New this week: Two bold
English ads: "three-dimensional"
Dr White's towels and tampons, with 3-D glasses
(Company magazine, June 1989) & Tampax for
thongs (British Elle magazine, February 1994) - "Beyond
all dispute the crime exists." Excerpt from Sexology, edited by
Prof. Wm. H. Walling, A.M., M.D. (1912, Puritan Publishing Company, Philadelphia,
Pa., U.S.A., and Hanley, England)
You have privacy here
I thought I had better clarify what happens when you visit this site.
Nothing.
I get no information about you from any
source when you visit, and I have no idea who you
are, before, during or after your visit.
This is private - period.
Celebrate the First Annual Menstrual
Monday! See below.
Letters to your MUM
When she sneezes she spills her Instead menstrual
cup
I am very sad to hear the rumors that Instead may no longer be available
[Not true! Call 1-800-INSTEAD in the U.S.A. or see its Web
site], but I wanted to share my experience with the invention because I
only read one other e-mail on your site from a woman with a tilted cervix
[here are some comments about Instead and other
cups, including The Keeper].
I also have a tilted cervix, though perhaps not as extreme as the other
woman who posted to the forum. Instead fits me, but I have to be very certain
that it is placed very far behind my pubic bone or it can tip.
The other odd (and perhaps funny) experience I have had is that it
fits just fine unless I sneeze or cough. I have to wear a pad with Instead
because when I sneeze or cough too hard, the cup
tips over and I am flooded. My discovery of this was not as embarrassing
as it could have been; the first time I used Instead I was paranoid enough
to wear a pad as well (thank goodness). But I haven't read of anyone else
experiencing this.
I still use Instead when I have heavy days and can't make it to the
bathroom every two hours, or if I am sexually active during the week of
my period.
After reading the posts on your site, I am going to save some money
and buy The Keeper [http://www.keeper.com]to
try as well. The concept of Instead is great, but I am hoping the The Keeper
will be a better fit. The cone shape may help to prevent tipping when I
have a cold!
How did English women cope with menstruation
in the early 20th century?
To Museum of Menstruation:
I've been scanning your Web site and would appreciate some guidance.
Do you know of a book that would help me in researching how women in
Britain coped with menstruation in the early part of the twentieth century?
Most of the information you provide refers to the U.S.A.
Any help much appreciated.
[English women, like Americans and women of European origin anywhere,
probably used washable pads {here are Norwegian washable pads and an Italian
washable pad} or rags attached to a holder, probably
a belt around the waist. In the 1920s English women probably could
buy disposable pads, just like American women {see Curads
and Kotex}, but I don't know which brand was available and when. I believe
that only after World War II could the British buy tampons, an American
invention {see a German o.b. ad, probably from
the 1950s}. I mean commercial menstrual tampons,
not medicinal, contraceptive or surgical tampons, which have been around
since at least the ancient Egyptians; see some hieroglyphics
proving that - and they could have also used them for menstruation. Read
more about what European women used in the past.
[The archivist at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,
here in Washington, D.C., sent me a copy of an announcement from a late
19th-century British medical journal that discussed a doctor's invention
of a portable burner of menstrual rags, useful
for traveling women. I suspect women would normally toss used rags into
the hotel room fireplace. I doubt they would wash them in a sink and hang
them up to dry - but maybe they would! It must have made traveling difficult
for women. See a "menstrual kit"
for traveling women from an early 20th-century Sears, Roebuck catalog.]
More about Islam and menstruation
A friend sent this Web address
for an interesting site that neither she nor I can evaluate for its content.
But check it out. Here's more about religion
and menstruation.
I've never heard of Templeton's TRC pills
- have you?
Hi, Mr / Ms Finley:
I was going through your Lydia Pinkham [Vegetable Compound patent medicine] pages. An
81-year-old female patient told me today about how marvellous the product
was when she used it in her younger years, and I wanted to find out whether
it's still around and what was in it). [I believe it still is sold in some
places - Taiwan, for example; read a letter about the ingredients.]
She also mentioned that her father one time, in the 1920's, during
a severe bout of back pain, took some "Templeton's TRC" pills
(huge pills, that would choke a horse, she said!), and they worked so well
he never had any further problems for the remaining 50-some years of his
life . . . hmm.
Have YOU ever heard of "Templeton's TRC" pills???? [Never
have]
Sincerely,
MUM cracks the Parisian television market!
Bonjour Harry,
We have visited your museum. A true pleasure. Absolutely bleeding !
We just have one question. Why the [expletive deleted] did you do that?
We are doing a TV program next Tuesday on different subjects; one of
them is the killer tampon. We will be showing some of your Web's pages
unless you don't want it. The estimated audience is around 117
persons around Paris. Very local event,
indeed
Thank you
SiXth SeXe [Simone de Beauvoir wrote an influential book called The
Second Sex; this sounds like a take-off on that, although I wonder what
the third, fourth and fifth sexes are. Maybe I shouldn't ask.]
The next day I received this e-mail:
Hi, Harry,
Thanks for your answer. We did give the address of your site.
And we will have a Web site very soon. We'll stream the program and
make a link with you.
You did achieve something very interesting. Thank you from all of us.
