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 )

@Helleofabore
Do you prefer disposable pads? I only ask because I came across a brand called Plastfree when I was doing research.
https://plastfreepad.myshopify.com/

They claim their pads are extra-absorbent (maternity one takes close to 500ml, iirc), entirely plastic-free and biodegradable - as in they can be composted in your garden bin. Also woman-centred marketing, no gender woo last time I looked, anyway. I haven't tried them myself but they might be worth looking at if the ones you are using aren't up to snuff.

I wonder whether now that science and the pharma industry are looking at menstrual blood as something they can use (as opposed to just being a women's thing that women can take care of, ie unimportant) is there an incentive to find out more about it - including how much is produced?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6249727/

That's a thought...