Bethany BlackAug 14, 2023
After all these years I’m rarely surprised by medical misogyny, but finding out that the research from the first ever tests on period products using blood instead of water were published LAST WEEK is one of those surprises.
Show threadErin Kernohan-Berning

@BethanyBlack This is unreal. Also of note is how so many headlines about this study completely miss the point... Ooof. When I searched for this study, most headlines said “Cups better for heavy periods” or something similar - which isn’t even a conclusion of the study other than cups held more fluid. Marie Claire Australia was the only accurate reporting on the study I found in my top search results.

Marie Claire: https://www.marieclaire.com.au/heavy-menstrual-bleeding-study

The full study is here: https://srh.bmj.com/content/early/2023/07/03/bmjsrh-2023-201895

The First Ever Period Product Study Involving Actual Blood Just Proved Why We Needed It

It's 2023, and menstrual health continues to be grossly under researched.

Marie Claire
Aug 14, 2023 at 8:23amWeb
Show threadMaiden of UtrechtAug 14, 2023

@ErinKernohan @BethanyBlack
““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.”

“Don’t necessarily have the time?” I just spoke the words “what brand and thickness of pad do you use” using a stopwatch and it took me literally less than two seconds to ask 😖.

Not buying it….🙄

Show threadLouise LocockAug 14, 2023
@ErinKernohan @BethanyBlack
"Just how underrepresented this topic is was quantified by Stanford University, who reported that a search for ‘menstrual blood’ on medical database PubMed brought up just 400 results from the last several decades, while a search for ‘erectile dysfunction’ had approximately 10,000 results from the same period."
Simultaneously shocking but not surprising.
Show threadLouise LocockAug 14, 2023
@ErinKernohan @BethanyBlack
I remember a doctor once asking me whether I could estimate how many tablespoons of blood I was shedding. Erm, no. (Though once I started using a mooncup I guess I could have gone into the toilet with a spoon and checked....)
Show threadNatashaAug 14, 2023
@ErinKernohan @BethanyBlack Thanks for the study link, great study which should be essential reading for all GPs and gynaecologists at the very least. Pads do vary greatly in their absorbency; interesting also that many people with heavy periods self select menstrual cups, perhaps because they are easier to use when bleeding is so heavy as they do catch it directly.
Show threaddasgrueneblattAug 15, 2023
@ErinKernohan @BethanyBlack I love the images in the article! 🩸 Finally!
Show threadLauraAug 15, 2023

@ErinKernohan @BethanyBlack

The Marie Claire article says "It also found that menstrual cups have the greatest capacity for absorption" but the abstract says "Of the 21 individual menstrual hygiene products tested, a menstrual disc (Ziggy, Jiangsu, China) held the most blood of any product (80 mL) [...] on average, menstrual discs had the greatest capacity (61 mL) [...]. Tampons, pads (heavy/ultra), and menstrual cups held similar amounts of blood (approximately 20–50 mL)."

Show threadLauraAug 15, 2023

@ErinKernohan @BethanyBlack

I'm not sure exactly how the test was conducted in the laboratory, but as Kim Rosas says here https://periodnirvana.com/menstrual-cup-or-menstrual-disc-which-to-choose , while discs "have a higher capacity than cups in theory (the crumpling of the basket likely reduces the actual capacity by some % based on each person’s anatomy.) "

Menstrual Cup or Disc - Which to choose?

A guide to the menstrual cup and disc. How they're different and how they're the same, and why one may work better for you than the other.

Period Nirvana
Show threadErin Kernohan-BerningAug 16, 2023
@lauravivanco @BethanyBlack Good resources! To clarify when I say the headlines missed the point, it’s because the study was relating capacity to how HMB is diagnosed. The q’n asked with HMB is how often do you change, and with a cup that can be far less even with a person experiencing bleeding that requires medical care. So the study is saying docs need to understand that. So it’s not an endorsement of any product for heavy periods, only because that’s not what the purpose of the study was.