MUM is site of the day
Harry,
Saw your site mentioned in the San Francisco
Chronicle [a newspaper in California] a few weeks back - site of
the day, even.
Hope things are going well for the Museum of Menstruation and you are
finding a way to stay intact. [I use glue, Post-Its, fishing line, etc.]
A concerned citizen,
See more mentions of this Web site and museum.
Read about new software that keeps track of your
periods
Dear Mr./Ms. Editor,
I am writing to inform you about our software product - Femta.
I am quite sure that its short review in your excellent journal would be
very interesting for your readers.
What is Femta ?
Femta is an innovative software which allows keeping track of all women's
periods. Plus view interesting related information.
Summary of main features:
* Plan your sexual life and use the natural method of contraception. Femta calculates the probabilities of becoming pregnant
for every day and displays them in the charts and calendar. You
can easily view and determine the "safe" and "unsafe"
times during your cycle.
* Keep track of all parts of your cycle.
Femta allows you to easily record periods of menstruations, pregnancy,
childbirth and lactation.
* Plan your family and control the conception
of your child. You can use Femta both to avoid and to achieve pregnancy.
* Determine the estimated date of childbirth.
* Plan the gender of your future child.
Using Femta you can increase the probability to conceive the child with
the desired sex.
* Predict future cycles, making it possible
for you to plan menstruation-free important events, such as vacation, trip
or travel, romantic getaways, sport competitions,weddings, honeymoons,
and others important events. Femta will estimate the dates of your future
periods several months ahead.
Femta allows you to conveniently view all the data in the calendar
and five types of charts, contains a lot of settings for displaying of
data, includes other great features, such as statistics, wizards, print
preview, context sensitive help, and more.
Femta is a 32-bit Windows application. It runs under Windows
95, 98, 2000 or NT having minimum hardware requirements.
Feel free to request any additional information.
Sincerely,
Leg Lisovsky
The Femta.cam Team
Celebrate the
First Annual Menstrual Monday!
When: The
Monday before Mother's Day, because menstruation comes before motherhood
(and usually long after it, too). This year's Menstrual Monday falls on
May 8, 2000. If you live in a country that
doesn't celebrate Mother's Day as in the United States, pick a day that
seems appropriate and convenient for a "Menstrual Monday"!
Where: In your backyard at sunrise;
in the cafeteria at lunch; after work; at your friend's house; in the classroom;
in your dorm room - wherever is convenient and appropriate!
Why: To create a sense of happiness
and fun around menstruation; to encourage women to be proactive in addressing
menstrual and reproduction-related health issues; to encourage greater visibility
of menstruation culturally, in film, print, music, and other media; and
to enhance honesty about menstruation in our relationships.
How: Wear a red article of clothing,
put a red tablecloth on the table at dinner; talk to an older or younger
relative about her menstrual experiences; create some art or do some writing
about menstruation, and share with friends; share information about PMS,
endometriosis, or self-breast examinations; create a ritual involving red
candles and red tulips. In short: Whatever seems convenient and appropriate
to you!
Free Starter Kit!
Please feel free to download the above text to
make flyers or post on your own Web site, to e-mail
a friend, and so on. For more information,
or to receive a FREE Menstrual Monday "starter
kit" - please e-mail menstrullenium@aol.com
or write, with your address:
4881 Packard #A2
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108
Is this the new millennium or even century?
You can get the correct information
if you go to these pages published by the U S Naval Observatory:
"whenIs")
A comprehensive site from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich will put right any doubts:
Help Wanted: This Museum Needs a
Public Official For Its Board of Directors
Your MUM is doing the paper work necessary to become eligible to receive
support from foundations as a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. To achieve
this status, it helps to have a American public official - an elected or
appointed official of the government, federal, state or local - on its board of directors.
What public official out there
will support a museum for the worldwide culture of
women's health and menstruation?
Eventually I would also like to entice people experienced in the law,
finances and fund raising to the board.
Do You Have Irregular Menses?
If so, you may have polycystic ovary syndrome
[and here's a support association for it].
Jane Newman, Clinical Research Coordinator at Brigham
and Women's Hospital, Harvard University School of Medicine, asked
me to tell you that
Irregular menses identify women at high risk for polycystic ovary syndrome
(PCOS), which exists in 6-10% of women of
reproductive age. PCOS is a major cause of infertility
and is linked to diabetes.
Learn more about current
research on PCOS at Brigham and Women's
Hospital, the University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania State University
- or contact Jane Newman.
If you have fewer than six
periods a year, you may be eligible to participate
in the study!
New this week: Two bold
English ads: "three-dimensional"
Dr White's towels and tampons, with 3-D glasses
(Company magazine, June 1989) & Tampax for
thongs (British Elle magazine, February 1994) - "Beyond
all dispute the crime exists." Excerpt from Sexology, edited by
Prof. Wm. H. Walling, A.M., M.D. (1912, Puritan Publishing Company, Philadelphia,
Pa., U.S.A., and Hanley, England)
© 2000 Harry Finley. It is illegal
to reproduce or distribute work on this Web site in any manner or medium
without written permission of the author. Please report suspected violations
to hfinley@mum.org