This week’s reading topic is on PMS, menstruation and menopause. Please post your comments here!
24 thoughts on “Week Nine Readings, please post your comments here!”
While reading the readings for this week, two of them really made me think about menopause, and menstruation. The first reading that really stuck me was: Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior. I could not believe some of the points that the author was raising about the way people look at female’s hormones. What also shocked me was that some people portray males as the emotional stability that women should be. The reading discusses how menstruation causes women to be unfit, unstable, and extremely crazy. I thought of a few points in regards to my previous comments: First, if menstruation causes women to supposedly act this way then why aren’t doctors and people in the medical field trying to figure out a way to help women however they can? Also, if males are so much more “stable†then women are, then why do they have a lot more anger problems, and end up in jail also double as much as females? What is their excuse for acting this way? I think that women deal with their hormonal problems from menstruation and menopause a lot better than a man would! They are already acting so much more aggressively than females, if they had hormonal problems too, they would be even worse! Therefore, I do not think it is fair to call men the “emotional stability†of life. Another part of this article that really caught my eye was how the author discusses women’s premenstrual symptoms as society putting them in a constant diseases place. I really agree with this, I think Western society really needs to accept menstruation more, and accept women for how they are. In Gender and The Social Construction of Illness article, the author also discusses how Western society views menstruation so negatively. It discusses how the first menstruation (menarche) should be a time for celebration and acceptance, but instead it is viewed as an embarrassment. I can really relate to this, because coming from a Jewish and Mediterranean background, and having some non-western influence, the way my family reacted to my menarche and the way some of my friend’s family members reacted to theirs was completely different. My mother and father were so happy for me; they got me a cake and balloons and celebrated for the whole week. My friend’s mothers and fathers didn’t really talk to them about it, and kind of avoided the subject, especially the fathers. I am not sure if my Jewish heritage had been the reason why my parents acted this was, or if it was just because my parents were more supportive, but I definitely feel Western society puts a negative view on menstruation.
These two articles also greatly discuss menopause. It was interesting for these two articles to discuss how “horribly†women react to menopause. Also, it is discussed how menopause is viewed as a time of crisis. This is interesting to me, because when my mother went through menopause I saw nothing of this sort. I am sure she had hot flashes, and wasn’t extremely comfortable, but she had no crazy anger, and didn’t really have mood swings. She also told me it was good for her, because she knew she couldn’t get pregnant again. This is something that the article Gender and the Social Construction of Illness talks about. I think this really makes sense, a woman is older, has the amount of children she wants, is finally comfortable in her job and life, and doesn’t want another child. Menopause must be a relief! For the hormone side of menopause, I agree with the thought that instead of Hormone Replacement Therapy doctors should advise stress management, nutritional supplements, and social support, like the article talks about. I really think western society needs to change a lot of its views on women, especially menopause and menstruation.
Every month or so, I’ll have a few days of feeling sad and confused and incapable of dealing with any stress…when the period inevitably begins I always experience a mixture of relief at feeling under control again and frustration at not being able to avoid these unwanted feelings despite being prepared for their arrival.
Some of the experiences associated with menstruation are definitely unpleasant. I tend to think that PMS is not entirely made up–and I agree with the author of the first article that for some women, medical attention is probably needed when their premenstrual experiences interfere severely with their lives. However, since beginning to think about how the social baggage of menstruation affects how women experience their cycles, I’ve wondered often whether PMS would exist in a culture in which menstruation was not medicalized and made shameful.
In the “Hormonal Hurricanes” article, studies were mentioned that focused on possible treatments for women suffering from PMS. These experiments used a placebo sugar pill to make sure of the efficacy of the proposed treatment. In these cases, as is usually the case in medical trials, the placebo worked nearly as well, if not as well, as the treatment. Although mindset does seem to have a lot to do with health conditions of every kind, the effectiveness of a sugar pill in treating PMS in this instance doesn’t point to its status as a real “disease.” (Again, I’m not denying the existence of the experience known as PMS!)
It often seems that giving something a name makes it real; people also tend to strive toward diagnoses to try to classify their experiences.
However, I would argue that in this case the positive aspects of an available diagnosis that makes women feel like their experiences are justified and shared by other women are outweighed by the negative side of PMS. Taking unpleasant or inconvenient physical and emotional feelings and turning them into a “syndrome” provides an excuse; an excuse to women who attribute mood swings to it (which I don’t think is necessarily an unfair thing to do because I know my moods get almost frighteningly changeable and intense before my period–but is that only because I live in a society that teaches me to expect it??), but also an excuse for men to point to actual medical evidence of women being irrational, emotional “hormonal hurricanes.” I can’t even count the times I’ve heard some guy, after encountering what he thought was an unreasonable or irritable girl, say, “Are you PMSing or something?” No chronic ‘disease’ suffered by men lists erratic behavior or hypersensitivity to emotional stimuli as symptoms; placing it in the lexicon of a culture as something that affects nearly all women over 10 times a year gives weight to the age-old, but today less socially acceptable, arguments that women are incapable of being leaders or maintaining professionalism at all.
In the Feminist Frontier, Anne Fausto-Sterling makes many good points about the stereotypical pre-menstrual, menstrual, and menopausal assumptions and stereotypes. I found many of the quotes that she had from historians and dated research to be offensive but acceptable. It is foolish that men used to think of women in such a degrading way but I think a lot of our rights and equalities are currently fair. If you look at the big picture of history, there are many ways of thinking that seem foolish but only time, society, and research have changed the way biology is seen.
As our society continues to grow and become more understanding of biology, the acceptance of whether or not menstruation is a syndrome or sickness will change. Comparing men to women in terms of PMS can be controversial but I feel it is surely true that men show moodiness, times of depression, and changes in eating patterns. In saying that only women exhibit these symptoms because of their hormones is ridicules, and more research should be done on men’s changes throughout the month. Men might not follow the same pattern as women but just because women live beyond their reproductive years and follow a monthly pattern, doesn’t mean that men have hormone changes also. I think it is unfair to assume that all women are not capable of men’s tasks, men can be “girly†and women can be “manly.†Looking at individuals, rather than generalizing women or men in studies, would be a better way of evaluation how emotions and actions change over the month.
I might not be a very observant person but I never notice any emotional changes over the month that I can associate to my menstruation. There are a few small physical changes I notice but I never feel that they affect my ability to function to my fullest. I enjoy being a woman and getting my period, knowing that someday I can use my body for reproducing, the most intimate feeling one can take place in. I also know I have control over this choice, and I have never felt subordinate to men because of my body.
While reading this week’s readings about PMS, menstruation, and menstruation, “Hormonal hurricanes: Menstruation, menopause, and female behavior†particularly annoyed me because I do not like the way this article presents PMS, menopause, and women in general. The article talked about how some people in our society feel that women can not be trusted in positions of leadership and responsibility because we are emotionally unstable. One statement that really stuck out in my mind was from a man who said that he would rather have JKF make decisions about the Cuban missile crisis than a woman because the woman “could possibly be subject to the curious mental aberrations of that age group.†I think this is offensive to all women and I find it to be a very arrogant statement because people in our society, mostly males, are using our reproductive systems against us as a way of discrimination and keeping us down.
