Is Menstruation Obsolete?Is Menstruation Obsolete? argues that regular monthly bleeding is not the "natural" state of women, and that it actually places them at risk of several medical conditions of varying severity. The authors maintain that while menstruation may be culturally significant, it is not medically meaningful. Moreover, they propose that suppressing menstruation has remarkable health advantages. Because of cultural changes, shorter durations of breast feeding, and birth control, the reproductive patterns of modern women no longer resemble that of their Stone age ancestors. Women have moved from the age of incessant reproduction to the age of incessant menstruation. Consequently, they often suffer from clinical disorders related to menstruation: anemia, endometriosis, and PMS, just to name a few. The authors encourage readers to recognize what has gone previously unnoticed that this monthly discomfort is simply not obligatory. They present compelling evidence that the suppression of menstruation is a viable option for women today, and that it can be easily attained through the use of birth control pills. In fact, they reveal that contraceptive manufacturers, knowing that many women equate menstruation with femininity and that without monthly bleeding would fear that they were pregnant, engineered pill dosage regimens to ensure the continuation of their cycles. Indeed, throughout history societies have assigned menstruation powerful meaning, and Is Menstruation Obsolete? presents a fascinating history of how menstruation inspired doctors to try therapeutic bleeding for a variety of ailments, and how this therapy remained dominant in Western medicine until the early 20th century. Is Menstruation Obsolete? offers women a fresh view of menstruation, providing them with the information they need to make progressive choices about their health. This is a message whose time has come. |
Contents
| 1 | |
1 Menstruation in Western Civilization | 15 |
The Basis of Therapeutic Bloodletting | 35 |
3 Why Women Menstruate | 55 |
4 Premenstrual Syndrome | 67 |
5 Menstrual CycleRelated Disorders | 81 |
6 Natural Suppression of Menstruation | 107 |
7 Medical Suppression of Menstruation | 117 |
8 In Support of Menstruation | 137 |
9 Absence of Menstruation and Disease | 147 |
10 Conclusion | 159 |
Glossary | 165 |
Bibliographic Essay | 169 |
Index | 183 |
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abdominal amenorrhea amenorrheic anemia associated with menstruation bleeding blood loss bloodletting body bone density breast breast-feeding cancer cardiovascular cause cells century changes condition contraceptive pill deficiency DepoProvera disease disorders doctors drugs dysmenorrhea effects endometrial endometrial ablation endometriosis endometrium Erasistratus estrogen excess fallopian tubes female fertility frequently Galen genetic Gestrinone Gynecol hemorrhage Hippocrates hormone replacement human hundred hysterectomy implants increase inhibit ovulation injections iron lactation levels LHRH males Marilyn medicine menarche menopause menstru menstrual blood menstrual cycle menstrual cycle-related menstrual flow menstrual period menstruation menstruation-free migraine months myomas normal Norplant Obstet occurs oral contraceptives ovarian ovaries ovulation pain patients pelvic percent physical physicians pituitary gland pregnancy premenstrual phase premenstrual syndrome primates problems production progesterone progestin prolactin reduce reproductive result risk sexual steroid strual struation suffer surgical symptoms therapy tion tissue treat treatment tumors uterine lining uterus vaginal vein Vesalius woman
Popular passages
Page 43 - Does she (nature) not evacuate all women every month, by pouring forth the superfluity of the blood? It is necessary, in my opinion, that the female sex, who stay indoors, neither engaging in strenuous labor nor exposing themselves to direct sunlight — both factors conducive to the development of plethora (an excess of blood) — should have a natural remedy by which it is evacuated.
Page 53 - cannot be brought against the present generation of physicians. During the first five decades of this century the profession bled too much; but during the last decade we have bled too little. This is one of the diseases in which a timely venesection may save life. To be of service, it should be done early. In a full blooded, healthy man, with high fever and a bounding pulse, the abstraction of from twenty to thirty ounces of blood is in every way beneficial...
Page 44 - K156 the veins some of the blood that had gone across to the arteries. The practice of not giving food to wounded patients, during the time when inflammation is occurring, is also consistent with these principles; for the veins, when emptied of nutriment, will more readily receive back the blood that has gone across to the arteries, and when this happens the inflammation will become less.
Page 172 - Schmidt PJ. Nieman LK. Danaceau MA. et al. Differential behavioral effects of gonadal steroids in women with and in those without premenstrual syndrome.
Page xiv - R. (1983). Early menarche, a risk factor for breast cancer, indicates early onset of ovulatory cycles.
Page 43 - If you had the intelligence to understand further what great benefits accrue to the female sex as a result of this evacuation, and what harm they suffer if they are not cleansed, I don't know how you would be able to go on wasting time and not eliminate superfluous blood by every means at your disposal.
Page 43 - But enough of women for the present; come now to consider the men, and learn how those who eliminate the excess through a hemorrhoid all pass their lives unaffected by diseases, while those in whom the evacuations have been restrained have fallen into the gravest illnesses.
Page 177 - Casper RF, Hearn MT. The effect of hysterectomy and bilateral oophorectomy in women with severe premenstrual syndrome. Am] Obstet Gynecol.
Page 53 - a bloody Molock presides in the Chairs of Medicine, " cannot be brought against the present generation of physicians. During the first five decades of this century the profession bled too much; but during the last decade we have bled too little. This is one of the diseases in which a timely venesection may save life.
Page 43 - ... or arthritic or pleuritic or peripneumonic diseases, and that neither epilepsy nor apoplexy nor suspension of breathing nor loss of speech occur at any time if she is properly cleansed. Has a woman ever been known to be stricken with phrenitis, or lethargy, or a spasm, or tremor, or tetany, while her menstrual periods were coming?