New this month (in addition to the letters, etc., below):
"The Psychology of Gynecology," by Dr. Nelson Soucasaux, Brazilian gynecologist - The Art of Menopause: Coni Minneci (second contribution) - Humor
Animals secrete pheromones to communicate to others of their species information about their gender or reproductive state. The chemical signals are detected by a specialised sensory system called the vomeronasal organ (VMO). This then activates specific behavioral or physiological responses in the animal.
But scientists have never been able to identify a VMO in humans, despite evidence that they do respond to pheromones. For example, sweat from an ovulating woman can alter the timing of the menstrual cycle of other women. Brains scans have also shown that humans can respond to pheromones. . . .
This suggests humans could respond to pheromones through the regular system they use to smell
Neuroscientist Larry Katz and his colleagues found that certain neurons in the mouse olfactory bulb respond specifically to a pheromone found in the urine of male mice. It is the first direct evidence that the main olfactory system can respond to these cues.
In the new research, [Paul] Zak [Ph.D.] and his colleagues find that when someone observes that another person trusts them, oxytocin - a hormone that circulates in the brain and the body - rises. The stronger the signal of trust, the more oxytocin increases. In addition, the more oxytocin increases, the more trustworthy (reciprocating trust) people are. . . .
This effect [the reduced trustworthiness of ovulating women] is caused by the physiologic interactions between progesterone and oxytocin, and it makes sense behaviorally: women who are, or are about to be, pregnant, need to be much more selective in their interpretation of social signals, and also need more resources than at other times.
In six months and days I will retire from my full-time job as a graphic designer in order to expand this site and work towards establishing this museum in a public place (a Texas lawyer recently offered her help with finding funding; she too thinks the museum is a terrific idea. More about the museum future here.). Unfortunately my retirement income is not enough to live on - not by a long shot.
Besides painting portraits for income, I am considering taking advertising on this MUM site. Since I started the site almost eight years ago I've spent thousands of my dollars, and no one else's, on server and search engine fees - MUM has well over 1000 pages and much Web traffic - not to mention a like amount for items for the museum. My exhausting experience housing the physical museum in my house for four years (more here) taught me I can't do anything similar while also working at an unrelated job much of the time. The only way to succeed is to dedicate myself to the museum while I am able, and time ticks on.
Type "menstruation" into Google and this site pops up on top - number 1. Recent server statistics show over a million hits per month. Teachers, students, book and magazine and newspaper writers, and at least one television program have used this site for research (more about media). One Pulitzer Prize winner has e-mailed for assistance, as well as the research assistant of a high New York Times editor; the Times has commented upon or used material from me and this site three times. Many visitors find the humor funny and the menstrual synonyms fascinating, not to speak of the ads and belts and pads and tampons and . . . . I could go on.
The New York Times, Intelihealth.com (associated with the Harvard medical school) and thousands of other sites take advertising. One or more corporations usually sponsor parts of the conference of The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research. Tambrands (former maker of Tampax tampons), Procter & Gamble and other companies already have generously donated over 1000 artifacts from their archives to this museum (see examples here.)
So far I've not found grants that would enable me, not a doctor of any type and a non-academic, to pursue what some regard as the quixotic adventure to establish a museum dealing with the history of menstruation in the world's cultures as well as the history of women's medical experience.
Help me decide! Dr. Nelson Soucasaux, who frequently contributes to this site, encouraged me to ask you, the readers.
Tell me what you think of it, the good and the bad.
Hello,
I am looking for information on celebration and community associated with the menses. I am very attracted to the idea of the mikvah or sweat hut as a positive experience (a sort of break from traditional roles and responsibilities) and a community building experience, particularly between generations. I am looking for images and information about these types of experiences, information on experiences similar to these (rituals, rites of passage, coming of age ceremonies, bonding between generations, menarche or menstruation based celebration, etc.)
Thanks,
[If you can help her, e-mail me and I'll redirect it. I've learned recently that Web spiders - computer programs that "crawl" the Web - and individual crazies, too, constantly search for and record e-mail addresses. Spammers then use the addresses to, yes, spam you. Awful, right?]
Hello,
I'm working for a medical program on the French channel of television "France 5," called "le magazine de la sante."
I'm actually doing a report about tampons and I've discovered your very interesting Web site. Would it be possible to film your site for the report (of course, we will give its address at the end of the program).
I'm sorry my English is so bad, but could you please contact me as soon as possible?
Thank you for everything.
Tatiana Vincent
magazine de la sante
France 5
Harry,
I just found your site. Whenever you open your museum, please put me on your list of people to hear the announcement. I will make a trip to visit. I was surprised to hear that you are a man who has developed this history. For a nanosecond I was disappointed. But then I thought, no, anyone, especially a man, who would make this a public pursuit is unique in his/her own right and willing to put him/herself out there. And you are the first so, thank you, for bringing it out of the closet. I wish you all the best.
I found your site based on the suggestion of a puppeteer who stumbled on it during a Google search for "mummers." But on to my joke . . . a true story.
For many years I worked as a writer and performer for a New York City based producer of shows for major corporations. One year we had Kimberly-Clark, the makers of Kotex, as a client. A group of us were sitting around working on ideas for their upcoming internal (no pun intended) sales meeting.
Our funniest, and fastest minded member of our group suddenly said, "We open with ten guys in black face, riding bikes and playing banjos." We all fell silent and looked at him with large question marks appearing over our heads. After a perfectly timed silence he said, "We introduce them as "The Menstrual Cyclists!"
Maybe you had to be there. [No, no, that's funny! The word play is on "minstrel," of course, which in the U.S.A. was usually a white man with a blackened face, imitating an African-American, who entertained in a group of men similarly made up. It was most popular during the 19th century, one group being the Original Christy Minstrels, upon which a modern group based its name: the New Christy Minstrels. See incredible sheet music of their songs in the Johns Hopkins University library - for example, this mind-bending example, apparently published in England, which features a picture of a minstrel.]