Yes, women menstruate and our bodies go through change, but in no way does this make us incompetent or lacking in capability in any part of life. It is my opinion that some women do experience emotional symptoms during both PMS and menopause, but this should not be an issue when measuring our ability. Our society views menstruation as casting “a dark shadow on women’s lives†and we need to change this if we want to be seen as equals compared to men. I think it is absurd that women are denied certain jobs or get paid less than their male counterparts because we experience menopause and menstruate and supposedly act “crazy†during these times. I get really annoyed when a boyfriend or male friend says that I “must be getting my period†if I am in a bad mood or seem annoyed because they automatically associate negative things with menstruation when they really have no idea what is going on inside of our bodies. Menstruation and menopause are stigmatized in our society and women are looked at differently because of this. Women who are going through “the changeâ€(so many are afraid to actually say menopause!) are looked at with pity because they can no longer have children and are therefore considered useless to some members of our society and many times we talk about women who have gone through menopause as “drying up.†Men need to realize that menstruation and menopause are normal functions of a female body and we are never going to change in this way so they need to get used to it and learn to understand what is happening to our bodies instead of looking at us like we are crazy, mental, too emotional, or unstable.
It was interesting to see in the “Social Science and Medicine†article about whether or not there is a menopausal syndrome that no universal menopause syndrome exists and that symptoms are due to individual and cultural influences. The article notes that African American women have a higher percentage of surgical menopauses, which could be from having a hysterectomy, and this makes a lot of sense to me because we have learned in this class that women of color are frequently encouraged and pushed to become sterilized. The author states that Japanese and Chinese women are the least likely to report symptoms of menopause, and, once again, this makes sense to me because in Asian cultures it is the norm for people not to report if they are having any problems, especially when it comes to mental and emotional issues. White women are also reported to have a high rate of hormone usage, and this could be because white women are pushed at a young age to use the pill as their method of birth control and many times these ideas of using hormones are carried through into adulthood.
In response to what PinkGrl6 has written, the “hormonal hurricanes” article was also the one that i found that raised a great personal response in me, as to also being a woman. The other articles were great sources into women to understand the physiologial and biological processes that women go through during mestruation and menopause. But one thing i was pissed while reading these articles, is that they portray both mestruation and menopause as an abnormality. But as pointed out in the article “hormonal hurricanes”, what are women really being compared to is men, the fact that they dont go through none of these processes.
But reality, men also go through processes, men also have hormones and they are also moody various times during the month. I have two uncles, and they behavior varies that its unexplainable. I even sometimes jokingly ask them if they are at that period of the month. I guess all men act similiar. There are phases that men want to be away from women and hang out with men only, and there are phases that they want to be after women like nuts. SO i dont see why, women are the only ones being publicized for having hormonal hurricanes, ups and downs, because in reality we all do. I think due to the fact that there is been limited attention and spotlight in men phsyciological processes and behaviors study, and the ideology that men are perfect, men are the authoritive figure; therefore there is problems into questioning their biology. Why do women have to be penalized for what they are naturally, and why they are looked upon as minor or uncapable of being workers. The fact that there are hormonal changes inside our bodies every month does not mean that we cannot accomplish and handle business. Many women today have been business leaders and there are little research that shows that pre-mentrual syndromes or menopause have been an inpedement in their work lives.
As i was saying before men also have tones of hormones, so they also go through hormonal hurricanes even though it has not yet been deeply research due to the views of society that “men are the achievers” or alos the notion that men can have tones of women and still be okay, but women who have tones of men they are called “wores”. The problem is nothing about women haveing periods, menopause or not, the problem is that society has always doubted women’s capabilities, and dont want to accept women as being equal to men, so that is why they try to find so many excuses so women can continue to have less oppurtunities in life and never reach to compatible enough to men. Its too much, why is the pressure always drawn to women, the pressure of carrying a child, house chores, looking good, etc….Why ,men can look like trash and still be looked as cute and handsome…..thats my input. We are what we are, its not abnormal to have a period, to have menopause, its just process of the human body….The society are always seeking for diseases where it does not even exist so they can find treament, and increase their phaurmaceutical industries, meaning more money coming to them.
Why women have to take HT during menopause????? Peole should accept their phsycial changes. These treatments to me its just a way to build more money for society. Why dont they try to prevent osteoporosis by educating women since very young to eat enough cheeese, milk and have enough calcium in their bones so when they get old they wont have osteoporosis?????Why the goverment dont make all the hospitals measure calcium levels of patients when they go for a physical so the doctors can advise the patients to eat more meals with calcium…..Initiatives like that, that can make changes in ones lives. But when you get to menopause and start the HT, hormonal treatment you are also increasing health risks to have breast cancer…WHy make one problem into two?????
In these articles, they seem to point out how women are generalized and that all women get these symptoms and turn “crazy” when they get their period. It is funny for me to think that people really believe this. I never experienced the cramps and pains that many of my friends explained to me. Every woman’s experience is different and that should be taken into consideration. I never realized how negatively premenstrual syndrome and menopause have been portrayed. I’ve always been so used to hearing about the bad cramps and mood swings and hot flashes. I didn’t know it has become a biomedical issue because I always thought of your monthly cycle as a natural process that every woman has to go through. As discussed in the Hormonal hurricanes reading, women are often looked at as irresponsible and too unpredictable to hold good jobs. I think it is crazy that people would try to use PMS as another way to degrade women. If women are so irresponsible then how come they are capable of having the responsibility of being a mother. In the reading Hormonal Hurricanes, they make a good point in how women just can’t win. Because women expressed their pains in the past it was because they were neurotic and were making up excuses as to why they couldn’t become pregnant. Now that women have spoken up, the medical profession have found a way to profit and make menopause and PMS medical conditions that need “cures.” I found it so funny that they could even think that giving a woman a good education would create stress on them and effect their reproductive organs. I see many successful women today who have children..once again the strength of women is questioned. Women are often given prescriptions when in reality other social supports and herbal products could help and be better for her health. Menopause and PMS have definitely become defined by Western medicine and given them negative connotations. In other countries, menopause is embraced. For example, rather than marking menopause as the end of womanhood, Peruvian women gain their full adulthood around menopause and gain benefits in society. I think that our country is so used to finding ways to make women look incapable and irresponsible but in actuality women are fighting and proving their valuable status in society and it upsets the ones who are trying to keep women from being successful. Creating negative images and thoughts about women’s repoductive cycles are just another way to try and control women and profit off of it at the same time. It’s just not right and it’s sad that I had become so used to the negative talk that I never really saw the true problems and issues behind it.
Reading the articles on menstruation, especially the article, “Hormonal hurricanes: Menstruation, menopause, and female behavior†completely infuriated me. The notion that women are emotionally erratic and can not be trusted in positions of responsibility is absolute nonsense. The people who write such nonsense are ignorant and unintelligent. Yes, women do menstruate monthly therefore possessing a physiological factor that men do not, but this period does not render them dangerous or unpredictable. I agree with lil dre dre that menstruation does not make a woman incompetent or lacking ability in any part of life. Menstruation is a wonderful physiological process that without, these men would not be able to sit around and degrade and marginalize the very women that took part in producing them.
Hormonal hurricanes also touched upon the fact of how much our society fears aging, and not particularly the aging of older men but the aging of women in our society. I do believe that our society focus’s way too much on beauty and they associate beauty with being young and youthful. I already feel the pressure of keeping myself young by constantly being bombarded to put on my sunscreen, not for the purpose of protecting myself against skin cancer but for the mere fact that I might get wrinkles at a younger age. It sickens me to look through the tabloids and read that at age 23, Ashlee Simpson is already getting botox to prevent wrinkles. Every single magazine you open glorifies younger looking women as being the ideal woman. Not even just for women within their age range, but for women all around the spectrum. Just Monday I was watching dancing with the Stars and Jane Seymour who is rumored to be somewhere in her fifties or sixties, was standing there in a little tank top and mini skirt looking as if she was twenty years old. I can only imagine what that image does to women who are in their fifties and sixties and do not look anywhere like Jane Seymour. Women are constantly being bombarded with the ways in how they should and should not look and it is affecting them emotionally, physically, and psychologically.
