I finally caught up to the November 2007 edition of Women & Health, which included a number of articles from the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research.

You would think that this edition of Women & Health would have at least had a few drops of red on the cover or a string hanging from the spine, but no such luck. Humor is apparently not the hallmark of the Society For Menstrual Cycle Research, although there might be an entire subtext of menstrual cycle research humor that I'm not aware of.

As for things I learned from reading the menstruating issue of Women & Health, here are a few of the highlights:

--Researchers designed a study where a woman accidentally drops either an unused tampon or a hair clip on the ground. Observers who viewed the woman dropping the objects rated her as being less competent and less likeable when she dropped the tampon than when she dropped the hair clip. (I can't help but wonder what the response would have been if she had dropped a condom.)

--Women today are told that the normal time between periods is 28 days, with the duration of bleeding being from 4-to-6 days. That would be fine if one size fit all, but for many women the time between periods ranges from 23-to-32 days. The interval is even shorter for some, and longer for others. The time between periods can be the same from cycle to cycle, or it can be all over the place. The duration of bleeding can vary as well.

--Women are often told that it is normal to bleed between 4-to-6 tablespoons during an average period. Is there a woman on the planet who has ever sat with a tablespoon between her legs during her period, measuring the collected blood? And where did the "4-to-6 tablespoon" amount come from, anyway? Is it based on actual science? Women usually quantify their menstrual bleeding on how many tampons or pads they use, and have no idea how many tablespoons that may or may not be.

--In a study of gynecology clinics in Scotland, 75% of the women had been referred by their family physicians because of "excessive bleeding problems," while only 36% of these women rated their periods as being "very heavy." Upon exam, none of the nearly 1,000 women had any cancers, and half had no medical problem at all. What's the big deal, you might ask? A woman who is referred to a gynecology clinic for excessive bleeding has an almost fivefold increased chance of receiving a hysterectomy.

--One study showed that girls who had an adequate education about menstruation before they began menstruating tended to have a more positive emotional experience regarding their first menstruation than girls who weren't told anything. Let's see: a twelve year-old who has no clue about menstruation begins bleeding between her legs during math class--we needed a study to realize that this might be traumatizing? On the other hand, studies do show that daughters tend to assume their mothers' attitudes about menstruation, and mom is still the main source of education about menstruation for a daughter.

There is also an older article cited in this edition of Women & Health that I tried to find. It is titled "That's just a basic teen-age rule: Girls' linguistic strategies for managing the menstrual communication taboo," by Elizabeth Kissling (1996). Even with the power of Google, I couldn't find the text of the article, but I did come across a reference to the author's recent book from a journal called Sex Roles:

Empowerment or Embarrassment? Two Views of Menstruation
Capitalizing on the Curse: The Business of Menstruation. By Elizabeth Arveda Kissling, 2006. ISBN:158826310X.
Girls in Power: Gender, Body, and Menstruation in Adolescence. By Laura Fingerson, 2006. ISBN: 079146900X.

Looks like my mountain of needs-to-be-read articles and books just grew by two.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this update on Menstruation--where we'll turn the clock back to just after World War I and look at some of the early ads for the newly invented Kotex. These ads will give a pretty clear road map for how we view menstruation today, when a woman's period is supposed to be a secret and invisible.