-Bob Stone
http://www.serious-comedy.com/
[Bob added later:]
I used to describe my first wife by saying, "She doesn't have periods. She has exclamation points!"
[but the best comes last:]
As I have mentioned I've worked with a live animation process for many years, doing shows for major corporations. Once, during a show for Kimberly-Clark, the makers of Kotex, I did something I had resolved never to do - I stole a line from another performer. I had heard this line years ago at a show at Chicago's [famous] Second City Improv troupe, and it was just so perfect to use here, that I couldn't resist.
There was no way to change it, to make it mine. I just stole it virtually word for word. I hereby make some small amends, and give them full credit for the concept and the words in the following line.
We were using a little old lady character, named Millie, to represent today's modern feminine hygiene consumer. In her conversation she was having with one of the Kimberly-Clark vice presidents, she says,
I can still remember when my mother first had that woman-to-woman talk with me. She took me on her knee, and said, "Millie, very soon a beautiful, wondrous, marvelous thing is going to happen to your body. It's called THE CURSE!
At another point she was reminiscing about the early days of feminine hygiene products.
Oh, sure, I remember what it was like . . . with all the belts, and snaps and buckles and suspenders. It was like being in traction five days a month!
I am proud to announce that my new book, Am I Still a Woman? Hysterectomy and Gender Identity, will be in bookstores by the end of this month. This book, published by Temple University Press simultaneously in hardcover and paper, would work well as a text for classes on women's health and also as reading material for patients considering gynecological surgery.
The book is featured in the Temple U. Press fall/winter catalogue, and here is the URL:
http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1587_reg.html
Thanks for your support,
Jean Elson, Ph.D.,
Department of Sociology
University of New Hampshire
Hi there,
I'm a Japanese translator and surprised to find "gekkei" and "keisui" listed on your site [here] as "standard" Japanese expressions for menstruation. Yes, "gekkei" is the official term, like "menstruation," but who uses it?
Certainly the most common is the euphemism "seiri," which literally means "life logic," or "physiology." An online survey [http://www.kao.co.jp/mag/laurier - but try to find the survey, which is in Japanese!] reveals that 82 percent of Japanese women surveyed say "seiri," while only 1 percent say "gekkei."
Related words not mentioned on your site run the gamut from the poetic [See the actual Japanese characters in the Words and expressions page]:
o "getsuji" or "tsuki no mono" ("moon thing")
o "hatsuhana" ("first flower") and "shochou" ("first tide"): referring
to one's first period
o "tsuki tachinikeri" ("the moon has risen"): a euphemism used in
Japan's oldest book, the Kojiki, which was completed in 712
o "tsuki no sawari" ("moon obstacle"): denotes a monthly obstacle or a
cloud over the moon
the very indirect:
o "are" ("that"): 11 percent of the survey respondents use this word
the more lighthearted:
o "ichigo-chan" ("Little Miss Strawberry")
o "okyakusama" ("guest"): a formal word used humorously here
o "irasshaimase" ("welcome"): also formal
o "ketchappu" ("ketchup") and "tomato"
and the more historical:
o "Anne no hi" ("Anne's day"), from The Diary of Anne Frank, when Anne
discusses her period. Apparently there was also a brand of sanitary
napkins named "Anne" for this reason.
o "hi no maru" ("rising sun"): the name for the Japanese flag, a big red
circle on a field of white.
I'm attaching a GIF [here] of all these expressions in the hope that you can put it to some use on your site.
Thanks, and keep up the good work! I'm really enjoying your site. :)
Nora
--
Nora Stevens Heath
Japanese-English translations: http://www.fumizuki.com/
[She later added:]
Hi, again,
I'm glad you can use the Japanese contribution on the MUM site! It's a great resource, and I'm happy to be able to add to it.
The survey (in Japanese) is here:
http://www.kao.co.jp/mag/laurier
It seems to have been sponsored by Kao, a company that manufactures the Laurier brand of sanitary pads (among many other products). I'd be happy to provide more info if you'd like to include it.
The entire survey, of which this is only a tiny part, is actually quite interesting. It reveals how Japanese women feel about their "gekkei" (this term is used as the neutral, technical term throughout the survey), what their main physical complaints are, and so on. Maybe if there's a Japanese MUM in your future...? :)
As for the kanji [Japanese character] for "go-between," [I found a strange string of characters for "go-between"] well, I certainly can agree that "under-moon ice person" doesn't sound like a traditional go-between to me! Apparently it's a mix of "under-moon old person" and "ice person," both of which denote "go-between" and have their origins in China.
Here's the "under-moon old person" story:
On his way to the palace, a traveler came across an old man sitting beside a bag, reading a book in the moonlight. There was a red cord in the bag, and the traveler asked the old man what it was. The old man replied that it bound two fates together by tying together the feet of a man and a woman who were to become husband and wife. He then proceeded to tell the traveler whom he would marry. Fourteen years later, he married the same woman the old man had said he would.
And here's the "ice person" story:
A fellow dreamed he was standing on ice and speaking with a person below it. He consulted a fortune-teller who told him that, because he was speaking from a yang place (above the ice) to someone in a yin place (below the ice), it foretold that he would become a matchmaker. Indeed, soon after he was called to be the go-between for his master's son.
So that explains things, in a way. I love researching the origins of words and expressions in just about any language. Now we've both learned something--and I know as soon as I dip back into the MUM site, I'll be learning things left and right. Thanks again for all the hard work you put into that terrific site!
Take care--
Nora
[Still later she wrote about how she learned Japanese - and she comments on Japan and menstruation.]I got involved with Japanese via a book on origami I picked up at the Toronto Science Centre back when I was about seven. Not only did I enjoy the origami projects outlined in the book, but I found the clunky English instructions intriguing; they made me think about what they must have been in the original Japanese. Same with video games. I started teaching myself the kana and some basic grammar in time for a two-week exchange program in the summer before my senior year of high school.
