film suggestions for your party, see the FloFilm Index at MOLT.
I notice I’ve mentioned a couple of things that require spending money – the most intriguing question to me this Menstrual Monday is: Where is the intersection of feminism, menstruation, and entrepreneurship? I’m wondering: How can there be a transformation in attitudes toward the red stuff, without a corresponding transformation in where women’s green stuff (money) is being spent?
Strawberries and spinach: Food for thought, indeed.
Tags: Activism, culture jamming, events, Film, guest post, holiday, internet, Menstrual Monday
Posted in Activism, Art, DIY, Menstruation | 1 Comment »
April 19th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Guest Post by Jerilynn C. Prior, Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research
I just read “The Estrogen Dilemma” in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, and I feel like weeping—in sorrow and deep sadness. This article by Cynthia Gorney is about energetic, intelligent women who feel they must take estrogen in order to survive perimenopause yet have deep worries about its risks. I know personally the anguishing changes that erupt during perimenopause. “The Estrogen Dilemma” also evoked my frustration and even rage. It is wrong that symptomatic women in the midst of the long and stormy midlife transition have to face a conundrum—to take estrogen or not. It arises from a Nixonian-style cover-up of three proven and important-for-women truths: 1) Perimenopause causes higher and not lower estrogen levels. (By perimenopause I mean the transition from fertile menstrual cycles to menopause, or the life phase beginning one year beyond the final menstrual flow.) 2) Progesterone, estrogen’s essential partner hormone, in contrast to estrogen, truly is lower in perimenopause. 3) Women survive perimenopause and “graduate” into a less symptomatic menopause. Continue reading...
Tags: big pharma, estrogen, guest post, hormones, Menopause, perimenopause, progesterone
Posted in Menopause, New Research, Newspapers, Pharmaceutical | 2 Comments »
April 18th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Guest Post by Paula S. Derry, Ph.D.
Déjà vu
An article in today’s New York Times Magazine recounts the author’s experience with a debilitating depression that began during her perimenopause, the transitional time leading up to menopause. For her, prescription estrogen was a life-saver that alleviated her symptoms. The article places her experience in the context of research on the Timing Hypothesis, an idea that arose after the Women’s Health Initiative, or WHI, research project. WHI clinical trials documented that hormone supplements after menopause did not, as had previously been assumed, lower a woman’s risk of heart disease. Heart disease risk was not lower, and, in fact, when a number of chronic illnesses were considered together, the medication did more harm than good overall. The Timing Hypothesis is the idea that the WHI was fundamentally flawed, because hormones must be started right around the time of menopause to have a health-promoting effect and the subjects in WHI were on average over 60; if started when a woman is older, when chronic illnesses have already started, the hormones are actually harmful rather than helpful. The Sunday New York Times article presents this idea uncritically, without quoting any of the many experts who do not find it plausible or convincing, and, in addition, presents a lurid, unscientific description of perimenopausal hormonal dynamics with words like “ricocheting hormones” and an “upheaval” that causes a “hellacious strain” on the brain. The author suggests that WHI was a poorly planned study that asked the wrong questions with the wrong methodology. The Timing Hypothesis, if true, might lead to a cure for Alzheimers and have other important health repercussions. Continue reading...
Tags: depression, estrogen, guest post, heart disease, hormone therapy, hormones, Menopause, perimenopause, timing hypothesis, WHI
Posted in Menopause, New Research, Newspapers, Pharmaceutical | 1 Comment »
April 15th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Guest Post by David Linton, Marymount Manhattan College
Women are sadly accustomed to encountering menstrual prejudices, negative stereotypes and condescending attitudes in movies, TV shows, ads, jokes and causal conversations. But, there’s one place you’d think would be free of menstrual malice: women’s public toilets. Here’s a place protected from the intrusive male gaze, a place where women often engage in conversational bonding, where secrets are shared, where pads and tampons are given to the friend or stranger caught unprepared by the unexpected arrival of an early or first period.
