Blog of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research

Figure Girl Fertility

January 18th, 2012 by David Linton

Guest Post by Lianne McTavish — University of Alberta

(aka Feminist Figure Girl)

While working out at the gym yesterday—something I do on a daily basis—I felt a strangely familiar pressure in my lower abdomen and noticed that it was protruding, despite the strong elastic of my Lululemon pants. ‘Oh I know what is going on,’ I said to my fit workout partner. ‘I am getting my period!’ She too was bloated and crampy, and we wondered if our cycles had synchronized during strenuous sets of wide grip chin ups and heavy dead lifts. Deciding that we were probably romanticizing our ovarian activity, we stopped talking and returned to our tabata-inspired drills, grunting out 50 burpees. Life was good.

Feminist Figure Girl poses in competition (Used with permission)

I was pleased with my body and its potential fertility, which made me feel younger than my 44 years. Just a few months ago I thought I might have entered menopause, though without any accompanying symptoms, except for amenorrhea. I had stopped menstruating while training and dieting for a bodybuilding competition. After being promoted to full professor at the University of Alberta, writing a couple of books, and publishing numerous articles, I needed a new challenge. Already a dedicated gym rat, I decided to enter a bodybuilding competition, doing so as a form of research. I began reading feminist theories of embodiment and cultural accounts of weight lifting, hired an established diet coach, took posing lessons, and learned how to walk in high heels. I entered a local contest in the category called ‘Figure,’ which favours muscular physiques with wide, capped shoulders, broad upper backs, and well defined quads, but requires a softer appearance than traditional forms of bodybuilding. Adopting a beauty pageant aesthetic, the exclusively female participants in Figure—known colloquially as ‘Figure girls’—wear blinged out bikinis and four-inch high plastic shoes while performing mandatory four-quarter turns to display every angle of their bodies to a panel of judges. I wanted to know why women found such contests empowering, even though these events might initially seem both oppressive and sexist. I also wanted to experience what it felt like to compete.

One physical result was the loss of my period. Six months before my show I had weighed 145 pounds and had my body fat carefully measured at 17%, but when I hit the stage at the Northern Alberta Bodybuilding Championships on June 4, 2011, I was 118 pounds and had only about 6% body fat. During that diet-down phase I had ceased taking birth control pills because the estrogen could soften my body, at odds with my goals. Although I used alternative forms of contraception, I feared that they would be less effective and began taking monthly pregnancy tests. The single blue line on the plastic stick was a relief to me, replacing the role of menstrual blood by providing visual evidence of my non-pregnant state.

My period had not returned three months after my competition, though I had gained about 15 pounds by eating larger amounts of healthy, high protein food. I was training just as hard at the gym; indeed I was lifting much heavier weights. During a routine physical in September, I reluctantly told my sensible-shoes doctor that I had not had a period in quite some time. ‘If I have already gone through menopause,’ I exclaimed, ‘it’s the bomb and I say bring it!’ ‘Oh no,’ she chuckled, ‘most of my athletic female patients no longer menstruate. Plus, you are only 44 and can probably squeeze out a few more eggs.’  Horrified by this news I cried out: ‘No, no more eggs!’ I had been hoping to wear the crown of sterility for the rest of my life.

Off the Pill, Off the Magazines

January 12th, 2012 by Elizabeth Kissling

Guest Post by Holly Grigg-Spall

“Less stressed, thinner and more interested in sex.” – but not buying magazines.

In a recent issue of the UK’s Stylist magazine — a weekly women’s glossy that is available for free at tube stations and selected clothing stores — there was an article headlined ‘What does 10 Years On The Pill Do To You?‘ As a result of my on-going blog, Sweetening the Pill, which documents my experience of coming off the contraceptive pill, I was contacted by the writer to provide some quotes for this piece. Unfortunately, I was edited out. As a journalist myself, I understood this situation has little to do with the writer’s choice of content and more to do with the magazine editor’s final say on what was most fitting for the feature. Yet the title question is the very crux of my blog: having taken the Pill for 10 years, stopping as a result of discovering the answer to this very question.