I went again two years later, just for fun. By this point, I was immersing myself in even more intensive self-study, and you probably wouldn't believe how much I learned from video games and comic books! I stepped through text-heavy games screen by screen with a trusty kanji [the main type of Japanese character] dictionary in my hand. Later, many of those kanji would show up on the highest level Japanese proficiency test; I had to smile when I saw them.
I went again two years later for a study-abroad program in the winter semester of my junior year of college (University of Michigan, where I got degrees in both linguistics and in Japanese language and literature). Again two years after that, taking my dad for the first time. Again two years after that, taking my husband for our first anniversary. Again only a few months later for my original host sister's wedding. And here I am a year later, trying to finagle a way back to see my host sister's baby boy.
I had a significant amount of Japanese from self-study even before I hit any actual classes in college, so I really hit the ground running. I know many people say Japanese is a difficult language, but I never, ever felt that way. In many ways, it's easier than English--limited verb tenses, no explicit plurals that verbs must match, a much smaller phonetic inventory--and it's certainly easier than many European languages--no gender, no weird cases like Latin or German, and no articles. Yes, the kanji can be intimidating, and yes, the intricate system of honorifics can be tricky, but all in all I think Japanese is not as horrible as it's made out to be.
So now I've gone from teaching myself Japanese with video games to translating them. :) My job as a freelance translator must be the best I could ever imagine coming my way.
As for Laurier [associated with the survey link, above], I'm sure the French name is meant to denote refinement and elegance, thus imbuing a potentially icky product with a high-class air. Their line includes Active Guard underpants in various styles, all with built-in pads. I'm not sure if you're supposed to throw the whole thing away or what. Frankly, I've never seen this product before.
It appears the other popular brand, put out by Procter & Gamble, is Whisper, which seems to be analogous to Always in the U.S. I'm sure the name is meant to convey a secret, or maybe a "whisper-thin" product. Apart from the assorted sizes and shapes that are part of the Whisper brand, the family also includes pantyliners and Whisper Shorts underpants.
The company Unicharm has the Sofy line of napkins, which includes pantyliners in blue, pink, and mocha "to match your lingerie." They also offer a full complement of "padded" underpants.
The companies Elis and Center-in also make pads and underpants, but they seem to be considered off-brands. Strange names.
I do get the feeling that Japanese women don't generally discuss menstruation with men, but I think it's quite easily discussed with women. Even my host sister and I had no problems with the subject whatsoever, even early in our relationship. I think some of it has to do with the tendency toward single-sex schooling; I myself attended an all-girls high school in Michigan where we talked candidly about menstruation and who knows what else. (In fact, a high-school classmate later told me how she threw off a comment about her period starting to her female college roommate, who became very uncomfortable and called it "too much information." In high school, we wouldn't have flinched.) I can easily see the same thing happening in Japan as well, so when any two single-sex schooled women are put together (regardless of where they attended school), any barriers will have already been broken down in the "safe" women-only environment. Of course, I can only speak from my own experience!
Hope that helped--I've probably bent your ear more than you ever expected. :) Take care and I'll talk to you later.
Nora
Christine L. Hitchcock, Ph.D., Research Associate, Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research (CeMCOR), Endocrinology, Dept. of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada (URL: http://www.cemcor.ubc.ca/), sent this to members of the The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research (which includes me).
Here is the first article from the Phase III trial of the higher dose extended schedule pill (Seasonale).
In Contraception. 2003 Aug;68(2):89-96.
A multicenter, randomized study of an extended cycle oral contraceptive.
Anderson FD, Hait H.
The Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical
School, Norfolk, VA 23501, USA. fanderson4@cox.net
OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy and safety of Seasonale, 91-day extended cycle oral contraceptive (OC). METHODS: A parallel, randomized, multicenter open-label, 1-year study of the OC Seasonale [30 microg ethinyl estradiol (EE)/150 microg levonorgestrel (LNG), and Nordette-28 (30 microg EE/150 microg LNG)] in sexually active, adult women (18-40 years) of childbearing potential. Patients received either four 91-day cycles of extended cycle regimen OC, or 13 cycles of the conventional 28-day OC with daily monitoring of compliance and bleeding via electronic diaries. RESULTS: When taken daily for 84 days followed by 7 days of placebo, the extended cycle regimen was effective in preventing pregnancy and had a safety profile that was comparable to that observed with the 28-day OC regimen that served as the control. While unscheduled (breakthrough) bleeding was reported among patients treated with the extended cycle regimen, it decreased with each successive cycle of therapy and was comparable to that reported by patients who received the conventional OF regimen by the fourth extended cycle. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that Seasonale, 91-day extended cycle OC containing 84 days of 30 microg EE/150 microg LNG followed by 7 days of placebo, was effective, safe and well tolerated.
PMID: 12954519
Press release from the maker of Seasonale, Barr Laboratories
(Kathleen O'Grady, of the Canadian Women's Health Network, kindly sent this to The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research members)
WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Barr Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BRL) today announced that it has begun promoting SEASONALE(R) (levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol) 0.15 mg/0.03 mg tablets directly to physicians and other healthcare providers. SEASONALE is the first and only FDA-approved extended-cycle oral contraceptive indicated for the prevention of pregnancy and designed to reduce periods from 13 to 4 per year. The Company has initiated physician detailing and promotional activities using the 250-person Duramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Women's Healthcare Sales Force. Duramed is a wholly owned subsidiary of Barr Laboratories, Inc.
The Company began shipping SEASONALE in mid-October. Promotional Programs directed to physicians include a variety of patient education initiatives, various medical education programs and a publication plan that includes journal advertising. Women and healthcare professionals who would like to learn more about SEASONALE, including full prescribing information, should visit http://www.seasonale.com/ or call the toll-free number 800-719-FOUR (3687).
"We are excited to begin marketing this new choice in oral contraception to healthcare providers and patients through extensive promotional activities and an education campaign," Bruce L. Downey, Barr's Chairman and CEO said. "Our market research indicates that the extended-cycle regimen represents a substantial opportunity with patients and we believe that the already high awareness of SEASONALE will be even higher among target physicians and patients following the launch of our promotional activities and detailing by our Women's Healthcare Sales Force."