This phenomenon is captured sensitively in an episode of the Canadian situation comedy, DeGrassi: The Next Generation, titled “Coming of Age,” that depicts the story of Emma, one of the featured characters, when she gets her first period. She stains her pale skirt (a detail that is shown explicitly) and races to the bathroom with a friend. Neither girl is carrying the needed product but a girl with whom Emma is in conflict comes in and, setting aside their enmity, provides her with a pad. The menarche story is told with candor, and the bathroom scene captures the special nature of the kinds of menstrual transactions that occur in the sheltered environment of the “Women’s Room.” An earlier posting on re:Cycling portrayed another such menstrual transaction with humor. Continue reading...
Tags: bathroom, guest post, Switzerland
Posted in Disposable menstrual products, Humor | Comments Off
April 12th, 2010 by Chris Bobel
Guest Post by Alexandra Jacoby
handmirror
“Controversy Rages Over Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery”. You can read the full article by Betsy Bates in Ob.Gyn. News. Bates interviews doctors as to whether performing these procedures meets a need or exploits a lack of body-knowledge among women. Both sides claim to be taking care of, and empowering, women.
One of the doctors who performs genital cosmetic surgery is not only sure that women are well-educated on the range of diversity of normal-looking vulva, he also feels it would be insulting to our intelligence and confidence to raise the question.
From where I sit, he is mistaken about this – we do need to be educated! – and, on another note: why is it disrespectful to offer information?
Admittedly, Ob.Gyn. is not my field, nevertheless, I’d like to say a few words. No – wait, it IS my field, or rather I’m its field – as I am a woman. One who didn’t give her body a lot of thought – until I started photographing vulvas.
The photography project began as a response to a friend who told me that she “didn’t like the way her vagina looked”. I wanted her to know that there was no one right way to look, that we were all unique. Continue reading...
Tags: anatomy, guest post, ob/gyn, vulva
Posted in New Research, anatomy | 1 Comment »
April 6th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Guest Post by Barbara A. Brenner Executive Director, Breast Cancer Action
One of the saddest aspects of capitalism is that companies think they can and should own anything they get their hands on. Some time ago, they started obtaining patents on human genes, including two genes implicated in breast cancer: BRCA1 and BRCA2.
The company that obtained the patents on these genes is called Myriad Genetics. With the patents, Myriad controls both the tests given to women to see if they carry mutations on these genes that may predisposed them to breast and ovarian cancer, as well as all the research related to the genes.
How can anyone own our genes? Up until now, no court has been asked that question. But last week, in a ground breaking decision, a federal judge in New York declared that Myriad’s patents on the breast cancer genes are invalid because they patent a part of nature.
That may seem like an obvious thing to most of us, but the research community is up in arms about how their inability to patent genes will inhibit their ability to innovate new treatments. Sounds plausible, but don’t be fooled. These patents are more about making money than they are about taking care of people who are sick. Continue reading...
Tags: breast cancer, genetic research, guest post, Health Care, lawsuit, patent
Posted in Law/Legal, Philosophy | 1 Comment »
March 10th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling
Guest Post by David Linton, Marymount Manhattan College
Debates about Christianity’s attitudes toward women sometimes focus on Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene and isolated engagements with other unnamed women encountered during his travels. Little is made of a healing scene in the book of Luke(8:43-48) where Jesus had momentary contact with a woman who, in all likelihood, had a severe case of menorrhagia. Here’s how the translation is described in the Revised Standard Version”
“As he went, the people pressed round him. And a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years and could not be healed by any one came up behind him, and touched the fringe of his garment; and immediately her flow of blood ceased. And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the multitudes surround you and press upon you!” But Jesus said, “Some one touched me; for I perceive that power has gone forth from me.” And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” Continue reading...
Tags: Christianity, guest post, Menstruation, religion
Posted in Language, Literature, Men, Menorrhagia, Menstruation, Religion/Spirituality | 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.
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