 

Photo Credit: Anthony Easton // CC 2.0

According to the Stylist piece the answer is that the Pill changes your memory skills, lowers your libido, makes you attracted to the wrong kinds of men for you, changes weight distribution, prevents you building muscles, make you retain water, make you depressed and jealous…and how can you tell if this all is just you or the Pill? You can’t and you shouldn’t try to find out, is the message here. We are advised to not take a break from the Pill, not even for a week, and if you are concerned, just ask for a different brand from your doctor. There is no discussion of non-hormonal alternatives. There is also no discussion of the benefits of not taking the Pill, of allowing your body to ovulate once a month.

 

My answer to this question was: “The Pill has a whole body impact. Taking the Pill shuts down a woman’s hormone cycle — and the ovulation and menstruation that is an essential part of this cycle — and replaces it with a low stream of synthetic hormones. This has an affect on every organ in the body — the impact is wide-reaching and crudely administered. The peaks, troughs, and plateaus of a woman’s ‘natural’ cycle are wiped out. The monthly hormone cycle is integral to many of the body’s central functions, including the metabolic, immune, and endocrine systems. This changes everything — from your sense of smell to your libido to your ability to absorb vitamins from your food.

 

Many women have said to me that coming off the Pill was ‘life-changing’ and, as someone now two years off the Pill after ten years on, I have to agree with the description. The life-threatening potential effects of the Pill get publicity — the blood clots and strokes — but the quality of life-threatening and the emotional and mental effects are barely discussed. Fatigue, muscle loss, urinary tract infections, bleeding gums, stomach disorders, flu-like symptoms, hair loss — relatively minor physical issues caused by the Pill that together can make life very hard. Depression, anxiety, panic attacks, rage, paranoia — all issues brought on by the Pill, due to a combination of switching off the hormone cycle and vitamin B deficiency. I experienced the whole package and when I wasn’t bordering on nervous breakdown I was flatlining, barely able to feel anything at all.”

 

Tampons and Transphobia

January 4th, 2012 by Elizabeth Kissling

Guest post by Lauren Ingram

Libra is the Australian and New Zealand arm of an international brand of women’s ‘feminine hygiene’ products. So basically, they sell tampons, pads, and other femcare products. I’ve never tended to pay much attention to their advertisements, to be honest. To me, tampon ads to seem to (usually) all look the same. Some of them I find mildly offensive due to the stereotyping of women in the advertisements, but most of the time they don’t even make my radar.

Libra’s latest ad definitely made my radar. The ad (courtesy of YouTube) is below if you want to take a look. The ad is currently featured on Libra’s website and is playing on free-to-air television.

 

The advertisement is incredibly offensive to trans women (and any woman, I would think). It features a pretty young ciswoman in a bathroom next to what appears to be a trans woman or possibly what is meant to be not a trans woman but a ‘drag queen’ (I am unsure what Libra were intending). They both begin applying makeup competitively, mascara then lip gloss ect. The ciswoman then pulls out a box of tampons and offers one to the trans woman. The transwoman walks off in a huff.

 

The ad ends with a box of tampons and the slogan ‘Libra gets girls’.

This ad has so many problems it appalls me.

Firstly, the stereotyping and mocking of trans women. Portraying trans women with over the top makeup, huge fake nails and fake boobs is extremely stereotypical. Trans women are very rarely portrayed in the mainstream media, and when people only see images like these of transwomen, it is extremely harmful. It reinforces specific perceptions on what a trans woman is.

Secondly, the implication that trans women are not ‘real’ women. The entire ad is based on the premise that ‘real’ women get periods, and that if you don’t, you are excluded from ‘womanhood’. This idea not only excludes transwomen from the club of ‘womanhood’ but also so many other women who do not get periods. For example, women who have had hysterectomies, women who do not get periods due to certain illnesses.

The slogan really frustrates me too. Clearly if Libra ‘got girls’ they would not have made such a damaging advertisement. They would understand that definition of gender is not restricted to if a person has one bodily function.

Implying that women are only women if they menstruate is reinforcing a culture that says that women are only made valid by their ability and desire to have children.

In short, it is a disgraceful ad that should be pulled. Libra should be apologising for even thinking that this was a good idea. It uses trans women as a punchline, something to be laughed at and degraded.