"SEASONALE is a 91-day regimen taken daily as 84 active tablets of 0.15 mg of levonorgestrel/0.03 mg of ethinyl estradiol, followed by 7 inactive tablets and is designed to reduce the number of periods from 13 to 4 per year," explained Dr. Carole S. Ben-Maimon, President and Chief Operating Officer of Barr Research. "With SEASONALE, women now have an FDA-approved, safe and effective alternative to the traditional 28-day oral contraceptive regimen."
Clinical Data
The clinical data supporting FDA approval of the SEASONALE (levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol) 0.15 mg/0.03 mg tablets product resulted from a randomized, open-label, multi-center trial that ended in March 2002 and an extension to that trial. In the trials, SEASONALE was found to prevent pregnancy and had a comparable safety profile to a more traditional oral contraceptive.
In the trial, the most reported adverse events were nasopharyngitis, headache and intermenstrual bleeding or spotting.
SEASONALE(R) has been formulated using well-established components, long recognized as safe and effective when used in a 28-day regimen. SEASONALE offers 4 periods per year as compared to 13 per year with traditional oral contraceptives. When prescribing SEASONALE, the convenience of fewer planned menses (4 per year instead of 13 per year) should be weighed against the inconvenience of increased intermenstrual bleeding and/or spotting.
Important Information About Oral Contraceptives
It is estimated that more than 16 million women currently take oral contraceptives in the United States. Oral contraceptives are not for every woman. Serious as well as minor side effects have been reported with the use of hormonal contraceptives. Serious risks include blood clots, stroke, and heart attack. Cigarette smoking increases the risk of serious cardiovascular side effects, especially in women over 35 years. Oral contraceptives do not protect against HIV infection (AIDS) and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Use of SEASONALE provides women with more hormonal exposure on a yearly basis than conventional monthly oral contraceptives containing similar strength synthetic estrogens and progestins (an additional 9 weeks per year). While this added exposure may pose an additional risk of thrombotic and thromboembolic disease, studies to date with SEASONALE have not suggested an increased risk of these disorders. The convenience of fewer menses (4 vs. 13 per year) should be weighed against the inconvenience of increased intermenstrual bleeding/spotting.
Barr Laboratories, Inc. is engaged in the development, manufacture and marketing of generic and proprietary pharmaceuticals.
Forward-Looking Statements
The following sections contain a number of forward-looking statements. To the extent that any statements made in this press release contain information that is not historical, these statements are essentially forward-looking. Forward-looking statements can be identified by their use of words such as "expects," "plans," "will," "may," "anticipates," "believes," "should," "intends," "estimates" and other words of similar meaning. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that cannot be predicted or quantified and, consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include: the difficulty in predicting the timing and outcome of legal proceedings, including patent-related matters such as patent challenge settlements and patent infringement cases; the difficulty of predicting the timing of U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, approvals; court and FDA decisions on exclusivity periods; the ability of competitors to extend exclusivity periods for their products; the success of our product development activities; market and customer acceptance and demand for our pharmaceutical products; our dependence on revenues from significant customers; reimbursement policies of third party payors; our dependence on revenues from significant products; the use of estimates in the preparation of our financial statements; the impact of competitive products and pricing; the ability to develop and launch new products on a timely basis; the availability of raw materials; the availability of any product we purchase and sell as a distributor; our mix of product sales between manufactured products, which typically have higher margins, and distributed products; the regulatory environment; our exposure to product liability and other lawsuits and contingencies; the increasing cost of insurance and the availability of product liability insurance coverage; our timely and successful completion of strategic initiatives, including integrating companies and products we acquire and implementing new enterprise resource planning systems; fluctuations in operating results, including the effects on such results from spending for research and development, sales and marketing activities and patent challenge activities; and other risks detailed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Source: Barr Laboratories, Inc.
CONTACT: Carol A. Cox, Barr Laboratories, Inc., +1-201-930-3720, ccox@barrlabs.com
Dear Sir,
I ran into your site while looking for experiential appraisal of menstruation by women themselves. I enjoyed finding in short texts an overview of the three "major" religions' views on the subject.
May I suggest that you add a page for Eastern religious views, taoist, buddhist, yogic? Views there span the same positive-negative range? As in other religions, too, knowledge about women's experience and practices (physical in this case) has so been suppressed over the centuries that little is now known of what archaics and ancients might have remembered from the matriarchal cultures' knowledge. Modern women have to rediscover it. Below is a line to follow.
There is, in all religions, a "deeper" or "inner" aspect of relgious teaching, knowledge of human nature, and mystic practices. The quest for "enlightenment" and its problem of behavioural and mind agitation and pains has roots in the body and the quest for longevity and youthfulness, freedom from disease and from being dependent on extrenal things or people. For women, some practices involve menstruation. It seems, though, that these are mostly lost, due to negative biases and to the progressive psychologisation of spiritual practices.
Mysticism, spiritual practices, and archaic "myths" of reversing menstruation for health:
I know of one Buddhist practice called "slaying the Red Dragon," aiming to stop menses (for women monks, the body is "just a vehicle" and menstrual uproars of emotions a hindrance to meditation). I cannot trace anyone who actually knows what this practice involves.
In Chinese and yogic traditions, there's a lot of sexual practices to "raise spirit" or life energy, but China has retained a notion that women could stop their menses and gain at the same time a healthier body, also more prone to "spiritual development."
I also think I remember (can't quote) something in the beginning of the Bible (descendents of Noah) about a woman who was menopausal, received the Grace of God, became fertile again, and pregnant. [Note that scholars increasingly stop considering ancient texts as mere stories and find historical validation for their contents, so may be there is something real to that story].
These remnants of traditions, apparently often rooted in pre-archaic female shamanism. go in the same general direction as some of the books you quote. Namely, that
(1) menstruation is an illness-cleansing process, which, however should not lead to negatively valuing of women, persons with 'uncleanliness'. 'Illness' is a problem that must have a solution.
