Period myths that “just need to die”

Humans don't have pheromones. It's never been proven. So there's no such thing as cycle syncing

Another myth that I hear is the menstrual cycle is a way to release toxins from the body

Well, if we needed the menstrual cycle to get rid of toxins, then I have bad news for women

in menopause and all of men, right? Humans don't actually have toxins and the menstrual cycle

doesn't remove things from our body in the same way that the liver and the kidneys do

It's a myth that just needs to die. Historically, education about the menstrual cycle has been dismal

It's all framed in context of pregnancy and preventing pregnancy, as opposed to about

the menstrual cycle and what it means for a person's body. If we can't talk about it, if we can't share knowledge about it, then the implication is

that it doesn't matter. But we know that the menstrual cycle has a significant impact on the half of the population

that has it. We want people to know how much blood is too much, how much pain is a concern, has your

period started too late. All these things are important to know about so you can advocate for yourself

If you have a menstrual cycle, if you love someone who has a menstrual cycle, and I know

that you came from someone who had a menstrual cycle, you should want everybody to be able

to access the same level of care. Hi, my name is Dr. Jen Gunter

I'm a San Francisco Bay Area OBGYN and author and health communicator

And my latest book is Blood, the Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation

Relatively few mammals menstruate. So there's humans and some great apes. There are some bats

There is the spiny mouse and the elephant shrew. So it's kind of like this motley crew species

Every other mammal has an estrus cycle, which is a little different

The word menstruation comes from both a Latin and a Greek root, and it's for the word for monthlies or a monthly occurrence

And so it reflects the idea that the menstrual period was expected to come about once a month, like the moon

Many people have historically believed that the menstrual cycle was every 28 days

There really is no scientific proof for that. It might be an average at some ages

but there's actually quite a bit of variation, even cycle to cycle. So it could be very normal for you to have a 26 day cycle

for one cycle, and then the next one it'd be 32 days. A menstrual cycle means that the lining of the uterus has undergone a change called decidualization So the beginning of the cycle starts actually with the first day of bleeding

And for humans, that happens after ovulation occurs and is due to the release of progesterone

Decidualization is a real physical change in the tissue. And if you want to think about the decidua as kind of like a catcher's mitt in the uterus

it's all prepared and ready for an embryo. If there's no decidualization, implantation can't occur

When you have an estrous cycle, the trigger comes from the embryo itself

So you don't have to have that catcher's mitt waiting there. one ogy that i often use is with humans it's like the restaurant's making a dish whether or not

you show up it's going to be made but with estrus it's only making the dish if it's been ordered

humans have an incredibly invasive placenta that has to be handled or could grow through the uterus

and cause problems. So humans have evolved to deal with that. In addition, the decidua actually

senses embryo fitness and is part of regulating which pregnancies actually take and which are

incredibly early miscarriages. So what happens when you don't get pregnant in a cycle is that

you have this big thick tissue that's got nowhere to go. It can't be reabsorbed by the body and so

menstruation involves chemical changes that cleave the decidua from the uterus, opening up

blood vessels that then push that fluid out with the decidua, the tissue, and then the cycle can

start anew. There is this romanticization about nature, that nature has everything perfect. And I

think that nature's motto is probably best summed up as just good enough, right? You're half dressed

didn't slap you around the back and push you out the door, just good enough, gone, gone out into the world

Because evolution doesn't care about an individual person's suffering. It cares, is this design going to work enough to perpetuate the species

I often think that this is another reason for everybody to know about menstruation

because the pain and the problems associated with perpetuating the species have been uniquely borne by half the population

There are a constellation of negative symptoms that can be associated with the menstrual cycle Premenstrual syndrome is a constellation of symptoms that happen only in the luteal phase so after ovulation and those can include breast tenderness

moodiness, feeling of hopelessness or anhedonia, and food cravings, which are really very common

People can also get menstrual diarrhea, which again happens at the same time

either right before or during the menstrual cycle. There's also pain that can happen with ovulation, which is middle schmurts, which we believe is

actually more related to muscle spasm that's triggered by the chemicals that are released

with ovulation. Then there are menstrual cramps, and those can vary in significance from being mild

to being incredibly severe. To put it in perspective, the amount of pressure generated

when someone has menstrual cramps can be the same as the pressure generated in labor when you're

pushing. And I'll add that some people have equated the pain and labor as equivalent to

cutting a finger off without an anesthetic. We think that menstrual cramps exist as a part of

the mechanism to stop bleeding. And among those chemicals that are produced are substances called

prostaglandins. Prostaglandins trigger pain. They also trigger the uterus to contract. So you have all this chemical soup to stop the bleeding

You have things that cause vasospasms that cause those blood vessels to contract down

The uterus cramps down in the same way that you put pressure on a wound to stop bleeding

Cramping itself is painful. The reduction in blood flow is painful. And some of the chemicals that are reduced can also affect pain thresholds

One of the most common treatments for menstrual pain are taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory

drugs that we also call NSAIDs. And what these drugs do are they block prostaglandins. However

when they don't help, that could be a sign there's something else causing your pain, like endometriosis. But also, for some people, they just don't work well

and we don't really understand why that is. But that is an evidence-based approach to treating

menstrual pain and taking medications that block prostaglandins. Prostaglandin seems like the troublemaker

Yeah, prostaglandin is my old foe. But prostaglandins are important in our body in all different kinds of ways

It's not just a menstrual cycle related chemical. But we do think as far as menstrual pain and menstrual diarrhea, that they are the big troublemakers

People use apps for their menstrual cycle in a couple of different ways They may use them just as a tracker to see kind of what going on And they may also use them as part of a fertility awareness method There also a lot of talk on social media about

athletes using their menstrual cycle to optimize performance. And none of that is really grounded

in good science. There is no robust data there at all to support that. Now, it is true that if you're

trying to optimize your physical fitness. There may be times of the month where, for example

if your breasts hurt, you might not want to do upper body working, right? So you're listening

to your body. Those are kind of intuitive. You don't need an app to tell you that

One of the issues, especially with menstrual tracking apps, is many of them can be quite

inaccurate. And there was a study where they looked at women who had tracked their cycles

And what happened was when their period didn't come when the app predicted

the women blamed their bodies as opposed to blaming the app for being incorrect with the prediction

Meaning the app made you less informed about your body than more informed

Also, there is a dark side of apps, whether you're using them to just track your cycle

or if you're using them as part of a fertility awareness method. and that your data may not be secure

And there is definitely a concern for people who live in areas

where not only is abortion illegal, but people who have miscarriages are prosecuted as having abortions

that this data could be abused. But I don't think it's a stretch that in some places

this kind of data could lead to all kinds of problems down the road

So people just need to be very mindful about where we're going

Ignorance about the menstrual cycle is clearly very common, even amongst medical providers

Weaponizing this ignorance is becoming law. And these are really troubling times

This is when people need to actually know the facts so they can speak up

because we are definitely seeing a shift towards viewing women solely as breeders

and that your life has less value than your role as basically carrying a pregnancy

I don't think we can sound enough alarms about that. Want to dive deeper

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