If the ad has made you angry too, here’s how you can help:

If you’re interested, take a look at this website: http://tranifesto.com/transgender-faqs-and-info/ by Matt Kailey, who has a great (but not definitive) FAQ on how to not be offensive to trans people, and general education about trans people.

 

Update: As of late afternoon, January 3, 2012, Transadvocate reports that Libra has apologized and suspended the campaign.

Lauren Ingram is a Journalism and Political Communication student at the University of Canberra. This post was originally published at her blog, That Politics Girl, on January 1, 2012.

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On Menopause Definitions

December 28th, 2011 by Elizabeth Kissling

Guest Post by Paula S. Derry, Ph.D.

In a recent blog post, Heather Dillaway commented on the uncertainty, confusion, and frustration she felt as a menopause researcher, given the lack of consensus about the most basic aspects of the menopause transition. Researchers don’t agree about their definitions, and can’t even agree on what needs to be defined. She asked for reactions to her entry; I’ve found that my reaction has grown into this separate post.

Fire in the Head by Beate Knappe // CC 2.0

I, unlike Heather, am not a sociologist. I’m a health psychologist. My training and current work include analyzing, critiquing, and making sense of experimental research and theories. I have also developed workshops for community women and for professionals whose aim is to provide health-promoting information and decision-making heuristics. I have given a lot of thought to the issues that Heather raises, and this is as far as I’ve gotten with them.

To me, there are many layers of issues involved. The first is the fact that the science — about the physiology of menopause and the processes leading up to it — is limited and incomplete. Part of the reason that professionals disagree about whether the life course of menstruation has five stages or seven, or why women have hot flashes, or even why women have a menopause, is that we don’t actually know. We simply do not have the scientific facts. We don’t understand what the underlying process is or how it works. Given this uncertainty, professionals must make judgments about how to define terms and what their hypotheses (or best guesses) are about underlying processes. A second fact, along with our limited real knowledge, is the tenacity with which professionals assert their judgments and argue against competing views. People disagree and they hold strongly to their positions—about language and the facts. To me, it makes sense to have definitions of stages of menstrual life that are objective and easily measurable (like the STRAW staging system) for researchers who need to compare results with each other. It doesn’t make sense to assert that this system, based on expert opinion and not on experimental facts, actually defines when a particular stage really “begins.” It makes sense to say that experimental research supports the idea that changes in the thermoregulatory center of the hypothalamus are important processes if you’re trying to understand hot flashes.  It does not make sense to conclude that these brain changes in themselves explain hot flashes; other factors must also be involved.

I think another source of confusion is that menopause is not one thing, but many. It is a circumscribed biological change (lack of periods and what leads up to them physiologically) and also a psychosociocultural matter. We have a term for when girls begin to menstruate (menarche), a separate term for the larger biological changes of which menarche is a part (puberty), and another term for the biopsychosociocultural changes of which puberty is a part (adolescence). I think these kinds of distinctions are confused with regard to understanding menopause in part because there is cultural confusion about midlife (or mature adulthood or whatever term you use) as a life stage.  There is no cultural consensus about this stage of life.  And, indeed, this isn’t surprising.  Some women are planning retirement while others are training for a new job or career.  Some are grandmothers while others are raising a young child.  My opinion, also, is that we as a culture have a paucity of concepts of mature, responsible adulthood and what it means.

Boxing and Bleeding

December 2nd, 2011 by Elizabeth Kissling

Robin getting her hands taped at Heavy Hitters Boxing Club (Photo by trainer Jay Morales, used with permission).

Guest Post by Robin Percyz

In the boxing ring, droplets of blood are often an indication of triumph.  In fact, if you’ve ever had the opportunity to fight, seeing blood on an opponent’s face will often evoke a primal, animalistic pleasure.   Boxing is, arguably, one of very few scenarios where bleeding is encouraged.

In this sport, the notion of blood is a funny thing, depending on where it’s coming from.  When I sit in my corner after Round 2 of a fight and stare across the ring at my opponent’s bloodied face, my trainer encourages me with zeal.  He’ll boast, “Look at the blood, mama- you’re hurting her!! GOOD!”  Even my own blood, running down my nose and into my mouth is somewhat appealing, reminding me of the “beast” I am trained to be.