(2) menstruation blood and meopause may not be necessary or inevitable at all. There is controversy about whether it's a uniquely human phenomenon, and indications that rich agriculture-based food might cause it in caged animals - so why not in women- , and its occurrence seems variable in animal species and individuals - so why not in women, since most males do not experience sexual organ failure at midlife.
(3) Therfore, there might be a way of not having menstruation, without resorting to medical drug interference, which I know from personal experience (contraceptive pill) can wreck havoc in the hormonal system both short term and long term - see literature on the effect of Hormone Replacement Therapy on cancers, for example, or see literature about the painlessness of menopause or childbirth in certain cultures. I could find no theoretical reason to make such things necessarily impossible.
(4) This would mean there could be both a way of stopping them without loosing fertility once they have started, and a way of maintaining health so they do not start at all. Most ancient traditions state that there is knowledge about human nature that has been lost.
Your list of euphemisms and words for menstruation (here) supports the idea that menstruation is not pleasant (and at its worst feels like illness; shall we trust instincts?) but also the idea that they constitute an "activation of power," including creative, but also the "red power" of hormonal uprising as in an adrenaline or testosterone rush. Such "activations" have a lot to do with how cells behave in a cancer. This line of thought has not been explored in medical or anthoropological contexts as far as I know.
Displaying info on mystic practices and these unusual health goals might help validate women's experience as both unpleasant but not blameble, and a possible opportunity to approach health in a different way, from a woman's viewpoint. Hence scholarly and medical studies of possibilities in women's conditions rather than a mere remedial "disease'" approach, post- (e.g. PMS) or pre- (as in one of the books you quote, about ridding the world of menstruation).
My way of dealing with all this is to not accept as full truth anything I read, including scientific knowledge and household knowledge, and to seek answers for myself, observing my own experience as it is, rather than through the filters of what I've learned or of my bodily conditionings, and draw inspiration and support from archaic texts, less limiting. Since a couple of scholars have responded to your site, I'd like to make an appeal to women researchers to not stay with only objective science or scholarship, but to include their own experience in a "first person" research method.
To mark the one-year anniversary of the Women's Health Initiative Study, which highlighted possible health risks associated with long-term hormone therapy use for menopausal women, the Canadian Women's Health Network has now made the following documents available online and free of charge:
Frequently Asked Questions, answered in plain language:
What is Menopause?
What is Hormone Therapy (HT)?
What are the Alternatives to Hormone Therapy?
Menopause and Heart Disease; What are my Risks?
How do I Stop Taking Hormone Therapy?
In-depth articles:
*The Pros and Cons of Hormone Therapy: Making An Informed Decision
*Health Protection Measures from the Women's Health Initiative
*The Medicalization of Menopause
*HRT in the News: The Women's Health Initiative
*Challenges of Change: Midlife, Menopause and Disability
*Natural Hormones - Are They a Safe Alternative?
*Perimenopause Naturally: An Integrative Medicine Approach
*Thinking Straight: Oestrogen and Cognitive Function at Midlife
*The Truth About Hormone Replacement Therapy
*Menopause Home Test: Save Your $$$
*Recent Studies on Menopause and Pain
*What The Experts are Saying Now: A Round-Up of International Opinion
*Women and Healthy Aging
... and many more!
Check us out at www.cwhn.ca
The Canadian Women's Health Network
Women's Health Information You Can TrustMany thanks to the Women's Health Clinic, Winnipeg,
http://www.womenshealthclinic.org/ and A Friend Indeed newsletter, www.afriendindeed.ca for making many of these documents available to the general public.============================================
Kathleen O'Grady, Director of Communications
Canadian Women's Health Network/Le Réseau canadien pour la santé des femmes
Suite 203, 419 Graham Ave.
Winnipeg MB R3C 0M3
Tel (204) 942-5500, ext. 20E-mail news@cwhn.ca
www.cwhn.ca
Book about periods needs your input, MEN!
Kaylee Powers-Monteros is writing a book about women's periods called "Bloody Rites."
"I consider a woman's period her rite of passage. . . . My book is focusing on the language we use about periods and how that impacts our perceptions of it," she writes.
She has a chapter about men's first learning about menstruation and would like to hear from men in response to the question, "When was the first time you ever heard anything about a period and what was it?" I already sent her mine: when I was in sixth grade the kid next door said his sister had started bleeding from you-know-where. I didn't know anything about you-know-where, actually, having grown up in a prudish military household with two bothers, no sisters and a mother who must have felt very alone.
E-mail her at bloodyrites2003@aol.com
Migrane study at Emory University needs online participants
Researchers at the Emory University School of Nursing are conducting an Internet-based study looking at the experience of migraines in women between the ages of 40 and 55. The study includes completion of online questionnaires and participation in an online discussion group with other women who also have headaches. For more information, please visit the study Web site at http://www.sph.emory.edu/migraine, or call the research phone line at 404-712-8558.
Thanks so much.
Peggy Moloney
Contribute to fund in honor of Jill Wolhandler and help The Women's Community Health Center in Massachusetts (U.S.A.)
Dear Women [oh, let's add "men," too],
Here is an opportunity to honor two significant contributions to the women's health movement - The Women's Community Health Center in Massachusetts, and Jill Wolhandler, a member of the health center and a strong women's health advocate, who died in December 2002.
For the many of you who worked with Jill, I am including the remembrance from her memorial service.
Jill has many friends throughout the country.
In honor of Jill's vision and commitment to women's health, a fund in Jill's name has been established and we are asking for donations in order to catalogue and process the Women's Community Health Center files. There is a high level of interest in material from this period of the women's health movement, and your contribution would assure that information from that time is preserved. Donations are tax deductible.
Checks can be made to the Schlesinger Library - on the memo section of the check, please write "Processing WCHC."
