Hi Harry,
Thanks for an informative and fun site! I'm especially fascinated by the wealth of vintage feminine hygiene product advertising, and how shame has been one of the recurring themes in said advertisements. So when I came across this ad for the "Always Puberty Kit" while surfing through CNN.com, I immediately thought that you might be interested.
I think the real shame is that girls and women are still being sent the message - in 1999 - that having periods and being seen around pads and tampons is something to be embarrassed about! [But in Sweden women can buy nice wooden and plastic o.b. tampon dispensers, as reported last week.]
Thanks again for all your hard work on the MUM site! [You're welcome!]
I stopped by the MUM Web site today, after a few weeks of being too busy to check it. I hope you are better now after your eye operation. [I'm all healed up. Thanks for asking.]
Regarding the questions about Instead and IUDs [discussed in these News pages in weeks past]: the literature which comes with Instead specifically says you must NOT use Instead if you have an IUD. They say there is a danger that the IUD could be dislodged when removing the cup. Of course, I don't know if this is a real danger or a "please don't sue us if anything goes wrong" warning [I think the latter].
I would also like to add a positive vote to the Keeper debate. I ordered one from Canada, just a few days before seeing the article in the Manchester Guardian [discussed here several weeks ago] which, of course, gave the United Kingdom address! I've used it for two periods and it's absolutely fantastic - miles better than tampons or pads.
I can sympathise with the woman who wrote about feeling like she was about to suck her insides out trying to remove it though. There is definitely a sort of squeezy-twisty-pinchy knack to it. However, I shan't be going back to tampons.
I also seriously freaked out my poor long-suffering husband by giving him a running commentary about how the Keeper Experience felt for the first couple of days. Poor lamb. And I showed it to my younger sister who basically went "EEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWW! That's DISGUSTING!" So maybe I'll buy her one for Christmas :-) [Excellent move!]
The best thing I've found about the Keeper, which I don't know if anyone else has mentioned, is the real sense of freedom I had when using it. Less worrying about leaks, no constant nagging fear that I've forgotten to put tampons in my bag.
It's just a shame that so few women have tried it; 800 in the U.K., out of probably ten million women, is just ridiculous. It's all to do with the "that's revolting" reflex which most people have about menstruation - even though I found the Keeper less messy than applicator tampons and infinitely less yukky than pads.
I think I might find the Body Shop Web site and suggest that they sell Keepers and washable pads - if nothing else, it would be fun to see if they really have any interest in women beyond selling us Peppermint Foot Lotion. [!]
Reading more bits of the MUM has made me realise just how hidden a topic menstruation is. The only place it's mentioned is very cagily in the weird-blue-liquid sanitary protection adverts and in PMS jokes.
The big U.K. soap operas have murder, rape, incest, plane crashes, AIDS, cancer, miscarriages and miscarriages of justice but GOD FORBID anything should be mentioned about menstruation. CIVILIZATION WOULD FALL! (Sorry, I shall wipe the rabid feminist foam from my chin and calm down :-)
At the moment there is a six-part series on Channel 4 (a minority interests and "intellectual" channel in the U.K.) about the history of pornography. It's quite interesting in a depressing kind of way. The Victorian prudishness which comes over the in early menstruation info in the MUM is the same prudishness which actually created pornography, by naming it, sectioning it off and labeling it as unfit and corrupting for the lower orders (including women, naturally). Maybe I should write to them and suggest that the next project ought to be about menstruation. [I heard a rumor that Channel 4 may be doing something about it anyway, but it never hurts to speak up. I like your spirit.]
(I read an article in the Guardian recently about the CIA or someone monitoring the entire world's e-mail. I wonder what they think about your mail :-) [Hey, my government office knows what I'm doing, and I dragged my male boss to the museum many years ago. CIA, I'LL REOPEN MUM JUST FOR YOU! Monitor away!]
Anna
[At the bottom of the e-mail is the following, which gives pause]
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings;
they did it by killing all those who opposed them.