At my boxing club, the carpet lining the ring is stained with visible traces of bloody bouts and sparring.  We can point and laugh at whose blood is whose and remember the victory and triumph that resulted from those stains.  However, that blood-induced pride would quickly dissipate had it resulted from menstruation.

In the gym, menstruation is held to a sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.  You would be right in assuming that female boxers are the minority in this culture.  As such, my monthly menstruation is never the topic of the day, nor will it ever be discussed.  “Menstrually” speaking, we want our women to have healthy cycles, yet we generally regard menstruation as disruptive, unspoken, and above all, disgusting.  In the boxing community, we encounter a clear and evident divide between that of “good” and “bad” blood.  It’s as clear as this:  Blood from the nose – GOOD!  Blood from between a woman’s legs – BAD and, further, DISMISSED!

As a female boxer, I think about my “blood” on a fairly regular basis.  Bleeding is something that should innately occur to my system every 28 days (more or less).  However, like many female athletes, my menstruation has taken a hiatus for some unknown amount of time.  They call it amenorrhea, symptomatic of the female triad.  This is all fancy jargon that basically communicates one simple fact: I don’t get a period – ever.

Boxing is an interesting sport in that it exercises much more than physicality.  As fighters, we are expected to fight within a certain weight class.  For many competing athletes, this often means excessive physical exertion on top of brief bouts of starvation prior to fighting.  Smart?  Of course not!

After some time without a menstrual period, I certainly began to experience some psychological hypersensitivity.  Am I woman?  Where did my period go?  These were the kinds of thoughts running through my head prior to each bout, when the doctor would ask me, “When was the last date of your menstrual period?”  I don’t know.

As women, we associate our first menstruation as a coming of age that says “I AM NOW A WOMAN!”  The loss of a menstrual cycle would, reasonably, mean that you are now LESS of a woman.  Or, perhaps, am I woman at all?

It’s just blood.  I wondered why blood between my legs would have anything to do with feeling like a woman.  After all, it was annoying to have to worry about it for four to seven days out of the month, not to mention training with it.

Sustainable Cycles

October 31st, 2011 by Chris Bobel

Sarah Konner and Toni Craigie Bicycle Down the West Coast, Live on $4 a Day, and Talk to People about Sustainable Menstrual Products.

Hear, in their own words, what they did and why it matters.

These gals are our menstrual sheroes!

Our Project

Over a lifetime, the average woman spends about 2,000 dollars on single-use pads and tampons, creating an enormous truckload of trash. There are more affordable and sustainable options that very few people seem to know about. We left Seattle on bikes on August 18th and arrived in LA on October 10th, and we will be continuing this work off-bicycle in the coming months. Along the way, we are meeting women, community organizers, health professionals, business owners, and people of all stripes, and having conversations about the benefits of reusable menstrual products.

For this project, we have been focusing on reusable menstrual cups—made of natural gum rubber latex or medical-grade silicon; they catch, rather than absorb menstrual flow. One cup costs $35 and can last up to 10 years—quite a deal. There are three companies that sell menstrual cups in the US, all approved as safe by the FDA. Each company has donated cups, totaling over 200, for us to give as gifts along the way. We also have a small number of reusable pads to give away.

There are powerful environmental impacts from this lifestyle switch and also important health benefits. For every woman who leaves behind single-use disposable pads and tampons, you can imagine a truckload of trash not going into the landfills, the decreased carbon footprint from production and shipping of these products, the trees saved, and all of the environmental toxins not going into our air, water, and bodies.

The Trouble with Disposables (Pads and Tampons)

Conventional pads and tampons are made of chlorine-bleached wood pulp, with some cotton (generally grown with tons of pesticides), rayon, plastic, and glue mixed in. They also contain bleach and dioxins, carcinogenic chemicals that are harmful to your body and to the environment. The vagina – wet, warm, and porous – seems like the last place you’d want those chemicals. Tampons, especially the super absorbent kinds, can create a perfect breeding ground for Toxic Shock Syndrome, caused by the deadly bacteria known as Staph (Staphylococcus aureus). These disposable products are not easily biodegradable, which is why they often clog septic systems and long outstay their welcome in our oceans and landfills.