Send checks to:
Paula Garbarino
Jill Wolhandler Fund
16 Ivaloo St.
Somerville, MA 02143
Thank you,
Catherine DeLorey
Women's Community Health Center Files Reside at the Schlesinger Library
At the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Women's Community Health Center [WCHC] in 1999, a group of former collective members announced that materials from the health center years had been donated to the archives at Radcliffe's Schlesinger Library. This material consisted of a variety of documents such as meeting minutes, articles written about or by WCHC members, clinic schedules, surveys and feedback forms, as well as other "herstorical" items.
Several boxes of documents were reviewed to ensure that no confidential material containing names or identifying information about women using the services would be shared with the Schlesinger.
Despite the fact that the material has not yet been organized or catalogued, there have been numerous requests from women's health scholars to review the material. It has become a rich trove of information and offers a unique perspective into the women's health movement of the 1970's and early 1980's.
In order to make the material widely available, the boxes of documents need to be "processed" or catalogued. To do this, personnel at the library will fully review the contents of the collection. Generally this involves preserving the original order of the material as it was donated according to either chronological or topical categories. If no original order exists, they will determine how to best logically sort and present it so that scholars can use the contents. The material will be subdivided into folders with guides to contents and clippings will be photocopied. An overall guide to the organization and listing of summaries will be generated. This guide will be available on the internet with worldwide circulation. Folders will be photocopied and sent out upon request for personal research purposes only. Publication permission usually rests with the library and the original authors of the material.
Other legal arrangements were made at the time the gift of the material was made to the Schlesinger; Cookie Avrin generously offered legal assistance in this process.
About 5 linear feet of material (the library's standard of measurement) was donated. Processing is expected to cost $600 per foot. The total estimated cost is approximately $3000.
On a related note, the library has about 40 feet of material from Our Bodies Ourselves and recently received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to process that collection.
A Remembrance of Jill
Written by Diane Willow for Jill's memorial service
Jill Wolhandler was born on January 22, 1949 in Scarsdale, New York. She died on December 6, 2002 in the home that she shared with her beloved partner, Janet Connors.
Jill moved to Dorchester to be with Janet and her children David, Shana and Joel, shortly after meeting Janet fifteen years ago. Jill felt great joy and pride in her chosen family.
Together they made a nurturing home that always welcomed their extended family of friends. Seth and Terrance remained dear members of Jill's extended family.
And, over the years Charlotte and Christopher came into her life at 26 Bearse Avenue.
Jill was the first child of her beloved mother Jean and her father Joe, and the older sister of Peter, Laurie and Steven. She later found enduring pleasure as Aunt Jill to Sara, Gina and Jacob. After excelling in the Scarsdale schools, she went to the International School in Geneva to complete high school. She continued her education at the University of Chicago before beginning graduate studies at Johns Perkins University. She utilized her deep knowledge of human physiology in teaching, writing and political work. Later in life she completed graduate studies in occupational therapy at Tufts University. She attributed her most significant learning to her ongoing work as a social activist.
After moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the mid nineteen-seventies, she became involved in the work of the local and national women's health movement. She contributed to an early publication of Our Bodies Ourselves (1976) as a freelance editor and co-authored a chapter in the New Our Bodies Ourselves (1984). She joined the Women's Community Health Center (1975), working first as a member of the collective and later as one of the four women on the guiding committee.
During her time as the most enduring member of the health center, Jill dedicated herself to the self-help philosophy with particular focus on the Pelvic Teaching program (the first of its kind in the nation) in collaboration with Harvard Medical School as well as the Fertility Consciousness project. Toxic shock syndrome and the related Tampon legislation was also a focal point for Jill's research and advocacy. She was also an early supporter on research related to daughters born to mothers who had used DES during their pregnancies.
Jill's political activism for women's health issues brought her to the Vermont Women's Health Center where she was able to learn abortion procedures legally. She spent a year in Vermont, developing these skills, believing that she would then be able to pass them on if abortions were to become illegal again.
Meanwhile, she did ongoing work as a bookkeeper. Her former clients included Red Sun Press and other activist organizations. Her most recent work was as the Business Manager of the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy. Although deadlines were often a cause for worry with Jill, she was meticulous in her accounting and her co-workers valued her conscientious approach.
A cello player in her youth, Jill revived her passion for music through her annual participation in the Early Music Week at Pinewoods, as a player of the bass viol in the Brandeis Early Music Ensemble, and as a member and the Treasurer of the New England Regional Chapter of the Viola de Gamba Society. She found peace in music and pleasure in sharing it with others.
Many of Jill's friends and acquaintances have often heard Jill express her love of words with her unique sense of humor. She was known to make up her own vocabulary, whether as terms of endearment for loved ones, alternative names for common places and landmarks or just her quirky way of describing things. Her love of nature and the natural world was a sustaining force in her life. She was especially fond of the ocean and felt at home walking the beaches of the Cape or staying in Provincetown.
She loved animals, was an avid bird watcher and lived for many years with cats and turtles. She raised small red-eared sliders. When these turtles came to her they were the size of a quarter. After decades of thriving, they now require two hands to hold and continue their lives in a plexi-pond at The Children's Museum in Boston.
A playful spirit at heart, Jill took delight in the mini-firework displays bursting from sparklers and the swirling rainbow colors in drifting soap bubbles.
Her pleasure in play and her curious mind made her an engaged companion of the children in her life and others who remain young at heart. A rather old soul who had her share of challenges, Jill found her joy in friendships and in the ways that she was able to contribute to a better quality of life through social activism.
Women's Universal Health Initiative
Women's Universal Health Initiative
Women's Universal Health Initiative is by women for women - if you have ideas, events, information, or comments to share, send them to Info@wuhi.org
In these difficult times, all advocacy groups are struggling financially. WUHI is no exception. Please consider becoming a member to support the continuation of the web site and our work on universal health care.
You become a member of WUHI with a tax-deductible donation of any amount. Go to the WUHI website to join online, or send your donation to WUHI, Box 623, Boston, MA 02120.
Health Care Reform: a Women's Issue
Anne Kasper
Anne Kasper, a long time women's health activist, discusses why health care reform is a women's issue. Anne is an editor, with Susan J. Ferguson of Breast Cancer: Society Shapes an Epidemic, a powerful and informative book on the politics of breast cancer.