I believe women of age should be respected for their wisdom and knowledge and not pushed aside to separate housing complexes, essentially placed out of vision from the younger mainstream societies.. As a society I believe that aging should not be looked upon as an undue burden which we fight with all we have using plastic surgeons and unnatural procedures to prolong our youth. If the media and magazines didn’t glorify youth and associate youth with beauty, I believe women would feel more comfortable by getting older. I believe that women should embrace aging and not fight what Mother Nature inevitability has in store for all of us
Anne Faustino-Sterling’s article Hormonal Hurricanes addresses the extent to which sexism exists even today. After reading this article, a multitude of things come to mind- FOr example,women who kill their abusive husbands, or lash out “uncharacteristically” in response to continuously oppressive forces are seen as overly emotional, hysterical and crazy, but the hyper-masculinity unwarranted aggression is seen as a “trait” not a flaw. Women have been constantly compared to a ticking monthly time bomb. Another article that we addressed mentioned the idea that the “energy devoted to scholastic work would deprive the reproductive organs of the necessary ‘flow of power'”. This, along with the denial of women to fill some positions claiming that the exposure may cause birth defects but giving the position to men instead, is just one of the many more recent scapegoat excuses used. “PMS” (if such a thing exists) is shows as sucha debilitating conditiont that it has begun to act like propaganda in the media to hinder women from participating in things they may otherwise participate in! All the commercials making it seem like women are cranky, bloated, and irritable is absolute bullshit- yes, there are physiological symptoms that accompany menstruation, but we are doing ourselves a huge disservice by being manipulated by the idea that PMS keeps most women from participating in every day activities.
Kelly Blanchard’s To Menstruate or Not came as a shock to me. Im not exactly sure why, but i cant help but think that without menstruation, we are taking away something that makes us different and unique, and beautiful from other sex. Whether the act of menstruation is actually beautiful is not the issue. If we could be more aware of our body biologically and hormonally, we could easily have the resources to make decisions about the frequency of our menstruations. Eliminating the occurrence altogether seems almost like sacrilege. I am all about empowerment, but it should not be something shameful, or a topic that should be kept a secret like the tampon commercials convey. These “covert” operations to get a “tampax pearl” so that she can go to the party, or that gentle glide to go in the pool without anyone knowing. It just seems like menstruation should be something that is shameful. If every woman menstruates….how can it be socially possible for it to be shameful??? No one likes to be uncomfortable, but i think when reading this article, you have to think about the social impacts of making the decision not to menstruate and question who you are stopping it for….
I just want to note that I read in an article once that although women have monthly cycles, men have daily hormonal cycles. I can’t remember where I read this so I’m not sure how valid it is but an interesting thought none the less. That would make women the more “stable” of the sexes now wouldn’t it?
In many of the articles, the idea of “normalizing” menstruation is spoken of in terms of the monthly timeline of a “normal cycle” being 28 days and there being “normal” aka negative symptoms during this cycle that many women experience. Another “normalizing” aspect of menstruation that wasn’t spoken of but relevant in today’s culture is the “normal” age during which menstruation begins.
In recent years, the average age of menarche has become younger and younger and this has set off alarms. Why would this alarm the general public? One reason is the hypothesis for what is causing this jump start on menarche. Some believe higher concentrations of hormones that are added to meat and dairy products is causing earlier menstruation. I can understand this being a legitimate concern because these high levels of hormones aren’t natural in younger bodies (possibly) and might be harmful in the long term.
However, the alarmist attitude may be linked to the belief that when women begin menarche they lose control of their sexuality. This makes them hard to control for their parents and society. The “normal age” for girls to begin menstruation is between 13 and 14 years old I think. But many girls are having their period much younger, sometimes even 8 or 9 years old. Maybe this alarmism is because they believe girls are supposed to learn their gender roles during the period leading up to their menstruation so by the time they begin, society has already ingrained in them how to act and what is expected of them. Theoretically, if they skip this period of gender identification, and menstruate early, they are even more uncontrollable because they have no ingrained societal restraints.
This is just a proposed theory of mine of why our society might be alarmist about this recent occurrence even though I do believe the biological involvement of high levels of hormones probably isn’t a good thing for these girls. However, I’m not sure it has been proven that these hormones have an effect on menstruation. Does anyone know?
HORMONAL HURRICANES
I don’t know how many times during my adolescence I heard my father say “what, are you having your period?†or “it’s that time of the month isn’t it†in response to a statement I made about my feelings or opinions. My thoughts, opinions and feelings could not be considered outside of the possible effects of my hormones in my household as I grew up. Soon enough, my younger brother started with the same discounting of my feelings. At times in my later teen years, maybe 15 – 17 I started to wonder, often, if I was being “irrational†or “too emotional†or “typical for a young woman my ageâ€. I wondered if my thoughts, feelings, opinions were not really valid, but simply something overblown by my hormones. As Ann Fausto-Sterling writes “how often are women taken less seriously because of beliefs about hormonally induced erratic behaviorâ€? I know that as a teenager and now as an adult, my father still hears me through this lens, often asking me how things are going and then replying with some comment about my “cycle†if I am frustrated or sad or upset about something. As Sophie Law is quoted as saying in If a Situation is Defined as Real “the “symptoms of PMS which the doctors show most concern over – depression, anxiety, and so on – are mental states which do not “fit†with women’s culturally created notions of ourselves as nice, kind, gentle etc.†Further evidence of this “crazy menstruating woman†lens is displayed in the scientific statement from 1974 saying “……the few women who do not admit to premenstrual tension are basically unaware of it but one only has to talk to their husbands or co-workers to confirm its existenceâ€.
Then comes the discussion of menopause. “The unpalatable truth must be faced that all postmenopausal women are castrates†And those same women are described by Dr. David Reuben as “Not really a man but no longer a functional woman, these individuals live in the world of intersex.†NO LONGER A FUNCTIONAL WOMAN? As if our only function on earth is to be enslaved by our hormones, which control us in so many different ways, reproduce and then when we are done, die as our usefulness has ended. Is it any wonder that some women see PMS and Menopause as disease states with symptoms rather than natural processes that can be lived through as normal aspects in the lifecycle. It is hard to know whether it truly is our biology that is responsible for these undesirable symptoms of PMS and menopause or whether it is our cultural perspective that lends weight to these symptoms. This is not at all to suggest that hormones have no effect on our emotional, physical, mental and psychological states, but perhaps these effects are not negative. Perhaps they are viewed as negative by male dominated popular discourse on the subject, by pharmaceutical companies pushing treatments for our “symptoms†and doctors falling in line with this readily accepted social belief in PMS and menopausal symptoms. As demonstrated in other cultures, with other ways of thinking about menstruating and menopause, women are viewed as having great power and knowledge at these times in their lives. They are honored and protected and sometimes even feared because of their power during these cycles of life. Perhaps it is the social construct of PMS and Menopause as “difficult’ or “disease†or “deficiency†states that is the actual problem for most women.
“Is There A Menopausal Syndrome? Menospausal Status and symtoms across racial/ethnic groups”
When I was first reading this article I was having a little trouble with the terms that were being used because I did not feel as though they were defined for the reader and given that I know little about menopause it was difficult to follow. However, as I finished the article things that were previously unclear became more understandable. Vasomotor symptoms was a term that I was not familiar with before reading this article, I now know that they were reffering to hot flashes and night sweats.