The most immediate concern for many women is the cost of single-use products, every month, until menopause. Pads and tampons are an economic burden on all women BUT prove especially difficult for low-income women since they are not covered by food stamps.

The Scoop on Reusables

Using a menstrual cup puts a woman in more intimate contact with her body: she needs to figure out the mechanics of inserting and removing the cup and sees the color and consistency of her menstrual fluid each time she empties the cup.  Once you get over the learning curve, cups seems easier, more hygienic, and believe it or not, less gross than pads and tampons.  Many users come to value the increased knowledge of their body and cycle that they get from their cup.

Contact lenses make a great analogy: at first people are worried about touching their eye or may experience some irritation as they figure out the best way to put the lenses in.  Quickly, however, most people develop an easy routine around their contacts, and it’s no big deal.

Cosmopolitan, the Sex Magazine That Won’t Talk About (Period) Sex

October 21st, 2011 by David Linton

Guest Post by Saniya Ghanoui

Cosmopolitan is open about its coverage of sex. It is curious then that the coverage of period sex is limited and not as open or adventurous as other sex ideas found in the magazine. The message regarding period sex is simple: men must be protected from menstrual blood.

The idea that a male will touch blood stirs the ideas of castration, a battle, or even death and thus must be avoided. This is ironic, given that many women actually have a heightened sexual arousal while on their periods. And since Cosmopolitan is directed towards women it is odd that it does not put women’s issues on the forefront but rather still caters to the taboo, despite hiding behind its catchphrase of “Fun Fearless Female.”

In the Cosmo Sex Challenge, one Cosmopolitan writer and her boyfriend attempt to try 77 sex positions in 77 days. Typically the writer’s period should come up approximately twice in 77 days, yet is only mentioned once. She mentions that her boyfriend isn’t “into it,” in reference to period sex, but convinces him to do it. After one hot and heavy night, in the boyfriend’s bed, she notices red handprints on the sheets so she throws a pillow over them and makes a “mental note to change his sheets tomorrow morning.” This is a physical act of apologizing.

The changing, and it can be assumed the subsequent washing of the sheets, not only works as an implicit apology but also reemphasizes the stereotype that women must perform this idea of a proper feminine role in a relationship. Also, she is changing the sheets so her boyfriend does not find out about the handprint, meaning she does not want him to see the blood. For what reason? Is she ashamed that she bleeds? Embarrassed?

In addition, when she first sees the handprint her reaction is “Oh. My. God.” Obviously this is an expression of shock that is emphasized by the separation of each word with a period. So after doing these complex sex positions (and many more to come), this is what makes her express shock? Yet, she doesn’t seem to be shocked that her period only came once in 77 days.

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Don’t Ask, Don’t Smell

January 27th, 2011 by Elizabeth Kissling

female-minority-happy-military-wide-horizontalGuest Post by Emily Swan, Marymount Manhattan College

With the military’s history of suppressing minority groups, its new effort to conceal and terminate menstruation comes as no surprise. Hopefully, the menses will be able to come out of the closet soon enough.

I recently wrote a paper about menstruation in the military and was excited to see this recent post at re:Cycling. Researchers have suddenly become sensitive to the “devastating” effects of menstruation on women in combat and training, citing a potential link to iron-deficiency, among other things. (Might I add that, while the article identifies menses as the culprit, the actual data suggest no correlation between the loss of menstrual blood and the low iron levels of the participants.) Researchers have also conducted studies and interviews to determine the level of difficulty menstruation adds to a variety of physical activities and expose reported difficulty in obtaining, storing, transporting, changing, and disposing of “sanitary products” (Note the hygiene-promoting terminology). These reports have indicated a significant struggle with menstrual management, giving grounds to the military’s new encouragement for women to use continuous oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) to “temporarily” induce amenorrhea.