To read the complete article: http://www.wuhi.org/pages/articles.html <http://www.wuhi.org/pages/articles.html%A0>
Health care reform has long been a women's issue. Since the beginnings of the Women's Health Movement in the late 1960s, women have known that the health care system does not work in the best interests of women's health. When we think of the health care system and its component parts doctors, hospitals, clinics, and prescription drugs, for instance we are increasingly aware that the current system is not designed to promote and maintain our personal health or the health of others. Instead, we are aware of a medical system that delivers sporadic, interventionist, hi-tech, and curative care when what we need most often is continuous, primary, low-tech, and preventive care. Women are the majority of the uninsured and the under insured as well as the majority of health care providers. We are experts on our health, the health of our families, and the health of our communities. We know that we need a health care system that must be a part of changes in other social spheres -- such as wage work, housing, poverty, inequality, and education -- since good health care results from more than access to medical services.
Featured Site
UHCAN - Universal Health Care Action Network
http://www.uhcan.org/
UHCAN is a nationwide network of individuals and organizations, committed to achieving health care for all. It provides a national resource center, facilitates information sharing and the development of strategies for health care justice. UHCAN was formed to bring together diverse groups and activists working for comprehensive health care in state and national campaigns across the country.
Their annual conference, planned for October 24-26, 2003 in Baltimore, MD, is one of the best grass-roots action conferences available. They consider universal health care justice from many perspectives.
Visit UHCAN's website for resources, analyses of health reform issues, and more information on their campaigns for health care justice.
Proposals, Policies, Pending Legislation
Health Care Access Campaign - the Health Care Access Resolution
http://www.uhcan.org/HCAR/
Health care in America is unjust and inefficient. It costs too much, covers too little, and excludes too many. As the economy deteriorates, it is rapidly getting worse.
One in seven Americans, 80% of whom are from working families, lack health insurance and consequently suffer unnecessary illness and premature death. Tens of millions more are under insured, unable to afford needed services, particularly medications. Health care costs are a leading cause of personal bankruptcy. Communities of color endure major disparities in access and treatment. Double-digit medical inflation undermines employment-based insurance, as employers drop coverage or ask their employees to pay more for less. State budgets are in their worst shape in half a century. Medicare and Medicaid are caught between increases in need and a financial restraints.
In the 108th Congress, the Congressional Universal Health Care Task Force will introduce the Health Care Access Resolution, directing Congress to enact legislation by 2005 that provides access to comprehensive health care for all Americans. Legislators, reacting to the urgency for health care reform, will likely introduce several proposals in this Congress.
Check out the link to learn more about the resolution and how you can contribute to it.
Proposed Health Insurance Tax Credits Could Shortchange Women
http://www.cmwf.org/programs/insurance/collins_creditswomen_589.pdf
Commonwealth Fund report, reviews federal policies designed to help low-income adults buy health insurance, which have focused on tax credits for purchasing coverage in the individual insurance market. This analysis of premium and benefit quotes for individual health plans offered in 25 cities finds that tax credits at the level of those in recent proposals would not be enough to make health insurance affordable to women with low incomes.
Time for Change: the Hidden Cost of a Fragmented Health Insurance System
http://www.cmwf.org/programs/insurance/davis_
An excellent overview by Karen Davis, President of The Commonwealth Fund, of factors in the US health care system that lead to it being the most expensive health system in the world.
A Place at the Table: Women's Needs and Medicare Reform
By Marilyn Moon and Pamela Herd
http://www.tcf.org/Publications/Order.asp?ItemID=199
This book, published by the Century Foundation, shows that women have different retirement needs as a group than men. Women are more likely to require long-term care services because they live longer and are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases. Suggests guidelines that would make Medicare reforms work for women, including how to deal with comprehensiveness, affordability, access to quality care, and the availability of information.
Women in the Health Care System: Health Status, Insurance, and Access to Care
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/PrintProducts/PrintProd_Detail.asp?ID=78
Report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) focuses on women in the United States in 1996. Health insurance status is examined in terms of whether women are publicly insured, privately insured, or uninsured, and whether insured women are policyholders or dependents.
Health Insurance Coverage in America: 2001 Data Update
http://www.kff.org/content/2003/4070/
Although not specific to women, this resource contains valuable information about women and health insurance coverage and provides valuable information and facts for general presentations on universal health care. The chart book provides year 2001 data on health insurance coverage, with special attention to the uninsured. It includes trends and major shifts in coverage and a profile of the uninsured population.
Resources
Health Care Links
http://www.pnhp.org/links/
Links to state, national and international organizations working for single payer health care and universal health care. A resource of Physicians for a National Health Program - check out the site for many other resources and excellent factual information on a single payer health care system [ http://www.pnhp.org/links/ <http://www.pnhp.org/links/> ].
Universal Health Care Organizations in Your State
http://www.everybodyinnobodyout.org/index.htm#regnl
A list of state organizations working for universal health care. Resource of Everybody In, Nobody Out [EINO: http://www.everybodyinnobodyout.org ]. Not all states represented.
Families USA New Online Service
http://fusa.convio.net/site/R?i=6d26XZDs_24DRYvcWDDmjg .
Families USA online service to provide registered users with the following benefits:
Free bimonthly newsletters with articles on health policy issue.
Announcements about organization events.
Discounts on publications
Kaiser Network for Health Policy - Publications and Reports
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=links&hc=806&linkcat=61 <http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=links&hc=806&linkcat=61>
Reports and publications on health policy, access, uninsured and insurance. Supported by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Good source of information.
Calendar
May 8 - 9 2003
Health Policy and the Underserved
http://www.jcpr.org/conferences/event_description.cfm?conid=124
Sponsored by the Joint Center for Poverty Research, looks a social, economic, and outcomes of policies for the underserved.
May 14-16, 2003
2003 Managed Care Law Conference
Colorado Springs, CO
http://www.healthlawyers.org/programs/prog_03mc.cfm
Co-sponsored by American Health Lawyers Association and American Association of Health Plans. Presents legal issues facing health plans and providers.
