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-BerningAug 14, 2023

@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
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 threadLaura

@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
Aug 15, 2023 at 5:30pmWeb
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.