Mr. Finley,
I wanted to let you know that I just found the MUM Web site and I love it. About an hour ago I was wondering how women in the nineteenth century (especially American pioneer women) handled menstruation (some speculation arising from writing about a fictional female of the 1870s), so I turned on the computer, hopped on Yahoo, and did a search on menstruation. Your site came right up, and it was great! I think I found exactly what I needed to know, plus lots of additional fun . . . I'd never read "If Men Could Menstruate" before, and it cracked me up.
I emailed a link to your site to several of my friends. Keep up the good work!
[She added this at the bottom; very interesting!] *The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.*
Thank you, Mr. Finley, for your Web site. I found it very interesting and amusing.
I'm a 52-year-old mom of a 14-year-old daughter. I shall share this site with her.
This reminds me of a time when my auntie told me and her two daughters a story of how, in the "olden" days, the girls and women would stay in for about a week when they got their periods because they had to sit on a pot till it stopped. [! See the next paragraph.]
I was 11 years old at the time and my cousins were just a little younger. We had not yet started ours so we weren't looking forward to this. She just loved to mess with our minds.
I was shocked to have another auntie tell me how they had to wash their rags and pads [here are nineteenth-century Italian and Norwegian, and modern Canadian, washable pads] every day when they had their periods. She's now 76 years old.
Those days are behind me now and I sure don't miss them. [Apparently most women don't.]
Thank you again.
Regards
Please, may I post a letter on your letter page?
I'm researching a documentary for the BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] about menstruation - myths and facts and blessing or curse.
I have much information about the curse and prejudice but I am finding scant information about the blessing! I was thrilled to find medical information linking surgery for breast cancer and the menstrual cycle and the New Scientist report about differing medication levels required during the 28-day cycle, and the research about eating requirements differing during the cycle etc., but I want to hear from women who have evidence of the cycle as a blessing, for example, artists, writers, etc., who are at their most creative whilst menstruating.
I also want to meet women who practice menstrual seclusion, as with menstrual huts of the past [and of the present; women still use menstrual huts].
And anything and everything to do with research into menstruation.
Next week I am interviewing Mr Peter Redgrove and Penelope Shuttle who wrote the first book on menstruation that offered positive information, The Wise Wound, 1978. I am very excited about asking many questions resulting from the book. If you have any questions for them pertaining to the book or their second book, Alchemy for Women, about the dream cycle corresponding to the menstrual cycle, I would be delighted to forward them to them on your behalf. They are not on the net so any questions would have to have addresses!
Thank you so much for this glorious Web site [many thanks to you for saying that!] and I look forward to hearing from visitors to your site.
Ali Kedge.
ali@shortkedge.freeserve.co.uk or fflic.zip@business.ntl.com
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.