Period 25: Ultimate menstrual frisbee
I was on Taboo Science Podcast this week talking about PERIOD (which, by the way, if you’ve read it, would you consider leaving a rating or review on Goodreads or StoryGraph?). It was a great interview, and covered really different ground than other episodes I’ve done.
In particular host Ashley Hamer gave me space to get on my soapbox on an issue I’m especially passionate about – the widespread use of induction in pregnancy at 39 weeks for anyone over the age of 35, for no other reason than age. I explain the issues with calculating gestational age based off what we know of menstrual cycle variation. For more about what enrages me about this… you’ll just have to wait for the next book. Let’s just say for now that paternalistic fearmongering persists (or, maybe not, because that’s a mouthful, and I really need to get better at writing in a zingier style!).
Things are ramping up in academia-land, with the first day of classes coming up on the 21st here at Illinois and many other midwestern universities that do not pay attention to the actual seasons and seem to like to have to pay a lot of money for classroom air conditioning for at least a month into every fall semester. I’m on teaching leave this year thanks to a Center for Advanced Study Fellowship and the additional buyouts that come from my administrative position in my department (though of course, those buyouts come with many hours per week of admin work, so I don’t actually gain time there). But there is still much to do: orientations to hold, email to wrangle, meetings to have, polls to run and to fill out.
I find the service work of academia enriching in the sense that I am contributing to my local environment – my department – in the hopes of helping create something positive there. But I also find the service work draining, demoralizing, and often thankless, because so much of the work is invisible or assumed to be easy by those not doing it. I’m almost done with my time doing this sort of thing for the department, though, and then it will be some other person’s job to herd cats.
Links
Marks & Spencer and Wuka, two brands in the UK that sell period underwear, are campaigning to get rid of the 20% value-added tax (VAT, similar to a sales tax) on them. Both companies promise to pass on 100% of the savings to consumers… which has not been the case with the dropping of the tampon tax. The 5% VAT that got dropped from tampons lead to stores making an extra 10 million pounds. Anyone know if a similar study has been done in the US?
I can’t believe I missed this when it came out a few weeks ago! Gabriella Kountourides and others put together this great video with BBC Ideas on “Five Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Periods.” It’s accessible, accurate, and really well produced. Gabriella is also a fantastic host – watch it and share with others!
Something that is increasingly featuring in the research I’ve been doing for my next book – which I didn’t expect – are the impacts of climate change on our bodies. It’s made me take a hard look at the various industrial/corporate solutions to climate change, including electric vehicles. Here’s a story about the fact that EVs are heavy, and therefore can put additional strain on our roadways, and pollution in our waterways. That said, the problem isn’t entirely with moving from gas to electric: all cars and trucks are bigger and heavier than before. We need to reduce the size and weight of personal vehicles as well as (perhaps most crucially) strengthen the infrastructure for cycling and public transportation… not just dump an enormous battery into existing monster trucks.
Weird period fact: menstrual discs are where it’s at?
I always knew period underwear kind of sucked (even if I agree that it should be affordable and not so heavily taxed). That is, the claim that they could hold a tampon of fluid never once held up for me, and while I find them useful they really only serve to back up my main method, which is typically pads.
I’ve been wanting to switch to something more sustainable for forever, but have tried and failed to love menstrual cups. I finally bought a pack of menstrual discs but keep… not using them. This paper might finally be what changes my mind.
Study authors used expired blood products to better mimic menstrual blood, and tested the absorbencies of a variety of pads, tampons, cups, discs, postpartum hospital pads, and period underwear. It was a small study: only one test per product, and in some cases, like period underwear and menstrual cups, only one brand was represented. But here is how their volumes shook out:
Menstrual discs look to be the clear winner, with an average volume of 61mL. This was driven in part by one menstrual disc, the Ziggy, holding a whopping 80mL. But the other discs performed very well too. What perhaps surprised me most were that tampons and cups held less than pads – many people I know with a heavy flow prefer those options to pads.
Both the postpartum pads and period underwear did next to nothing. I mean, one milliliter? I sneeze more than a milliliter! And I gush menstrual blood way more than one milliliter when I sneeze! (lolol iykyk)
The benefit of this study is that the absorbencies/volumes held by these different products is going to be more accurate using something like blood products instead of what the authors suspect most companies do, which is use water or saline. That said – they don’t say what companies use. And if you recall back in newsletter 2 it was feminist health activists who advocated for the use of heparinized blood to test tampon absorbency to better understand why super tampons were causing Toxic Shock Syndrome. Does this mean companies got lazy after those early years and reverted back to easier fluids for testing? Maybe.
The other point the authors make is that even the expired blood products they use are imperfect as a testing fluid, because they do not contain clots and other tissues. This suggests many of the products tested, especially those that rely on absorbency, may hold even less fluid than the current paper suggests. Their method of testing also diverges somewhat from more natural conditions, where pads and tampons can get compressed and perhaps less absorbent.
Ok ok, I’ve been convinced, I will try the menstrual disc. Flex, the brand I happened to buy (not an affiliate, not shilling for them, I haven’t even tried them yet) even has something in their FAQ about prolapse, which is the main reason why cups are not comfortable for me. I’ll report back in a few weeks.
Source: DeLoughery, Emma, Alyssa C. Colwill, Alison Edelman, and Bethany Samuelson Bannow. 2023. “Red Blood Cell Capacity of Modern Menstrual Products: Considerations for Assessing Heavy Menstrual Bleeding.” BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, July. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsrh-2023-201895.