What’s happening here is not simply a conquering of the menses but an overpowering of women as a whole. The article about iron deficiency says it best, with its opening paragraph explaining the biological disadvantages of women: women’s lower levels of physical strength, inferior aerobic performance, and a number of other physical and mental “shortcomings” that include the ability to menstruate. It states, “the physical differences between genders in the military setting should be minimized as much as possible” (866). They’re not trying to make women more comfortable by stopping their periods; they’re using men to set the physical and mental performance standard for which women must strive. The failure of women to meet this standard lies in their very biology; the study directly blamed their femaleness as the source of this imbalance. It’s not, “Stop menstruating because it will help you.” It’s, “Stop menstruating because it will get you that much closer to being a man.” Oh joy.

The misogyny embedded within this move toward menstrual suppression does not discount the results of the studies; menstrual management poses a serious issue for most military women! In addition to the difficulty reported in transporting, obtaining, and storing products, another article relayed the troubling results of interviews from women of the Air Force, Army, and Navy regarding personal hygiene and field menstrual management.4 These interviews told of highly unsanitary bathroom facilities in combat environments, lack of privacy for the use and changing of menstrual products, and bathrooms that rarely contained receptacles for disposing of the products. The women reported collecting used products in Ziploc bags to either bury them in the secrecy of night or to keep them in their luggage until they returned to the U.S. Because of the hot, moist climates inhabited during deployment; the heavy, reused, and unwashed clothing; and the frequent lack of water or time to wash up, the interviewees reported constant awareness and humiliation surrounding menstrual odor. Most of the women also admitted hesitancy toward utilizing the clinic for menstrual health issues because they were made to feel that their menstrual symptoms were not worthy of care. They also reported that gynecological exams were excluded from their general deployment health examinations.

S.A.N.E Vax Objects to FDA Ruling Gardasil Use for Anal Cancer

December 29th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling

Guest post by Leslie Botha, S.A.N.E. Vax

Increasing Number of Consumers are Concerned over HPV Vaccine Safety

The FDA’s December 22, 2010 ruling to expand the use of Gardasil for anal cancer prevention is unacceptable, according to Norma Erickson, President of S.A.N.E Vax. Last Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil for the prevention of anal cancer and associated pre-cancer lesions due to human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6, 11, 16, and 18 in people ages 9 through 26 years. Immediately, the news flooded the media – with many postings on HIV/AIDS sites.

However, medical consumers are unaware the 2010 Gardasil® Patient Product Information (PPI) states if a woman has “…immune problems, like HIV infection, cancer, or takes medicines that affect the immune system” they must be reported to the health care provider. This should be of grave concern to HIV/AID patients and their physicians who may consider the vaccine to “prevent” anal cancer.

Gardasil is already approved for the same age population for the prevention of cervical, vulvar, and vaginal cancer and the associated precancerous lesions caused by HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18 in females, and for the prevention of genital warts caused by types 6 and 11 in both males and females in the same age group. 
This same demographic has reported over 20,915 adverse reactions – mostly from Gardasil to VAERS – the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. In addition, 89 deaths and 382 abnormal pap tests post vaccination have been reported with an estimated 1 to 10% of the population filing, according to the National Vaccine Information Center. The rate of deaths and adverse reactions are reported as a percentage of doses distributed, not doses actually administered, and therefore CDC statistics on reported injuries likely misrepresent their frequency.

Data on adverse reactions from males ages 9 to 26 are just starting to be reported to VAERS. Hundreds of social media sited, journalists, researchers and educators have joined forces to publicly decry the faulty science, data, research and fast-tracking of this vaccine through the FDA.

Of course, Merck & Co. denies a causal relationship between the adverse reactions and deaths to their award-winning vaccine. However, on December 20, the QMI News Agency in Canada reported a Quebec coroner can’t explain why a 14-year-old girl died after receiving a dose of the Gardasil vaccine. Even though coroner Michel Ferland’s report concludes the adolescent girl died from drowning, and while there is no evidence the shot killed the teenager, he is refusing to rule out a link between Gardasil and her death. On December 13, Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today wrote an article titled: Many Fail to Finish HPV Series as Recommended stating that “…Many girls and young women may not be completing all three doses of the quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine in a timely fashion…” According to Dr. Lea Widdice, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center; in a single-institution retrospective analysis, only 14% of girls and young women completed all three doses within seven months of the first, and only 28% did so within 12 months.