All that I know about menopause basically comes from the stories I hear from my mother since she is going through menopause currently. Other than the symptoms she often coplains of, all consistant with the symptoms of other white, middle-class, Western women, I was unaware of the differences across races and cultures. However, the results that were found do not surprise me. They authors concluded that it was more likely for African-American women to have gone through surgical menopause, meaning that they had surgery to end their periods. It did not surprise me that African-American women were the highest in this category given the rate at which they are sterilized, whether it be forced or not. Another conclusion that was made was the women from the two Asian groups reported far less symptoms, if any at all, than the other three groups studied. I may be looking at these two groups stereotypically but I have always believed Chinese and Japanese women to be very strong women who are not affected by much. In my eyes these women are strong, fierce women who live to be very old and independent to nearly the age of their death. For example, my landlord is an older Asian woman, probably about 55 years old, and she is the toughest woman I have met in a long time. She was here fixing our house when we moved in until 2 or 3 a.m. every night, determined to get everything done quickly and with no help. Because of the light I see Asian women in it does not surprise me that they would be the ones to not complain of any symptoms. I am curious of the cultural difference here though and how much of it is that these women in fact experienced no symptoms related to menopause or if they just were not reporting any symptoms. I am assuming that they in fact did not experience any given that the study seemed to be pretty well set up to make the participants comfortable enough to be able to express their true feelings. But I do believe it may be possible that there are other factors, cultural factors, for the differing in results of symptoms.
Look it back at other responses it seems as though everyone commented on the Hormonal Hurricane article. This makes it slightly difficult for me to respond or include others responses in my own. But I think that a general feeling is that women are made to look crazy when it comes to PMS, menstruation, and menopause. Men are often using negative terminology such as “its that time of the month”. I believe that there is a stigma surrounding women and there periods from the time they hit puberty and get them to the time they are in there 50’s and their bodies are change yet again to stop them. It is unfair the way that women are treated surrounding menstruation and I think that men should just forget about it. What is it their business? What does it matter to them? And as AutumnRocks mentions men may have daily hormonal cycles. I cannot say how reliable this information is but I have also, in passing, heard or read something about the changes in mens hormones and the possibility that they too go through some type of cycle that affects how they act. I think that more focus should be put on this idea and less on women. I think that women should not be put down and made powerless because of something that their bodies go through. Might I mention that this is an amazing part of the female anatomy given that it allows us to reproduce, giving birth to everyones children.
In Anne Fausto-Sterling’s article “Hormonal Hurricanes†she discusses menopause and the treatment of it. One option for treating menopause was estrogen replacement therapy, which today is more often referred to as hormone replacement therapy. When my mother hit menopause she was a complete bitch, suffering from various symptoms of irritability and hot flashes. She decided that it would be a good idea for her to take estrogen replacement therapy due to her symptoms and also that osteoporosis runs in the family. We never really talked about how she liked the hormone replacement therapy, but one day she decided that she wanted to take the more natural route of letting your body adjust to the new hormone levels over time. So when she stopped hormone replacement therapy it was like menopause hit all over again.
With my mother’s case it was also important for her to get either estrogen or calcium supplements to prevent bone loss. I think a lot of people don’t understand how estrogen and the lack there of effect bone mineral density. We know that women who are older get osteoporosis the most but why? One function of estrogen is to act as a protector of bone density. Estrogen encourages bone growth cells and discourages bone breaking down cells. Without estrogen the bones break down more rapidly than they produce causing loss of density. In the end of Sterling’s article she suggests that we may have things to learn about menopause from non-western cultures. One thing that I found when studying osteoporosis in postmenopausal women was that not all cultures report experiencing the same symptoms of menopause. One example is that Japanese women experiencing menopause rarely have problems with hot flashes and bone loss. A proposed reason for this is due to the fact that these women include much more soy in their diet than their western sisters. Soy contains isoflavones which mimic estrogen in the body. One possible treatment of osteoporosis and hot flashes, even menopause in general could be supplementing soy in the diet, to receive a more natural kind of estrogen than hormone replacement therapy.
In Moore’s article about PMS and menopause she discusses how the medical community has viewed the female body as abnormal in light of the male body. The cycles of a woman’s life are seen as disease and in need of treatment. When infact the menstruation cycles and menopause are perfectly normal for a woman. For a long time women complaining of PMS were told they were crazy or hallucinating the pain. Now we know that symptoms that come with menstruation are real and need to be validated. When I was a young girl, 12-14, I used to get the most unbearable cramps that would cause me to be incapacitated, unable to go to school, causing extreme back and abdominal pain, and often causing me to throw up. After suffering through each period for about a year, I decided that this wasn’t normal and I needed help. I went to my family doctor, who is male. I told him about my symptoms and how much pain I was in. He told me that the pain I was feeling was just cramps that happen to everyone and I was overreacting. I was very insulted and I felt like my doctor didn’t know shit when it came to women’s health issues. So unsatisfied with his answer I went to a gynocologist NP at Planned Parenthood. I told her about my symptoms and how painful my cramps were. I told her that they weren’t normal cramps but really painful and incapacitating. And she believed me! She recommended that I get an ultrasound to check for anything unusual for it was less invasive than a pap smear, which I hadn’t experienced yet. So I got the ultrasound and low and behold they found a benign tumor on my left ovary the size of a small orange. No wonder I was in so much pain and puking. The tumor was pushing on my uterus, stomach, and up against my spine. I had to have surgery to get it removed, and if I hadn’t done something about those aweful cramps I might have died. So I just want to thank the women out there for believing me, even when my male family doctor did not.
I am really looking forward to seeing today’s guest speaker Lynette Sievert, since not only is she an intelligent and interesting woman, but she also teaches a great anthropology class called Evolutionary Medicine, which I am taking this semester and highly reccomend to everyone. Anyways, after reading through Professor Sievert’s introduction, from “Menopause: A Biocultural Perspective”, it only further supports the idea of looking critically at health-related events, especially regarding women. There are many parallels that I have found between her class and this class, since both challegnge issues regarding women’s health and promote students to look at these topics intersectionally, as well as cross-species. The impact of cultural norms on healthcare is another common theme between these two classes and I believe that it is important to take into account that our environment and society that we are surrounded by, largely infuences how we view healthcare as a whole.
In relation to menopause, it is evident that once again, the medical field is imposing their viewpoints on women, without taking into account their actual experiences. As Professor Sievert points out, “The definition of menopause is a symptom that can be identified by a woman and a sign that can be measured” (Sievert 8). This ability to measure menopause, allows clinicians to force a variety of women’s experiences into a constricting definition, as well as impose “medical management”.