There's actually quite a lot of academic research about menstruation [true!], including the sociological and psychological aspects. Some of them sound interesting. Unfortunately, being a molecular biologist I don't have the background to know which of the journals are any good and I have a natural wariness of psychologists, which comes from having read some psychology papers before.
These two sounded very interesting:
Backe J. [History of menstruation--an aspect of the medical history of the woman]. Gynakol Geburtshilfliche Rundsch. 1996;36(4):201-7. German. PMID: 9206554; UI: 97290262
Backe J. [Tainted femininity--traces of traditional menstruation myths in product advertising of feminine hygiene products]. Gynakol Geburtshilfliche Rundsch. 1997;37(1):30-8. German. PMID: 9264727; UI: 97344480
The abstract describes the second one as a review of the medical view of menstruation throughout history, from Classical times to the modern day. Unfortunately, the journal's published in Germany, in German, so there's no chance of my being able to get hold of a copy. [Are there any Germans reading this who can send me a copy? As a former German teacher, I can read it.]
That's so funny. [I had told her about my and others' fears that the police might raid the museum.] I can just imagine the police battering down the door to your house and carrying off the contents of MUM because it's full of the kind of evil and degrading stuff you can, er, buy off the shelf at the supermarket.
Plus there are some thing, like sex and menstruation, where not telling actually does cause harm. I can't imagine how frightening menstruation would be if no one had ever told you it was going to happen. [It happens all the time.]
Anna
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate." [Only a scientist could write this.]
Dear Mr. Finley,
I'm from Brazil. And I guess the first pads with wings was Always. [Does anyone reading this know?] I'm not sure, but the company that produces Always is Procter & Gamble. [Yes. And it's the leader in pad sales in the U.S.A.]
I know the first pad with wings in Brazil was "Sempre Livre," which means Always Free. It is from Johnson & Johnson.
I guess in Brazil women are not very comfortable in using tampons. They just use when they have to go to the swimming pool. At least I am like that. That is why a good and functional pad is very important to us. Many American women use pads as a back up to the tampons. [Correct. Latin cultures tend to avoid tampons as do many Asian. Is it because of the virginity issue among Hispanics and cleanliness among Asians, who thereby avoid the possibility of getting blood on their fingers during insertion? See a Japanese tampon with finger cots.]
I find it maddening to get stuck on any site, even the best, and I try not to inflict that on the MUM visitors. What's the point of trapping people, forcing visitors to re-type URLs, etc? It just makes them mad - like me.
Please, may I post a letter on your letter page?
I'm researching a documentary for the BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] about menstruation - myths and facts and blessing or curse.
I have much information about the curse and prejudice but I am finding scant information about the blessing! I was thrilled to find medical information linking surgery for breast cancer and the menstrual cycle and the New Scientist report about differing medication levels required during the 28-day cycle, and the research about eating requirements differing during the cycle etc., but I want to hear from women who have evidence of the cycle as a blessing, for example, artists, writers, etc., who are at their most creative whilst menstruating.
I also want to meet women who practice menstrual seclusion, as with menstrual huts of the past [and of the present; women still use menstrual huts].
And anything and everything to do with research into menstruation.
Next week I am interviewing Mr Peter Redgrove and Penelope Shuttle who wrote the first book on menstruation that offered positive information, The Wise Wound, 1978. I am very excited about asking many questions resulting from the book. If you have any questions for them pertaining to the book or their second book, Alchemy for Women, about the dream cycle corresponding to the menstrual cycle, I would be delighted to forward them to them on your behalf. They are not on the net so any questions would have to have addresses!
Thank you so much for this glorious Web site [many thanks to you for saying that!] and I look forward to hearing from visitors to your site.
Ali Kedge.
ali@shortkedge.freeserve.co.uk or fflic.zip@business.ntl.com
Irregular menses identify women at high risk for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which exists in 6-10% of women of reproductive age. PCOS is a major cause of infertility and is linked to diabetes.