October 24-26, 2003
National Universal Health Care Action Network [UHCAN] Conference
Baltimore, MD
http://www.uhcan.org/
One of the best grass-roots action conferences available. Considers universal health care from all its perspectives. Check out their website for an overview of their orientation.
November 15, 2003
Physicians for a National Health Program Fall Meeting
http://www.pnhp.org/action/?go=events
San Francisco, CA
November 15 - 19, 2003
American Public Health Association Annual Meeting
San Francisco, CA
http://www.apha.org/meetings/
Meeting of professionals in public health. Has many sessions on health care reform and women's health, including universal health care.
January 22-23, 2004
National Health Policy Conference
Washington, DC
http://www.academyhealth.org/nhpc/
Wide-ranging discussions of health policy, including health care reform and universal health care.
Women's Universal Health Initiative
PO Box 623
Boston, MA 02120-2822
617-739-2923 Ext 3
www.wuhi.org <http://www.wuhi.org>
info@wuhi.org
here.]
Read more about it - it includes this museum (when it was in my house) and many interesting people associated publically with menstruation. Individual Americans can buy the video by contacting
Films for the Humanities
P.O. Box 2053
Princeton, NJ 08543-2053Tel: 609-275-1400
Fax: 609-275-3767
Toll free order line: 1-800-257-5126Canadians purchase it through the National Film Board of Canada.
If so, Lana Thompson wants to hear from you.
if I die before establishing the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health as a permanent public display in the United States (read more of my plans here). I have had coronary angioplasty; I have heart disease related to that which killed all six of my parents and grandparents (some when young), according to the foremost Johns Hopkins lipids specialist. The professor told me I would be a "very sick person" if I were not a vegetarian since I cannot tolerate any of the medications available. Almost two years ago I debated the concept of the museum on American national television ("Moral Court," Fox Network) and MUM board member Miki Walsh (see the board), who was in the audience at Warner Brothers studios in Hollywood, said I looked like a zombie - it was the insomnia-inducing effect of the cholesterol medication.
And almost two years ago Megan Hicks, curator of medicine at Australia's Powerhouse Museum, the country's largest, in Sydney, visited MUM (see her and read about the visit). She described her creation of an exhibit about the history of contraception that traveled Australia; because of the subject many people had objected to it before it started and predicted its failure. But it was a great success!
The museum would have a good home.
I'm trying to establish myself as a painter (see some of my paintings) in order to retire from my present job to give myself the time to get this museum into a public place and on display permanently (at least much of it); it's impossible to do now because of the time my present job requires.
An Australian e-mailed me about this:
Wow, the response to the museum, if it were set up in Australia, would be so varied. You'd have some people rejoicing about it and others totally opposing it (we have some yobbos here who think menstruation is "dirty" and all that other rubbish). I reckon it would be great to have it here. Imagine all the school projects! It might make a lot of younger women happier about menstruating, too. I'd go check it out (and take my boyfriend too) :)
Hey, are you related to Karen Finley, the performance artist?? [Not that I know of, and she hasn't claimed me!]
Don't eliminate the ten Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor
The Bush Administration is planning to propose, in next year's budget, to eliminate the ten Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. This decision signals the Administration's intent to dismantle the only federal agency specifically mandated to represent the needs of women in the paid work force.
Established in 1920, the Women's Bureau plays a critical function in helping women become aware of their legal rights in the workplace and guiding them to appropriate enforcement agencies for help. The Regional Offices take the lead on the issues that working women care about the most - training for higher paying jobs and non-traditional employment, enforcing laws against pay discrimination, and helping businesses create successful child-care and other family-friendly policies, to name only a few initiatives.
The Regional Offices have achieved real results for wage-earning women for eighty-one years, especially for those who have low incomes or language barriers. The one-on-one assistance provided at the Regional Offices cannot be replaced by a Web site or an electronic voice mail system maintained in Washington.
You can take action on this issue today! Go to http://capwiz.com/nwlc/home/ to write to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and tell her you care about keeping the Regional Offices of the Women's Bureau in operation. You can also let E. Mitchell Daniels, Jr., Director of the Office of Management and Budget, know how you feel about this. You can write a letter of your own or use one we've prepared for you.
If you find this information useful, be sure to forward this alert to your friends and colleagues and encourage them to sign up to receive Email Action Alerts from the National Women's Law Center at www.nwlc.org/email.
Thank you!
Book about menstruation published in Spain
The Spanish journalist who contributed some words for menstruation to this site last year and wrote about this museum (MUM) in the Madrid newspaper "El País" just co-authored with her daughter a book about menstruation (cover at left).
She writes, in part,
Dear Harry Finley,
As I told you, my daughter (Clara de Cominges) and I have written a book (called "El tabú") about menstruation, which is the first one to be published in Spain about that subject. The book - it talks about the MUM - is coming out at the end of March and I just said to the publisher, Editorial Planeta, to contact you and send you some pages from it and the cover as well. I'm sure that it will be interesting to you to have some information about the book that I hope has enough sense of humour to be understood anywhere. Thank you for your interest and help.
If you need anything else, please let me know.
Best wishes,
Margarita Rivière
Belen Lopez, the editor of nonfiction at Planeta, adds that "Margarita, more than 50 years old, and Clara, 20, expose their own experiences about menstruation with a sensational sense of humour." (publisher's site)
My guess is that Spaniards will regard the cover as risqué, as many Americans would. And the book, too. But, let's celebrate!
I earlier mentioned that Procter & Gamble was trying to change attitudes in the Spanish-speaking Americas to get more women to use tampons, specifically Tampax - a hard sell.
Compare this cover with the box cover for the Canadian television video about menstruation, Under Wraps, and the second The Curse.
An American network is now developing a program about menstruation for a popular cable channel; some folks from the network visited me recently to borrow material.
And this museum lent historical tampons and ads for a television program in Spain last year.
Now, if I could only read Spanish! (I'm a former German teacher.)
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.