It seems that culturally, women’s experiences of menopause are trying to be placed into a generalized definition. However, after reading through Professor Sievert’s chapter, women experience menopause in many different ways, including biologically and experientally. Rather than developing definitions for the major biological events in women’s lives, we need to incourage communication among women. In turn, this will provide women with the support that we both deserve and need. In order to survive in a culture that many times exploits women, and targets them especially within the medical field, by inflict technology on our bodies, it is essential that we continue to promote discussion and critical thought regarding these issues, which I found both this class and Professor Sievert’s class to do.
first, if anything, i think menstruation enables women more emotional stability! in our society, men are taught from a young age to distance themselves from any emotion apart from anger. therefore, men don’t have more control over emotion but rather a lack of an emotional canvas. women are at liberty, for the most part, to express their emotion due to a lack of societal constraint placed upon them, in comparison to men, and thus are seen as emotional hurricanes. more so, i think the argument behind calling women emotional wrecks is to prove that the female body is one in which men need to control- for our own good.
and since when does expression of emotion make null and void the ability to lead? i think the ability to express emotion is an amazing tool in social movements. for example, martin luther king exuberated emotion in his speeches, thus giving him the charisma which so many endeared to him. i think our society needs to be more open to emotion.
on a side note, i think men are intimidated by menstruation because it gives women an element of control. recently, i read the red tent and i was fascinated to find that menstruation use to be a thing of community amongst women which empowered them and gave them control over their bodies. on that note, a few years back i didn’t get my period for an entire year and i found myself rather depressed. i like getting my period. somehow getting my period makes me feel more connected to nature and gives me a sense of empowerment and community amongst my fellow women. i think this sense of empowerment and community intimidates men.
in addition, i agree that men have their own hormonal cycles. my boyfriend is a bundle of hormones and at least once a month i joke and say he must have his period because he gets just as snappy and short-tempered as i do when i have PMS. i think men just point to the emotional instability of menstruation to try and take away the empowerment that comes with menstruation and the ability to reproduce… because after all, menstruation is a sign that women are reproducers.
I always had so much fun when I’d make my guy friends super uncomfortable when I’d be having bad cramps during my period. I’d tell them that the lining of my uterus was shedding and blood was coming out of my vagina and they’d freak out and would be really uncomfortably awkward about it. I thought it was hilarious, using the huge stigma attached to menstruation for my amusement. As discussed in “Gender and the Social Construction of Illnessâ€, other cultures have a more positive view of menstruation, where it’s celebrated and not shunned. I always see ads of TV’s for tampons, Midol, PPMD drugs, etc . One ad that sticks out in my head was promoting this super tiny tampon that fits in the palm of one’s hand. Shot opens up with a girl beginning to walk out of class while it’s in session, with her palm closed. The male teacher stops her, thinking there’s something along the lines of a cigarette in the palm of her hand. But alas, it’s only a microscopic tampon and she’s very, very ashamed. I mean, who wouldn’t be…menstruation (as discussed in many of the articles) is made out to be very an embarrassing thing; being unable to function, too emotional, not pregnant etc. Then, there’s always an ad with a girl saying something along the lines of ‘ woah, I wouldn’t be at the beach in a bikini with all these cute boys if I didn’t have (insert product here) to help me with (insert symptom here). There’s a huge economy involved in menstruation.
Years ago, talking to a male feminist friend of mine about issues involving menstruation I was really shocked about how he said PMS wasn’t real, how it was socially constructed. Like Floyd said above, I also think PMS is maybe BS, but maybe not. Biologically speaking, women’s bodies release the hormone prostaglandin which causes contractions which pushes the endometrium out of the body. Prostaglandin is the same hormone released when women go into labor. When I used to get cripplingly bad cramps, I’d be able to see the contractions in forms of my muscles twitching. I think that would happen regardless of if the culture I was in was positive about menstruation. I surround myself with women that are empowered by their periods and would make art out of their menstrual blood, etc. But the cramps still occur. I have a friend, who when she’d get her period, she’d literally pass out from the pain. But social realities certainly influence the way women consciously or unconsciously deal with menstruation, I have no doubt about that. I also very much believe that, if this syndrome called “PMS†were to exist, men would PMS as well. Having most of my friends being guys, it’s true. This was acknowledged in the “Hormonal Hurricanes†article when a doctor Dalton says that men experience PMS “symptoms†at random times during the month.
In the section in “Hormonal Hurricanes†about women’s intelligence, I was reminded about a lesson that took place in my philosophy class. We were learning about certain arguments in which their rationalization involving something being natural. Philosopher Kant said “the fair sex is fairly incapable of principle…men’s faculty of understanding is sublime; women’s is merely beautifulâ€. By this Kant is saying that women cannot rationalize anything because of their intuitiveness, and their intuitiveness is affected by women’s supposed influx of hormones that make them do crazy things. The ending conclusion for Kant’s (and most other philosophers) is very demeaning because they would think that humans are valuable and distinctive from the rest of the animal world because they hold the capacity for moral law, which Kant is inferring women lack.
As with much of the readings in this class, this weeks gave me a new perspective on what it means to be a woman. Due to eating disorders, I got my first period fairly late in life. Until I went to my first gyno exam, it was embarassed to tell my friends that I hadn’t gotten “it” yet, and even more so that I was completely flat chested. However, thats about where it ended. Once I started getting my periods I HATED it!! I’ve been on birth control most of my menstral life to regulate my crazy cycle, and alleviaite some of the intense stomche, neck, back, and leg pain I endure from cramps. I also am perscribed painkillers that I take during my period. I suffer from intense PMS, and usually spend the first day of my period in bed with a heating pad, in between bouts of vommitting. The wonder of being a women!!
However, this articles did help my perspective. First of, as a product of my generation, while I did consider getting my first period a rite of passage of sorts, it wasn’t the natural and spritiual expierence that I now realize it can be. My passage was to the world of tampex, midol,and always sanitary napkins. One article put it as equating the expierence with a hygeine product. I really had NO idea what have a menstral cycle really meant, even when I knew the science behind it. However, despite my expierences, it was my first lesson in solidarity between women. In addition to being able to relate to my female peers about the ails of that time of the month, I was always one of the ones who held NO qualms about discussing the basics of my period with the opposite sex. In my opinion, they need to know just how much some of us suffer, especially in combatting any male attempts at belittleing female emotions by blaming hormones. During one arguement, I almost lept at an ex-boyfriend for blaming the issue I was taking up with him on the fact that I had my period.
On the other side of things, I never really quantified what menopause actually means to a women. My mother went through menopause at just about the same time I began getting my period regualry. To me, this was a time of fighting, cramping, and hotflashing. More than anything I was jealous that my mother could be done with this horrbible affliction of menstration, and I was sure feeling hot was not nearly as bad as what I was going through. However, I now see what an important time this was in both our lives. For my mother, it must have been emotionally difficult, as it is traditionally a signal of aging, something that isn’t always easy. The concurrence of it was also something that could have been viewed as more special, had we only realized. I feel that we could have expierenced it as a type of empowerment, mother passing on the ability to pro-create to daughter.
Unfortunatly, even with hopeful new perspecitves I think the menstral cycle is a cruel joke by mother nature. As a women I have to pay more money for sanitary supplies, I have to pay a co-pay for birth control pills (even if I’m not sexually active) and perscription pain killers for cramps. I also am more likely to do worse in my classes that take attendednce than a man or even some women, because at least one day our of every month (usually more)I am in bed with crippling pain and vommitting. Also, because of my early menstral troubles, it is a constant concern of mine that I will encounter fertility issues later and life.
In “If a Situation Is Defined as Real” article states that a women goes through menopause with a culturally constructed idea “a sign of aging and the end of procreative capabilities”. Whereas it is mentioned that in the a southern country, Peru, women reap social and financial benefits “freedom from daily chores for large extended families”. It seems that our cultures have a lot to do with how women feel about the process of menopause. It is also interesting how this article depicts men, who have for most of history not had to worry about growing older. But now, by having women more financially strong and independent make men more vulnerable on their cultural protection.
I feel that the experience of menstruation as a teenager should be empowering and not something to be made ashamed of. It is a powerful tool a women brings to this world, the fact that they can procreate is unique.
