Period 22: 100 tampons and a discount code
I’ve been writing a lot for the last month… just not newsletters. I got about 35,000 words deep into my next book, which is on pregnancy loss. It turns out the trick to writing loads of words is getting up really early, brushing your teeth but not changing out of your pajamas, having your partner take care of all the morning kid duties, and writing for at least three hours every day. Also, ignoring most of the other work duties that are not directly relevant to the thing you think is important. You know, like men have done since time immemorial! Feeling a mixture of panic and urgency and excitement churns out a lot of (mostly bad, really, but that’s what first drafts are) words.
Now I’m back to the exhaustive reading stage to give myself space to think and learn, and then draft the next big chunk. (And also, to be less of an asshole to my family and my job.) I’m just about back to the writing stage again, but if any of you have books or papers to recommend, or experts to talk to, I’m all ears! Right now I’m especially interested in reading about the physiological experience of pregnancy loss and all the different ways that happens. Because of the way both miscarriage and abortion stigma work, we don’t talk very much about the actual mechanics of this experience, except perhaps quietly among people who have already had one. And I think it’s an important experience to detail and share more widely, in all the variable ways it happens.
However I also have CURRENT BOOK NEWS, as is news about PERIOD: THE REAL STORY OF MENSTRUATION. Four very exciting things!!!
1. Dr. Sarah Richardson has written a truly wonderful review of PERIOD in The Lancet. I hope this leads to doctors choosing to read my book. Here’s the pull quote that made me blush:
“Period . . . is an energising read that models and opens critical conversations about ethically and politically reflective practices in the life sciences. . . . Clancy engages the reader in a dialogue that ignites curiosity and invites further inquiry, offering dollop after rich dollop of fascinating science. . . . Period is not only an exquisite work of science writing, it is a life-altering read.”
2. My Five Books interview is up, where I talk about five books that have inspired me and PERIOD, though not all of them are about menstruation. I also talk a bit about what I think PERIOD is about… and why I think we need to better center the care of our material bodies as we look towards our and our planet’s future.
3. I have another book event coming up! This one is at Titcomb’s Bookshop in East Sandwich, MA on Tuesday August 1st. If you live on the Cape or near it, this is not only a chance to see me but see me in conversation with my sister, Liz Lerner. Any of you who are old podcast listeners may remember Liz from the first few seasons of PERIOD, and you know we can have a bit of a silly energy. This is going to be so fun and I hope you can make it.
4. Finally, and perhaps most exciting – I have been hearing from so many of you that you have been reading PERIOD in your book clubs. Thank you so much! Those of you who have scheduled it for a later month, or are thinking about making PERIOD a book club pick, let me sweeten the pot! If you buy the book from PUP’s website you can get 20% off the book through the end of the year using code KCL20. And if you are thinking you’d like to make a bulk order, let me know! I can connect you to folks at the press who work directly with book clubs to supply them with copies.
No links this week because I’m squeezing this newsletter in between travel and Sci Foo. Instead, in honor of the crew being selected for the Johnson Space Center simulation of the Mars encampment, I give you… periods in space!
Weird period fact: 100 tampons
Do you remember that song about Sally Ride and the 100 tampons that made the rounds on TikTok (or if you’re old like me, Instagram) a few years back? It was written and performed by comedian Marcia Belsky – though because of how sharing and attribution works on the internet, you probably heard her voice but saw a different person lip syncing to the song.
So first, go watch Belsky sing the song in full and share some of the responses she received when it went viral. The whole talk is great but if you want to just see the stuff about periods, start about five minutes in.
The question of course is, is this story true? And the answer is… kinda. Sally Ride was in fact asked if one hundred tampons was the number she would need for her short trip into space. NASA engineers also thought they needed to assemble a makeup kit for women astronauts. But no, it appears she did not bring that many tampons into space, nor were they tied together as the song suggests.
What’s funny about the trolling Belsky received for her fantastic song (fantastic because even though it isn’t quite true, it is believable, isn’t it? That given menstrual stigma this is the kind of panicked fever dream a non-menstruating person would produce in the face of having to consider the menstruation needs of another person?) is that there were mansplainy folks in the comments who managed to become, in Belsky’s words, “experts in microgravity in menstruation.” Because of course they tried to explain away the 100 tampons as an engineering factor of safety in the face of the unknowns of menstruation in space.
The thing is, menstruation in space is an interesting question, because gravity is at least a small part of how menses exits the body. Just ask any person who menstruates who sleeps lying down and has had period pool along their butt all night. Or has gotten up in the morning and experienced the sudden gush of period suddenly finding its way out their vaginal canal. The uterine waves that propel menses out go from fundus to cervix, which since we’re bipedal are aided by the fact that the waves are sending menses downward. Without gravity, I’d wonder about whether there was an increased risk of retrograde menstruation (of menstrual tissue finding its way into the abdominal cavity, which it already does fairly often). This in and of itself isn’t bad, but for someone prone to endometriosis it could increase the risk of endometriotic lesions. My next thought is tampons might therefore be a far better option in space than, say pads. I’d want something absorbent up in my vaginal canal rather than my tried-and-true pads/period underwear, personally.
Funnily enough, according to this short piece in National Geographic by Erika Engelhaupt, at least one person has menstruated in space and… it seems like nothing major came of it. But rather than try to accommodate periods in space – something we may eventually want to consider figuring out if we ever want to consider long term travel in space, which could eventually also mean reproduction in space – the current solution is to just stop periods. As usual, an “away.”