Although statistical data was cited for non-compliance, SANE VAX wants to know if the girls were surveyed for their reasons in not completing the vaccine series. Until the true reasons are known, consumers must remain wary about the potential health dangers from the administration of Gardasil and Cervarix.

According to the FDA there are limitations on the use and effectiveness of Gardasil:

  • GARDASIL does not eliminate the necessity for women to continue to undergo recommended cervical cancer screening.

Menstruation Can Lead to Shopping Sprees

October 27th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling

Guest Post by Kitty Holman

Yves Saint Laurent Satin Peep-Toe Shoes

Yves Saint Laurent Satin Peep-Toe Shoes

Make no mistake, there are some women who absolutely love to shop. And why not? Shopping has long been described as being a therapeutic activity because it has the uncanny ability to lift the spirit. After all, bringing home a new pair of sassy shoes can do wonders for a foul mood. But shopping can also be a detrimental hobby for women who are carefully monitoring their funds. This is especially true during the week right before menstruation. New research by Karen J. Pine and Ben C. Fletcher at the University of Hertfordshrine’s School of Psychology has shown that women tend to spend more money when they are later into their menstruation cycle than during any other time of the month. Their paper, “Women’s spending behaviour is menstrual-cycle sensitive,” appears in the January, 2011, issue of Personality and Individual Differences.

Menstruation affects women in an almost primal way. At peak ovulation, which is when the female body is the most fertile and therefore the most likely to become pregnant, women may find themselves unconsciously adapting their behavior to attract men, or potential mates. Many women change their dress style during this time in an effort to impress potential partners, which has been dubbed the “ornamentation effect,” according to researchers . The ornamentation effect typically occurs a week before menstruation, coinciding with Pine and Fletcher’s findings that women tend to make more indulgent and reckless expenditures during this time than any other time of the month. The research suggests that the two are connected, as women may make more self-indulgent purchases, typically of clothing or other “preening” items, because they are unconsciously driven to adapt their physical appearance to attract a mate. In fact, the researchers surveyed 443 women, all menstruating and between the ages of 18 and 50, and found that 48 percent of the women who admitted to impulsive and excessive spending did so when they were premenstrual, as opposed to the 34 percent who were menstrual or post-menstrual and the mere 18 percent who were in mid-cycle.

Another factor driving women to overspend a week before menstruation can be attributed to hormones. Immediately before menstruation, the female body is barraged with different signals in addition to the desire to attract a potential partner. Hormonal triggers can bring on mood swings and other irritability symptoms associated with premenstrual syndrome, also known as PMS. These symptoms and the stress that they bring on can dampen a woman’s capacity for self-control, which can further explain why women tend to spend more during the luteal phase, the only time during the menstrual cycle when PMS occurs. If the unawareness of self-control is not one of the driving causes behind overspending during the luteal phase, then it is likely that justification is. Women may feel that they deserve to spend more during this time of the month as they are generally feeling uncomfortable and irritable, even if they understand that the expenditure is extravagant.

Whether excessive spending is caused by an unconscious need to preen, a lack of self-control in the face of PMS-related stress, or a simple license to indulge in shopping caused by luteal phase anxiety, otherwise money-smart women can find themselves more susceptible to making impulse purchases the later they are into their menstrual cycle. Those who wish to watch their spending and protect their funds from reckless behavior can simply avoid the mall during that particular time of the month.

This guest post is contributed by Kitty Holman, who writes on the topics of nursing schools.  She welcomes your comments at her email address kitty.holman20@gmail.com

Hate ‘moisture’? You’ll love these.

September 5th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling

Guest Post by Chella Quint, Adventures in Menstruating

A date with Ryan

Ryan HATES moisture.

So Johnson & Johnson’s Canadian division’s just launched a new Stayfree campaign that I found out about when a Toronto reporter contacted me for an article she was writing. The campain is a series of viral youtube videos that simulate a date with one of three archetypal ‘Mr. Rights’, segue into a product testing situation, and conclude with an offer of a coupon for a free pack of pads.

