The stigma surrounding menstruation may have had severe consequences for research into reproductive health.
By Yasmine AlSayyad
April 12, 2023
. . . .Despite the importance of placental development for a successful pregnancy, garnering support for her work was difficult. “When I came into this field, it was really clear that it was hard to find funding,” she tells Hazard. “The placenta? It’s mostly, like, ‘Who cares? We just throw it away.’ ”
A fantasy persists, in the popular imagination, of sperm as Olympic swimmers, racing toward an egg that passively awaits fertilization. Clancy and Hazard are both keen to complicate this simplistic picture of conception. Sperm are drawn in by uterine waves, Clancy asserts, “a special type of muscle contraction that helps control the speed at which sperm reach the egg, propelling them on a journey that would otherwise be too long for them to make on their own.” Hazard also emphasizes the organ’s strength. “The womb is a muscle,” she writes. “We can compare it quite accurately to a clenched fist, not only in size, but in power.”
Hazard and Clancy hope to encourage us to better appreciate this remarkable muscle. The interior of the uterus, Clancy points out, goes through a process of tissue repair month after month without leaving any scar tissue. Though the organ’s regenerative powers are not well understood, it has the potential to inform treatment of a variety of chronic wounds. A recent study indicates that menstrual effluent specifically might have healing properties. When applied to skin wounds, plasma extracted from menstrual fluid appeared to improve the repair process. Rather than greeting our periods with disgust, perhaps we should trade our revulsion for awe. ♦
Oh to join those travels! You maybe aware that “Wild” will be discussed by two of my favorite groups on Zoom. Den/Bou on May 3 at 1:30MT(I think). NorCal on Sept 8 at 6:30 Pacific. I started the Art Spy and have to get back to it. Much like our dear friends the Porter Sisters, Mrs Kauffman & Madame Le Brun(by Franny Moyle) faced terrible behavior from relatives and friends. While there is much technical stuff about painting, their lives and their paintings are maybe worth a look. Hoping to go to NYC Metro’s next meeting(Wendy Jones & Brandon Taylor) and maybe Gainsborough’s Portraits before hand(please be on time Amtrak!).
Huxham’s Tincture, still on the market in the 1940s. Looks like something Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would enthusiastically recommend.
Ha! The quinine made it at least somewhat useful historically. But yes!
Gowland’s Poison err I
mean Lotion anyone?
In case you haven’t seen this:
What We Still Don’t Know About Periods
The stigma surrounding menstruation may have had severe consequences for research into reproductive health.
By Yasmine AlSayyad
April 12, 2023
. . . .Despite the importance of placental development for a successful pregnancy, garnering support for her work was difficult. “When I came into this field, it was really clear that it was hard to find funding,” she tells Hazard. “The placenta? It’s mostly, like, ‘Who cares? We just throw it away.’ ”
A fantasy persists, in the popular imagination, of sperm as Olympic swimmers, racing toward an egg that passively awaits fertilization. Clancy and Hazard are both keen to complicate this simplistic picture of conception. Sperm are drawn in by uterine waves, Clancy asserts, “a special type of muscle contraction that helps control the speed at which sperm reach the egg, propelling them on a journey that would otherwise be too long for them to make on their own.” Hazard also emphasizes the organ’s strength. “The womb is a muscle,” she writes. “We can compare it quite accurately to a clenched fist, not only in size, but in power.”
Hazard and Clancy hope to encourage us to better appreciate this remarkable muscle. The interior of the uterus, Clancy points out, goes through a process of tissue repair month after month without leaving any scar tissue. Though the organ’s regenerative powers are not well understood, it has the potential to inform treatment of a variety of chronic wounds. A recent study indicates that menstrual effluent specifically might have healing properties. When applied to skin wounds, plasma extracted from menstrual fluid appeared to improve the repair process. Rather than greeting our periods with disgust, perhaps we should trade our revulsion for awe. ♦
https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/what-we-still-dont-know-about-periods
Oh to join those travels! You maybe aware that “Wild” will be discussed by two of my favorite groups on Zoom. Den/Bou on May 3 at 1:30MT(I think). NorCal on Sept 8 at 6:30 Pacific. I started the Art Spy and have to get back to it. Much like our dear friends the Porter Sisters, Mrs Kauffman & Madame Le Brun(by Franny Moyle) faced terrible behavior from relatives and friends. While there is much technical stuff about painting, their lives and their paintings are maybe worth a look. Hoping to go to NYC Metro’s next meeting(Wendy Jones & Brandon Taylor) and maybe Gainsborough’s Portraits before hand(please be on time Amtrak!).