The article Hormonal Hurricanes, the section about PMS in particular, made me think about my mom. Whenever it’s my mom’s time of the month, she experiences severe PMS.. her mood swings are crazy, she is irrational, overly emotional, along with all of the other physical symptoms that can be experienced. She told me that she has always had bad PMS, but it’s gotten worse as she’s grown older. These symptoms have never prevented her from being the best mother to her children, holding down the fort, and performing at her job. The fact that Berman and Goldberg had raised questions about women having the ability to work effectively in positions of leadership really annoys me, simply because it seems like just another reason for the discrimination against women. I agree with Lil Dre Dre in saying that PMS, menstruation and menopause should not be issues when considering the ability of a woman.
In this same reading, I found the section about how to diagnose PMS as very interesting. I really liked the quote by Dr. Katharina Dalton: “PMS is any symptom or complaints which regularly come just before or during early menstruation but are absent at other times in the cycle”. I understand that for women PMS and ailments that they may experience before or during their period can be different, and there can be a wide range of symptoms, just as there can for other syndromes. I think the reason that PMS is being questioned by so many is because it is an issue that pertains to women and their emotions. I feel like if a man had a particular syndrome, it wouldn’t be questioned as much. Speaking of which, I agree with Sassy and others in saying that men do have their own type of PMS! I truly believe that men do experience cycles of emotions, and are more emotional at certain times than others.
In discussing menopause, and how it is sometimes viewed as a woman no longer being functional absolutely pisses me off. I’ve heard stories about how when some women go thru menopause and become depressed because they can no longer have children, or for other reasons, possibly including hormones. I think it is totally understandable for women to feel this way, but it doesn’t help when people are labeling women as no longer being functional.
I agree with Lil Dre Dre and McLovin that the “Hormonal Hurricanes” article really got a rise out of me in regards to women being out of control and basically not being able to control themselves because of menopause or pms. This demeaning and generalizing all women. My mother is going through menopause right now and I saw her experience a hott flash for the first time last month. Men are so intimidated by not understanding, there fore not being able to control, something a bout women that they must slander it and make it something bad. In my women studies class at the beginning of the semester we did reading on menopause and how years ago it was viewed as women becoming worthless and decaying. How can you say that about a human being? So if a man has issues with his semen he is worthless and decayed?? To say that a woman should not hold a high position in office or have a job in which she has to make important decesions because she might PMS or go through menopause is not a legit argument. Men have hormones too and are just as likely to make decisions based on how they personally feel about something as women are. How is anyone to assume what will happen until a woman DOES become President?
On another note, I am one of those people who gets sick during PMS and my period. It started happening when I was too young to make it up in my head or anything like that. I went on birth control in ninth grade because my gyno suggested that it would help with my nausea each month seeing as I was missing an average of 2 days of school a month. Star hits the nail on the head when she says that every women’s experience is unique and different and you cannot generalize someone just because of what other women go through. Our bodies are too complex to sum up or try to answer and fit into a nice little box. Just because we are complex and our bodies don’tt necessarily follow guidelines men set doesn’t mean that is a bad thing.
In completing the readings this week, I was reminded of an article we read earlier in the semester that revealed the power (and horror) of the way women’s health is discussed in the medical community. I am referring to the article “Discourses of the Female Body” which quotes Emily Martin, author of the book, “Women in the Body” as likening the experience of menopause to something like a overrun factory in which the “system’s” “functions fail and falter.” Likewise, in the article “Hormonal Hurricanes,” the author quotes several physicians with similarly ridiculous published opinions/descriptions about menopause, such as Dr. Edgar Berman who states, “there are just physical and psychological inhibitants that limit a female’s potential” and Dr Steven Goldberg who confers with the previous statement in his declaration that “the hormonal renders the social inevitable” (i.e., a patriarchal society).
It is true that to become a physician, it takes a lot of dedication, education, perserverance and intelligence. However, this is also applicable to many other jobs. Therefore, it is CRUCIAL to take a closer look at what physicians are saying and publishing to their patient-base, for in a world like ours, where we revere doctors above all other professions, we seem to take every word that a doctor’s says to us to be the word of law. It is immensely frightening then, considering this assumption, that people have listened and condoned the above quoted statements, because they came from a doctor’s mouth, and even if this doctor is promoting a completely dominating patriarchal society by manipulating bogus biological notions, it doesn’t matter bc what the doc says, goes.
The terms and connotations written, read, used, and spoken by medical professions have a PROFOUND EFFECT on the rest of society and our valuations of women’s health. For instance, in connection with the negative connotations about menopause written and discussed by med. professionals, Fausto-Sterling states: “ours is a culture that fears the elderly” which could not ring more true. Unlike the Eastern Word, Western perspectives seem to devalue growing older, thereby promoting serious agism in our culture and neglecting the needs of the elderly in our healthcare system. This is a serious societal problem that must be addressed with care.
In today’s world, it seems like every other day we are discovering new viruses, new symptoms, new problems to add to the list of things ailing our world. It is therefore INCREASINGLY VITAL that instead of leaving it all up to the doctors and pharmaceutical companies to figure out the answer, we should take part in our own healthcare, ask our physicians questions and demand an adequate answer, question the motives of big-wig pharmaceutical companies and push for more funding and research in newly-arisen (or not fully researched) problems rather than the current solution which is the jump to not-thoroughly researched medical treatment (i.e. HRT and menopause or Gardasil and HPV)
Like Gazpacho above, I’ve also had the experience of encountering male feminists who claim that PMS is not real. I believe the intention behind that belief is one of empowerment of women – at its base discounting the claim that women cannot function equally to a man in some spheres of life because menstruation makes them unstable or crazy. But it does include and promote a larger issue of discriminiation against women that some of the articles presented well – that PMS and the “changes” that are prescribed to it are not normal, and are not part of the human experience. It’s as if those claiming PMS isn’t real are also asserting backhandedly that if PMS were real, it would be detrimental to women and be an issue in their acheiving equality. I believe the actual challenge to defeating the questioning of women’s capabilities “despite their hormones” is not in picking apart why those hormonal effects are not overall a liability or claiming it’s unfair. I think it lies in accepting women’s experiences as part of the overall human experience – seeing hormonal cycles as the base of healthy human functioning for half the population, and seeing how women function during all phases of those cycles as natural.
It seems to me that many of the claims to decreased functioning in women during PMS and menopause are blatantly baseless and sexist. It amazes me that there are so many studies looking into defining PMS that completely fail to look at what hormone levels are actually present in women who report different symptoms. Like others have mentioned, we don’t talk about male hormonal disorders or syndromes very often. It is assumed culturally that our view of men as more violent and assertive than women is due to testosterone and other hormonal differences. Why do we never hear of studies looking into hormone levels for men reporting more violent behavior, or more aggressive interaction with others? Why are there not men suffering from Testosterone Syndrome, who may be unfit to be in areas that require cool thinking and stability? We accept any possible negative effects of testosterone as “just how it is”, even celebrating rash decision making and aggressiveness as manly and strong in many situations. It makes for exciting action movies and epic story telling. Women’s hormonal changes are never given that courtesy – women cannot and should not be rash and aggressive in our culture, and PMS is an easy way to pronounce that acting that way is pathological and unnatural in our sex.
In Hormonal Hurricanes, Fausto-Sterling discussed many methods of how bad science is used in our culture to prove women are unfit for professional careers and other areas usually dominated by men. Also, how in conclusion PMS is the cause of the violence, crimes, and suicide women commit. The studies conducted did not go any further to find out women’s personal social experiences that surely contributed to their actions more than symptoms of PMS.
I do believe PMS has real physical symptoms, however this article made it pretty clear PMS has been constructed by social institutions to be a dreaded disorder. This “disorder” is used to further medicalize women’s reproductive systems and prove women in general are truly irrational and neurotic.