Now, you can’t argue with free stuff, and the viral nature of the campaign is a good hook to try and get women who have brand loyalty but who might be persuaded to swap, but I think it’s the pads market going for tampon users. A virtual date with attractive thirty-something guys with careers, skills and hobbies? That’s the top half of the 18-34 demographic and I’m pretty sure I remember reading we’re mostly tampon users, though a lot of people have swapped to reusable menstrual cups, so I think on that front these ads aren’t going to work. They’ve already got a couple of things working against them, and only the free stuff in their favour.

Then there’s the length of those ads – two-and-a-half minutes of talking nonstop and the woman’s just nodding? I ramble on about menstruation, but I do let people get a word in edgeways.

Taking the ads as a whole, the ‘I’m on a horse’ Old Spice ad surreal shift to product testing mid date is funny, and the fact that it is so much of a cliché is in keeping with the new ‘tongue in cheek’ ad style, but the message is all wrong. It’s interesting that comedy femcare ads are happening now (this is the third big comedy campaign after Mother Nature and the role reversal Kotex ones, and the nth viral…). I may have no show left to do soon because I’ve parodied femcare ads for the past five years and now they’re parodying themselves. Maybe they’ve been reading my zine. Still though, I wish they’d stop making the same old mistakes. Periods don’t need to be invisible, they don’t need to be negative, and they don’t stand alone – they’re part of a whole biological process and not a creepy ‘other’ that women ‘suffer from’. They’re too inconsistent to be properly funny. If they’re going to go to all that effort, they’d do better to leave out the negative messages. But I’m making sweeping generalisations. Let’s break it down. Here’s where they go wrong on their dates:

Brad The Chef:

They’ve missed a trick with the tomato sauce spilling on the chef’s shirt. It figures that the first time ever there’s a red stain in a femcare ad it’s on a dude.

Then he says “I like thinness, don’t you?” Ok so body image obsessed then…  Fail.

Ryan The Toymaker:

Stereotype of the do-gooder, check. Good effort. But then he says, “I hate moisture.” (Like it’s evil.)  ”Don’t you just hate moisture?” And then the camera…nods?

Dismissive euphemism for blood aside, if they both hate moisture, that is going to be one…chaste relationship.

Moisture? Liquid? They may have tried to appear ‘brave’ or ‘savvy’ by sticking a dude in the ad, but Stayfree doesn’t have the ovaries to use red liquid or say blood? In 2010? Either would be fine. Their version of the visual and the vocab makes menstruation disappear…in an ad for maxipads.

Finally, the killer for Ryan is when he says, “It’s not fair that you should have to experience this every month. It’s just not fair.”

Visit From A Friend

August 10th, 2010 by Elizabeth Kissling

Guest post by Anastacia Kurylo, Marymount Manhattan College

"Ovulation", oil on canvas by Von Taylor

"Ovulation", oil on canvas by Von Taylor

It’s been four years since I had my period. I did get a visit from my ‘friend’ for six months a couple of years ago but considering that I menstruated regularly for nearly twenty years before that six months was not a long time to get reacquainted. Now I am menstruating again regularly.

Having my period again reminds me of the person I was for the twenty years before I had my children-independent, in control, free to eat and sleep when I wanted – and how that part of my life is over.

Having my period again also reminds me of the person I have become the last four years – pregnant or lactating with one of my two children either in my belly or on my breast for most of this time – and how that part of my life is over too.

I never liked or understood the euphemism of my ‘friend’ representing menstruation. I saw it as a silly way to refer to a mundane biological occurrence females should own, be proud of, and state bluntly.

Now I understand the metaphor. For twenty years, my ‘friend’ was close to me physically and emotionally. My period was a reminder of my maturity and femininity and just as often an inconvenience and annoyance. I knew her well – her tendencies, how she would behave, and how to handle her. After twenty years of being inseparable, my ‘friend’ left and was replaced by my daughter and, then, my son. At times, my children are also reminders of my maturity and femininity and are also, at times, an inconvenience and annoyance. As I have begun to get to know my children, I forgot about my ‘friend.’

Having my period again and no longer being or anticipating being pregnant or lactating marks the start of yet another part of my life. Now that my ‘friend’ is back, we have to get reacquainted –she is not the same and neither am I.

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