- Margie Profet is well known among membership of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research, and lots of other folks, too: her controversial 1993 article in the Quarterly Review of Biology proposed an adaptive value of menstruation that attracted a lot of popular press attention. She subsequently won a MacArthur Foundation ‘genius’ grant. But she more or less disappeared in the early 2000s. She cut ties with her family in 2002, and was regarded as missing, probably dead, by nearly everyone else by 2005. Happily, she is still alive, and has reunited with her family. A blog post published a few days ago at Nature has the details.
- Dr. Jen Gunter answers a question you were either too embarrassed to ask or just didn’t know who to ask: what’s the cause of queefing?
- IUDs are 20 times more effective at stopping unintended pregnancies than the pill. Why do so few American women use them?
- The National Cancer Institute revised and updated their fact sheet about the cancer risks of oral contraceptives this spring.
- The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists directed a succinct message to American politicians in Monday’s New York Times: Get out of our exam rooms.
- Update at the Crimson Campaign about the importance of talking about menstruation: Understanding the m word.
- Sexy Period lingerie surveyed men to find out what they know about menstruation. The results are available in a fancy infographic (slide cursor sideways to see all).
- Help our colleague Sharra Vostral with her research on tampons and the history of toxic shock syndrome (TSS) — Complete this quick survey about the subject.
Thanks, Liz, for bringing all these great sites to my attention. I love the weekend links, they always teach me new things!