In my women’s studies class today my professor brought up the topic of the birth control Seasonique, which is a daily pill that eliminates your period entirely as long as you are on it. I believe this would be a great method for those women who have horrible cramps and other related PMS symptoms. Personally I first went on birth control early in high school to prevent the painful cramps and irregular menstruation. However, I feel that advertising this particular birth control to all women only feeds into and propels society’s perception of menstruation as a disgusting and embarassing bodily function that ideally should be eliminated. Also, this could negatively affect the way women view their bodies, and how society views their bodies. This BC should be recommended by physicans and the drug company only to women suffering sever gyn issues, like ovarian cysts or long periods. In conclusion I think that PMS is an extremely commodified aspect of women’s health. It was very interesting to read about other cultures’ more celebratory models on menstruation and views of respect for post-menopausal women because in today’s society and within my own home I have never been exposed to these empowering views.
As someone who has never experienced menopause, I learned a lot about this female phenomenon which causes quite a stir. I truly believe that there is no universal “menopausal syndrome” which can be attributed to all women. I know that I experience different emotional and physical menstrual symptoms than do many of my friends. Hormonal changes are occurring in the body, and therefore there will be effects upon a woman’s emotional and physical state. Just as any issue in health should be addressed; there are different conditions and situations for individual women. Though there are similarities, women should not be lumped together as an emotional, abnormal, hormonally-directed group.
On a separate note, PMS is a real thing and can affect women in many specific ways, but women are living with it and accomplishing wonderful things. In my opinion, it is something that many women have accepted about their menstrual cycle…something that is part of their lives and they simply deal with.
I enjoyed Pomona’s comments about a possible Testosterone Syndrome. I agree with her thoughts of why men’s behavior in relation to testosterone is not considered “abnormal”. The aggressive actions and violent behavior of men is viewed as acceptable, because the hormone testosterone is causing such behavior. It could be said that men are not to be trusted in positions of power, because their moods can change in an instant and their decisions are often dependent upon their testosterone levels. Both men and women are not consistently stable in all that they do, because both genders are strongly affected by hormones as well as many outside factors.
Personally, I have mixed feeling about menstruation. When I learned that “the modern woman may have up to 400 menstrual cycles total”, I am not particularly looking forward to another 30 years of getting my period. Though periods can be messy and frustrating, they do not negatively affect my daily life, in the sense that I accomplish less. I am proud to see the “modern women” having her period and living her life to the fullest. One thing that comes to mind is that having my period can be a good thing for me, because it forces me to take care of my body and to slow the heck down. American women are often go, go, go and do not listen to their body and take care of themselves. In this sense, I think pre-menstrual symptoms and menses itself are a positive thing for women.
Lastly, menopause is not a diseased state of health. It is a change in a woman’s body and reproductive capabilities, but it is not the “end of her womanhood”. I think that menopause is blown out of proportion, and if you asked women themselves who had experienced menopause, they would have drastically different things to say than the medical world, the media, and pharmaceutical companies.
In no way is menopause considered “partial death” for women. Maybe in a hunter-gather time period, women were only valued for their reproductive abilities, but in modern society, I sure hope that this is not the case. Therefore, a woman not being able to reproduce anymore is not the end of her life as a woman. She is still very much alive and well, and ready to embark on a new time in which she can enjoy a safe, satisfying sex life with no risk of unwanted pregnancy. Personally, after many years of trying to prevent pregnancy at certain times in my life and trying to encourage a pregnancy when I desire…I am looking forward to a time period in which I can have sex and that’s it! Sex will be for pure emotional and physical enjoyment.
After reading what senorita wrote, i completely agree with her comments on pms and menopause. Pms affects all women, in unique ways for everyone, and it is something that women have learned to factor into their lives so it does not bring down their capabilities. Pms is alot like menopause in that hormones are involved that can affect a woman’s emotions and behaviors, but menopause should not be treated like a disease or syndrome. Menopause is also most definitely not the end of “womanhood”. Simply because a woman does not get her period anymore or have the ability to bear children, she is no less of a woman. She has probably had about 40 years of dealing with her period, pms, hormones, and possibly child bearing, as well as birth control methods. After menopause, as senorita said, a woman deserves to not have to deal with the inconvience of having her period or taking her birth control, or worrying about missing a period and possible unwanted pregnancy. She has also had her fair share of hormone ups and downs and emotional unstability, from both pms and menopause. Menopause should never be looked at as the end of being a woman, but as a way to recognize many years of those both unfavorable (period, pms) and beautiful (giving birth to a child) events every woman goes through.
While reading the readings for this week, two of them really made me think about menopause, and menstruation. The first reading that really stuck me was: Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior. I could not believe some of the points that the author was raising about the way people look at female’s hormones. What also shocked me was that some people portray males as the emotional stability that women should be. The reading discusses how menstruation causes women to be unfit, unstable, and extremely crazy. I thought of a few points in regards to my previous comments: First, if menstruation causes women to supposedly act this way then why aren’t doctors and people in the medical field trying to figure out a way to help women however they can? Also, if males are so much more “stable†then women are, then why do they have a lot more anger problems, and end up in jail also double as much as females? What is their excuse for acting this way? I think that women deal with their hormonal problems from menstruation and menopause a lot better than a man would! They are already acting so much more aggressively than females, if they had hormonal problems too, they would be even worse! Therefore, I do not think it is fair to call men the “emotional stability†of life. Another part of this article that really caught my eye was how the author discusses women’s premenstrual symptoms as society putting them in a constant diseases place. I really agree with this, I think Western society really needs to accept menstruation more, and accept women for how they are. In Gender and The Social Construction of Illness article, the author also discusses how Western society views menstruation so negatively. It discusses how the first menstruation (menarche) should be a time for celebration and acceptance, but instead it is viewed as an embarrassment. I can really relate to this, because coming from a Jewish and Mediterranean background, and having some non-western influence, the way my family reacted to my menarche and the way some of my friend’s family members reacted to theirs was completely different. My mother and father were so happy for me; they got me a cake and balloons and celebrated for the whole week. My friend’s mothers and fathers didn’t really talk to them about it, and kind of avoided the subject, especially the fathers. I am not sure if my Jewish heritage had been the reason why my parents acted this was, or if it was just because my parents were more supportive, but I definitely feel Western society puts a negative view on menstruation.
These two articles also greatly discuss menopause. It was interesting for these two articles to discuss how “horribly†women react to menopause. Also, it is discussed how menopause is viewed as a time of crisis. This is interesting to me, because when my mother went through menopause I saw nothing of this sort. I am sure she had hot flashes, and wasn’t extremely comfortable, but she had no crazy anger, and didn’t really have mood swings. She also told me it was good for her, because she knew she couldn’t get pregnant again. This is something that the article Gender and the Social Construction of Illness talks about. I think this really makes sense, a woman is older, has the amount of children she wants, is finally comfortable in her job and life, and doesn’t want another child. Menopause must be a relief! For the hormone side of menopause, I agree with the thought that instead of Hormone Replacement Therapy doctors should advise stress management, nutritional supplements, and social support, like the article talks about. I really think western society needs to change a lot of its views on women, especially menopause and menstruation.
Every month or so, I’ll have a few days of feeling sad and confused and incapable of dealing with any stress…when the period inevitably begins I always experience a mixture of relief at feeling under control again and frustration at not being able to avoid these unwanted feelings despite being prepared for their arrival.
