Posted on 07/07/2019 4:41:25 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
There is no more unifying experience among women around the globe than menstruation. All women understand what it feels like to have their period—even if they don’t exactly understand what it is.
And yet, the topic of menstruation continues to hold significant stigmas, and embarrassment or hesitation to discuss this vital function of the female body has created gaps in our knowledge of how the menstrual cycle affects a women’s overall health.
Therefore, it was a welcome shock to discover that the May 2019 issue of Scientific American magazine is primarily dedicated to the science of women’s reproductive health—or rather, the lack thereof. In one particularly revealing article, “What is the Point of a Period?” by Virginia Sole-Smith, the author investigates the long-standing menstrual taboo and the devastating effect it has had on women’s reproductive health, including the unique problem concerning menstrual suppression through hormonal birth control.
Coming from a nationally esteemed scientific magazine as Scientific American (the longest continuously published magazine in the United States), this article is truly a breakthrough for women’s reproductive health, for several reasons.
The medical and scientific repercussions of the global menstruation taboo
All women of child-bearing years experience menstruation. There is nothing strange or unhealthy about it, even if global taboos are still very much alive. In fact, the female menstrual cycle is necessary for reproduction—necessary for human survival. But still, most people are too scared or embarrassed to talk about or even acknowledge it. As Sole-Smith explains, “That aversion has influenced women’s relationships to their own bodies as well as how the medical establishment manages women when things go wrong with their reproductive health.”
(Excerpt) Read more at naturalwomanhood.org ...
Of course, if the doc just throws some birth control pills at your, rather than investigating the underlying cause(s), isn’t that bad as well.
The BC may get rid of the symptoms, while the endometriosis or other sickness goes merrily on its way.
There’s often not much that can be done for the underlying cause.
As for me, relief from the symptoms is good enough and I don’t care if it’s what’s called birth control. Hormone replacement therapy is a good enough phrase for those women who are using the hormones for symptom relief and not birth control. Single women do it.
IIRC, you are a guy, hence, disqualified from offering a relevant opinion on the matter. Until you live it, you just will never understand. Nothing personal. You’re a great FReeper, but men through no fault of their own,DO. NOT. UNDERSTAND.
For that matter, not all women understand either. Some have ZERO problems and they are worse to deal with than the men. They think that just cause they don’t have problems, no women do and it’s all in our heads.
We used NFP, mainly to have kids.
Till my wife had to have a hysterectomy because of fibroids (not related). Honestly, her doc things the pill would have made it much worse in the long run.
Oh, puh-leeeeze. I visited a friend in PA last year who detailed to me how, when she moved in with her lesbian sister and her wife following her divorce, she began bleeding continuously. It went on for seven freaking weeks. As best as she could figure, her body was trying to sync her menstrual cycle up with the other two people in the household.
Furthermore, I grew up in an environment dominated by my mother and various aunts and female cousins -- Mom divorced Dad when I was about five --, so I knew about periods before I turned 12, and they would also talk about the cramps, too. I DO have some idea about the problems with women's bodies.
So, please spare me the "mansplaining" jive and the Amazonian censorship attempt. Thanks.
Hearing about it isn’t living it.
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