I’m looking forward to chairing this panel presentation exploring the intersections of contraception and menstrual health beliefs on Friday morning, June 5th, at the 21st Biennial Conference of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research at The Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights, June 4-6, 2015, Suffolk University, Boston.  The conference theme is Menstrual Health and Reproductive Justice: Human Rights Across the Lifespan.

Photo courtesy of Jen Lewis

Dueling Medicines: Contraception and Deeply Rooted Beliefs in Menstruation as a Health-giving Process

This panel will address women’s poor use, misuse, and rejection of medical contraception in Africa, the U.S., and other parts of the world. The first panelist will focus on Sub-Saharan women who either reject or stop using contraceptive pharmaceuticals when they become aware of the irregularities in their periods caused by the drugs. Next is an examination of how women in the U.S. who use natural family planning misuse or stop using medical contraception because of their desire for “normal” and “healthy” periods. The last presentation will work to connect Sub-Saharan women’s faith in a pan-African water spirit called Mami Wata to their reluctance to use contraception; the paper will hypothesize that that this popular divinity is ultimately rooted in a sophisticated prehistoric cosmology that analogized menstruation to universal, life-giving patterns of flow in nature and, thus, saw it as the hermeneutic that established and sustained human culture.

Method Mistrust: How women’s mistrust of family planning methods which interfere with their menstrual cycles leads to unmet need, incorrect contraceptive use, and method discontinuation
Ann Moore, Guttmacher Institute, @Guttmacher

Many hormonal contraceptives alter women’s menstrual cycles, making periods last longer, flow heavier or lighter, spot throughout the month, or simply stop. Because women widely mistrust such methods, they often resist, misuse, or stop using them. Based on data from developing and developed countries, this paper shows how wanting “normal” periods adds to their risk of unwanted pregnancy.

I shouldn’t mess around on those days: How women’s’ beliefs about their fertility and their menstrual cycles affect their contraceptive use
Lori Frohwirth, Guttmacher Institute

While modern contraception allows women to think about their cycles only in terms of hygiene and convenience, data show that many women view menstruation as a sign of good physical and reproductive health. This paper explores how the beliefs of American women about menstruation affects their use of the Fertility Awareness Method in combination with hormonal and barrier methods.

The Rainbow Goddess and the Rainbow Snake: Mami Wata Worship as a Source of African Women’s Belief in Menstruation as Medicine
Jacqueline Thomas, PhD, Independent Researcher 

Sub-Saharan women often reject hormonal contraceptives, citing belief in the salutary/reproductive benefits of regular periods. This paper argues that this belief likely reflects faith in the snake-entwined Mami Wata, a popular pan-African wealth/fertility deity. It hypothesizes that Mami Wata (aka the Rainbow Goddess) is a modern-day expression of the Rainbow Snake—a prehistoric menstruation-regulating African/Australian water spirit embodying a sophisticated cosmology that held women’s cycle-based solidarity as responsible for earthly order and human happiness.

Media Release and Registration for the SMCR Boston Conference on Menstrual Health and Reproductive Justice: Human Rights Across the Lifespan.

This post was revised and updated on Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 12:35 p.m. MST.