knabepicer
Bethany BlackAfter 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.
This is why they are so poor at absorption compared to the claims and why doctors struggle with what constitutes heavy bleeding. The research was published LAST MONDAY. A week ago today.
Chamatou@BethanyBlack Seriously? Are you sure?
Ruby Jones@BethanyBlack this is making me feel super confident in my doctor's assertion that my concerns about going on the pill (which I want to do, but have valid concerns about) are 'purely anecdotal' and 'the data doesn't support it'.
I always look askance at a doctor dismissing patient's 'anecdotes' about their experiences after being misdiagnosed for 7 years, but especially women's. It makes me.lose confidence in the doctor, not the anecdotes.
Skiriki Fyxe@BethanyBlack *looks down to the direction of their own undies*
You heard that, there? Stop that bleeding right now, this is absolutely ridiculous! I know the package said for heavy bleeding, but I *also* know it was a huge lie, just stooopppp. Please.
coldclimate@BethanyBlack astounding
Kelly's Shenanigans 🇨🇦@BethanyBlack doctors regularly don't believe you even when you do meet the definition of heavy bleeding, until you say you use a menstral cup and you can measure.
Jo - pièce de résistance@Kellyshenanigans @BethanyBlack
they way they say they 'look at data' but don't believe *you*, when *your experiences* are their data, they just dismiss it.
Stacy@BethanyBlack Sadly, this does not surprise me.
Magic Cauldron@BethanyBlack Holy shi- blood! 😳😱
Katy KingInTheTron 👸🏻@BethanyBlack and even then, this research didn’t use period blood, which can vary wildly in consistency. Cups or discs can contain the thicker material that pads and tampons can’t absorb.
Renée@BethanyBlack wait wtf
Narevalom
veuve@reneestephen @BethanyBlack EXACTLY my reaction
LisPi@reneestephen @BethanyBlack Yeah. That's one of hell of a wtf moment.
How did anyone think that was a good idea?
@lispi314 my guess... squeamishness, internalized misogyny, and no incentive to focus on menstrual health issues -- marketing says stuff about capacity, sure, but what reason to do rigorous testing? why bother with that cost -- and new product development is just more of the same right?
Also, ew, blood.
@reneestephen @BethanyBlack Even beyond the ethical issues that are themselves pretty blatant, one would expect them to at least have enough integrity to not make themselves party to fraud and false-advertisement.
Grrjessi@BethanyBlack explains all those weird commercials in the 80's and 90's
@BethanyBlack why is it blue?
@betty_ford in the UK at least that was because you weren’t allowed to show blood in advertising, it was one of the weird unintended consequences of the video nasty act, posters advertising movies weren’t allowed to show blood because James Ferman of the BBFC thought it would scare lone women in train stations at night (genuinely)
Anna
Jen@BethanyBlack I thought the squeamishness about period blood was just in adverts. I didn't know it extended to the research, too. That's far more gross than the actual blood.
@BethanyBlack it does explain why a lot of period products are really terrible.
@JetlagJen yep, and why doctors have such a difficult time with what is and isn’t heavy bleeding
@BethanyBlack I had a male doctor dismiss my iron levels as "fine", only to discover a year later that they were "a little anaemic" thanks to a female doctor taking a second look at the figures. No wonder, what with bleeding 8 days out 24, and several of them overflowing a cup in an hour.
Dagnabbit, Pascaline! 💥@JetlagJen
I had almost the same! periods lasted 12 days (sometimes more) and were every 3.5 weeks. They were very heavy; it often felt I kept dropping organs on the floor. Plus a lot of pain. It took way too long and all doctors were male and said "This is just part of how you function." and "It's normal".
There's a lot of variation, but that's definitely extreme. A patient saying "this is a problem" should be enough for a GP to take it seriously.
Elizabeth M, stationer@JetlagJen @BethanyBlack at one point I went back to pads/tampons to get a baseline that my GPs could understand "Oh yeah I bleed through a super tampon in about 15 minutes" meant something to them
Jason Walter 🇵🇸@BethanyBlack Um, that’s nuts. WTAF
Sarah W@BethanyBlack
That is staggering! By any chance, was most of this research carried out by men?
That is staggering! By any chance, was most of this research carried out by men?
Erin 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
Maiden of Utrecht@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….🙄
Louise Locock@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.
"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.
@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....)
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....)
Natasha@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.
dasgrueneblatt@ErinKernohan @BethanyBlack I love the images in the article! 🩸 Finally!
LauraThe 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)."
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.) "
@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.
BoneHouseWasps🔶🇬🇧🇪🇺@BethanyBlack You mean all those ads where they poured mysterious blue liquid on sanitary towels wasn't just done for the ads and was actually *live research methodology*?
HalvarFlake@BethanyBlack Wow. Link to the results? Any surprises?
Phokal@BethanyBlack that’s unbelievable and worryingly believable
Advanced Persistent Teapot@BethanyBlack 25x more attention on men's pleasure than women's pain. Not exaggerating - a friend of my ex's compared studies; found 400 discussing menstruation, and 10,000 covering ED during the same time frame.
Acetopheles@http_error_418 @BethanyBlack it's exacerbated by the fact that they make period talk taboo.
There isn't anything pleasurable about having periods once a month and men are dangerously uninformed about them.
They should get the talk just like women, it's a perfectly natural body function, there isn't anything sexual about it, having a partner with knowledge that you can confide in would be so helpful to some women, and at least help mitigate misinformation some men have about periods.
There isn't anything pleasurable about having periods once a month and men are dangerously uninformed about them.
They should get the talk just like women, it's a perfectly natural body function, there isn't anything sexual about it, having a partner with knowledge that you can confide in would be so helpful to some women, and at least help mitigate misinformation some men have about periods.
@BethanyBlack oh ffs. It's 2023. Argh.
MunkySpunk@BethanyBlack If we're talking about it the same study, which wasn't cited, they used human packed RBCs, not unprocessed blood.
robryk@BethanyBlack oh, so at no point were people trying with plasma alone?
Brad Patrick@BethanyBlack @CatherineFlick So all this time they assumed women gushed blue mouthwash? As seen on tv?
Jan@BethanyBlack I’m thinking the period panties I’ve seen advertised recently were probably not researched with actual blood. I don’t know that but that is what I thought when I saw the ads.
Nightmilk@BethanyBlack with greatest respect to all concerned, blood is only one component of The Sauce