Dear Harry,
I wanted to let you know that your site is fabulous, informative, accurate, and refreshing. [Wow! Thank you!]
I don't believe that I have ever written before to a Web-site author, but I just was looking a few items up in the MUM online, and ended up reading about your cats, your Mom, and finding the family Bible. (Normally, any time anyone throws a Bible into the conversation, I get the urge to leave the premises . . . . [I understand!]) So, being the interesting and intense person you are, and an animal lover at that, and someone who believes in not worrying about what "regular people" think, I thought it was important to write to you and let you know that I work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, as a medical epidemiologist in the Division of Reproductive Health. We here on the maternal health team in the Pregnancy and Infant Health Branch think your site is a WONDERFUL resource. We have used it to learn some historical things ourselves (particularly the members of our team who research the effects of douching as related to infections and delivering preterm babies), and I have even used images from the MUM (with proper credit given) in teaching new epidemiologists at CDC and public health professionals from around the country and around the world (such as when I teach the real-life epidemiology case study on tampons and toxic shock syndrome).
Keep up the fantastic work, and good luck in your search for a new site for the MUM! [Many thanks!]
By the way, my medical training is as a veterinarian, so certainly there's a sense of analogy here of a vet with a passion for working in (human) maternal health, and a man running a Museum of Menstruation. [You're right. Basically foreign territory for both of us, and the utter foreignness of menstruation still strikes me.] So that's why I also was so interested in reading about the cats.
Thanks for all of your efforts.
Sincerely
I tried the Instead cups during a trial period in California and loved them. Since I moved out to the East, I had a hard time finding them until I found your Web site linking me to their Web page.
They were easier to use once you got the hang of it. Diaphragm users won't have any problems. I didn't have to worry about always having a tampon with me (I work in the operating room and it is difficult to carry one with you or to reach your locker every couple of hours as suggested with tampons), or leakage because my flow suddenly turned heavy.
Thanks again for having information regarding this product.
I have been using both the Keeper and Instead for a few months now, and am very satisfied.
Yes, Instead does leak, but I use it for "insurance" when I'm expecting my period, but the flow hasn't begun yet, and for the last day or two, when my flow is really light. It's easy to carry around, because it's so small and discrete, and AVAILABLE IN STORES!!!
I was having trouble with the Keeper leaking for awhile, then I started inserting it further back in my vagina, and now it's perfect. I can't feel it at all, and it doesn't leak!
When my flow is heavy, I use a washable panty liner for backup. They're so much more comfortable than the disposeables.
I feel terrific using re-usable products, and I feel like I'm doing my part for the environment.
Thank you again for this terrific site, keep up the good work!
Hello,
Recently someone wrote to me asking why yogic instructions state that women are not to use inverted positions during the menstrual cycle. I can certainly speculate about this, but have not found any specific writings to this effect. Am wondering if you have any information on this subject.
According to the U.S. Naval Observatory [Washington, D.C., the timekeeper for the U.S.A.] the end of the second millennium and the beginning of the third will be reached on January 1, 2001 [not 2000!]
This date is based on a calendar created in 526 A.D. by Dennis the Diminutive, the head of a Roman monastery who forged a common calendar from the divergent dating systems of his day.
To read more about it please go to: http://justclickandgo.com.do/millennium
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.