Menstrual blood

[MotherEarthisaTerf]

Sorry if this is a repeat thread but I had a quick look first.

It's the first time anyone's done an assessment of period products absorbency using blood and not just saline. Doctors have been using fuck all data to assess whether a woman has a "heavy flow" up until now.

https://srh.bmj.com/content/early/2023/07/03/bmjsrh-2023-201895

"Understanding the capacity of different products could help doctors to estimate whether a person is in need of further tests or treatments, as excessive menstrual bleeding could put them at risk of anaemia, or be suggestive of other underlying medical problems.“I might ask a patient, ‘what’s your period like?’ and she might say, ‘well, I soak a pad about every two hours’ – but I don’t necessarily have the time to ask what brand it is or if it’s super maxi,”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/08/menstrual-discs-may-be-better-for-heavy-periods-than-pads-or-tampons-study

(Apologies for the term menstruators in that article )

A biased assessment?
An inequitable examination?
A prejudiced evaluation?

A problem in academia is that students are taught they have to demonstrate their vocabulary and intelligence by using as many syllables as possible.

Then if they want to be a writer, they then have to unlearn this pompous habit.

Sure don't we all use an eggcup now and again when we are caught short?

I will admit over the early years when faced with the generic "oh it just seems like a lot of blood don't worry it isn't" type of response from doctors to spending the next five to ten minutes telling them in excruciatingly graphic detail what a typical period for me was like and that it doesn't seem a lot it is a lot. And even then most of the time you could tell they thought I was exaggerating.

The disbelief of my actual own 'lived experience ' only got taken on face value once I had been diagnosed with various things and so they could then agree because a consultant at the hospital had decreed I was telling the truth.

It's about time women start being believed rather than thought as anxious and exaggerating, and "it can't be that painful or that heavy" when it comes to their periods and how it affects them.

I’m heartened other people matched my experienced this morning, was worried I’d be accused of being a weird for keeping track. That patriarchy really sneaks up on you. Considering what % of the population are menstruating you’d like sinking some money into research would be a no brainer. I also had a dr friend tell me I didn’t get cold during my period, periods raised your temperature. Was so weird, explaining that I could accurately assess my own temperature and when I was menstruating. To this day I’m sure he still thinks I’m wrong because medical school taught him different.

Seriously...That's your takeaway from this thread?

Wow!

😶

If men had periods they would have paid time off every month , free pads or tampons, there would be specially trained period advisors in every gp surgery and mens toilets would have a dedicated area for them to go to deal with their period complete with comfy chairs, soft music playing and free coffee…….. Male students would be given special consideration if their period clashed with important exams, male athletes and sportsmen would be treated with extra respect and care and their kit would be designed especially to accommodate their menstruation.

If only.

Just so you know, people use different language in everyday life than they write in exams.
Plus: what language are you referring to? Do you know that children don’t do GCSEs in Y7?
Your comment was irrelevant and pointless.

Year 7s don't take GCSEs, and I think you mean "grade-dropper" with a hyphen. Sentences also require a full stop at the end. It could be a job-loser if you are typing like that.

Anyway thanks for the interesting article OP!

That was in response to Nevermay's quoted post.
I'd love to know which GCSE exam board marks children on the way they talk.

"Methods A variety of commercially available menstrual products (tampons, pads, menstrual cups and discs, and period underwear) were tested in the laboratory to determine their maximal capacity to absorb or fill using expired human packed red blood cells. The volume of blood necessary for saturation or filling of the product was recorded.

Results Of the 21 individual menstrual hygiene products tested, a menstrual disc (Ziggy, Jiangsu, China) held the most blood of any product (80 mL). The perineal ice-activated cold pack and period underwear held the least (<3 mL each). Of the product categories tested, on average, menstrual discs had the greatest capacity (61 mL) and period underwear held the least (2 mL). Tampons, pads (heavy/ultra), and menstrual cups held similar amounts of blood (approximately 20–50 mL)."

Interesting to see just how little period pants hold.
Not entirely sure what 'expired human packed red blood cells' are, but don't fancy Googling!

Disappointing to see women researchers apparently unable to use accurate sex based language in this fascinating research.
One would have hoped that as the domination of medicine by ejaculators recedes, women's health needs would become more recognised?

Glad to see I wasnt the only one gaslit when I I bled more than the regular amount. "Oh it just looks like a lot more"

This research is really important as women's pain is still hugely dismissed. If we can get to an evidence based assessment of our periods it will be easier to seek treatment for irregular ones.

At times I wonder how much is left for science to discover - and then I am reminded how we're still at the very beginning for treating women's hysteria... I mean women's health.

I will maybe disagree a bit, and say I think there are quite a lot of things like this in medicine that aren't nearly as tested or understood as the general public think. Or even as what many doctors think, who learn it in their university texts but aren't usually delving into how the information was acquired in the first place.

I'd have guessed it was sanitary product manufacturers that would likely have done the most detailed research into this. But that's always going to be directed towards their commercial needs mainly, rather than medical questions.

None of which is to say it isn't a useful area to study. Though for anemia, it seems like the most straightforward thing might be, look for signs of anemia and do a blood test.

I loved the measurements on a cup but it gave me contact dermatitis internally (very sensitive skin, can’t use the new fangled disposable sanitary pads either, nor Elastoplast/ fashion tape/underwear with a silicone strip to keep it in place etc etc).

I’m currently using period pants (after years of making my own pads with flannel fabric) and I have wondered what my flow is like because the pants are black and it’s hard to tell!

I mean women's health.

You must mean "menstruators'" and "AFAB non menstruators'" health.

"I'd have guessed it was sanitary product manufacturers that would likely have done the most detailed research into this. But that's always going to be directed towards their commercial needs mainly, rather than medical questions."

And they were, understandably, using saline as measurements and the medical community just took it and ran.

Just as long as you don’t use one like this. I should imagine it would chafe a little.

My bad

Menstruators hysteria

Reminds me a bit of Sally Ride, the first woman to go to space, being asked if 100 tampons would be enough for a week long flight.

She also got asked to help with developing a make up kit to be used in space. 🙄

https://www.poynter.org/tfcn/2021/did-nasa-send-a-woman-to-space-with-100-tampons/

A make up kit in space? Fucking fuckers.

Agreed. Ben Goldacre uses the phrase several times in his foreword to the excellent book Testing Treatments (available as a free download, as an audiobook etc.).

But then there are the people who brandish scientific studies. If there is one key message from this book – and it is a phrase I have borrowed and used endlessly myself – it is the concept of a ‘fair test’. Not all trials are born the same, because there are so many ways that a piece of scientific research can be biased, and erroneously give what someone, somewhere thinks should be the ‘right’ answer.

http://en.testingtreatments.org/book/background/foreword/

For anyone considering their anaemia, there's a decent paper on this topic:

Dugan C, MacLean B, Cabolis K, Abeysiri S, Khong A, Sajic M, Richards T; Women's Health research Collaborative. The misogyny of iron deficiency. Anaesthesia. 2021 Apr;76 Suppl 4:56-62. doi: 10.1111/anae.15432. PMID: 33682094.

https://associationofanaesthetists-publications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/anae.15432

It’s the bread soldiers that I find unnecessary.

Is this egg cup line an "official" stance somewhere or something? 😂
I was taught that too in school, and also told "It just looks like more"
Crazy that it's pretty much word for word the same too!

Are they still telling young girls this?