Some of the experiences associated with menstruation are definitely unpleasant. I tend to think that PMS is not entirely made up–and I agree with the author of the first article that for some women, medical attention is probably needed when their premenstrual experiences interfere severely with their lives. However, since beginning to think about how the social baggage of menstruation affects how women experience their cycles, I’ve wondered often whether PMS would exist in a culture in which menstruation was not medicalized and made shameful.
In the “Hormonal Hurricanes” article, studies were mentioned that focused on possible treatments for women suffering from PMS. These experiments used a placebo sugar pill to make sure of the efficacy of the proposed treatment. In these cases, as is usually the case in medical trials, the placebo worked nearly as well, if not as well, as the treatment. Although mindset does seem to have a lot to do with health conditions of every kind, the effectiveness of a sugar pill in treating PMS in this instance doesn’t point to its status as a real “disease.” (Again, I’m not denying the existence of the experience known as PMS!)
It often seems that giving something a name makes it real; people also tend to strive toward diagnoses to try to classify their experiences.
However, I would argue that in this case the positive aspects of an available diagnosis that makes women feel like their experiences are justified and shared by other women are outweighed by the negative side of PMS. Taking unpleasant or inconvenient physical and emotional feelings and turning them into a “syndrome” provides an excuse; an excuse to women who attribute mood swings to it (which I don’t think is necessarily an unfair thing to do because I know my moods get almost frighteningly changeable and intense before my period–but is that only because I live in a society that teaches me to expect it??), but also an excuse for men to point to actual medical evidence of women being irrational, emotional “hormonal hurricanes.” I can’t even count the times I’ve heard some guy, after encountering what he thought was an unreasonable or irritable girl, say, “Are you PMSing or something?” No chronic ‘disease’ suffered by men lists erratic behavior or hypersensitivity to emotional stimuli as symptoms; placing it in the lexicon of a culture as something that affects nearly all women over 10 times a year gives weight to the age-old, but today less socially acceptable, arguments that women are incapable of being leaders or maintaining professionalism at all.
In the Feminist Frontier, Anne Fausto-Sterling makes many good points about the stereotypical pre-menstrual, menstrual, and menopausal assumptions and stereotypes. I found many of the quotes that she had from historians and dated research to be offensive but acceptable. It is foolish that men used to think of women in such a degrading way but I think a lot of our rights and equalities are currently fair. If you look at the big picture of history, there are many ways of thinking that seem foolish but only time, society, and research have changed the way biology is seen.
As our society continues to grow and become more understanding of biology, the acceptance of whether or not menstruation is a syndrome or sickness will change. Comparing men to women in terms of PMS can be controversial but I feel it is surely true that men show moodiness, times of depression, and changes in eating patterns. In saying that only women exhibit these symptoms because of their hormones is ridicules, and more research should be done on men’s changes throughout the month. Men might not follow the same pattern as women but just because women live beyond their reproductive years and follow a monthly pattern, doesn’t mean that men have hormone changes also. I think it is unfair to assume that all women are not capable of men’s tasks, men can be “girly†and women can be “manly.†Looking at individuals, rather than generalizing women or men in studies, would be a better way of evaluation how emotions and actions change over the month.
I might not be a very observant person but I never notice any emotional changes over the month that I can associate to my menstruation. There are a few small physical changes I notice but I never feel that they affect my ability to function to my fullest. I enjoy being a woman and getting my period, knowing that someday I can use my body for reproducing, the most intimate feeling one can take place in. I also know I have control over this choice, and I have never felt subordinate to men because of my body.
While reading this week’s readings about PMS, menstruation, and menstruation, “Hormonal hurricanes: Menstruation, menopause, and female behavior†particularly annoyed me because I do not like the way this article presents PMS, menopause, and women in general. The article talked about how some people in our society feel that women can not be trusted in positions of leadership and responsibility because we are emotionally unstable. One statement that really stuck out in my mind was from a man who said that he would rather have JKF make decisions about the Cuban missile crisis than a woman because the woman “could possibly be subject to the curious mental aberrations of that age group.†I think this is offensive to all women and I find it to be a very arrogant statement because people in our society, mostly males, are using our reproductive systems against us as a way of discrimination and keeping us down.
Yes, women menstruate and our bodies go through change, but in no way does this make us incompetent or lacking in capability in any part of life. It is my opinion that some women do experience emotional symptoms during both PMS and menopause, but this should not be an issue when measuring our ability. Our society views menstruation as casting “a dark shadow on women’s lives†and we need to change this if we want to be seen as equals compared to men. I think it is absurd that women are denied certain jobs or get paid less than their male counterparts because we experience menopause and menstruate and supposedly act “crazy†during these times. I get really annoyed when a boyfriend or male friend says that I “must be getting my period†if I am in a bad mood or seem annoyed because they automatically associate negative things with menstruation when they really have no idea what is going on inside of our bodies. Menstruation and menopause are stigmatized in our society and women are looked at differently because of this. Women who are going through “the changeâ€(so many are afraid to actually say menopause!) are looked at with pity because they can no longer have children and are therefore considered useless to some members of our society and many times we talk about women who have gone through menopause as “drying up.†Men need to realize that menstruation and menopause are normal functions of a female body and we are never going to change in this way so they need to get used to it and learn to understand what is happening to our bodies instead of looking at us like we are crazy, mental, too emotional, or unstable.
It was interesting to see in the “Social Science and Medicine†article about whether or not there is a menopausal syndrome that no universal menopause syndrome exists and that symptoms are due to individual and cultural influences. The article notes that African American women have a higher percentage of surgical menopauses, which could be from having a hysterectomy, and this makes a lot of sense to me because we have learned in this class that women of color are frequently encouraged and pushed to become sterilized. The author states that Japanese and Chinese women are the least likely to report symptoms of menopause, and, once again, this makes sense to me because in Asian cultures it is the norm for people not to report if they are having any problems, especially when it comes to mental and emotional issues. White women are also reported to have a high rate of hormone usage, and this could be because white women are pushed at a young age to use the pill as their method of birth control and many times these ideas of using hormones are carried through into adulthood.
In response to what PinkGrl6 has written, the “hormonal hurricanes” article was also the one that i found that raised a great personal response in me, as to also being a woman. The other articles were great sources into women to understand the physiologial and biological processes that women go through during mestruation and menopause. But one thing i was pissed while reading these articles, is that they portray both mestruation and menopause as an abnormality. But as pointed out in the article “hormonal hurricanes”, what are women really being compared to is men, the fact that they dont go through none of these processes.
But reality, men also go through processes, men also have hormones and they are also moody various times during the month. I have two uncles, and they behavior varies that its unexplainable. I even sometimes jokingly ask them if they are at that period of the month. I guess all men act similiar. There are phases that men want to be away from women and hang out with men only, and there are phases that they want to be after women like nuts. SO i dont see why, women are the only ones being publicized for having hormonal hurricanes, ups and downs, because in reality we all do. I think due to the fact that there is been limited attention and spotlight in men phsyciological processes and behaviors study, and the ideology that men are perfect, men are the authoritive figure; therefore there is problems into questioning their biology. Why do women have to be penalized for what they are naturally, and why they are looked upon as minor or uncapable of being workers. The fact that there are hormonal changes inside our bodies every month does not mean that we cannot accomplish and handle business. Many women today have been business leaders and there are little research that shows that pre-mentrual syndromes or menopause have been an inpedement in their work lives.
As i was saying before men also have tones of hormones, so they also go through hormonal hurricanes even though it has not yet been deeply research due to the views of society that “men are the achievers” or alos the notion that men can have tones of women and still be okay, but women who have tones of men they are called “wores”. The problem is nothing about women haveing periods, menopause or not, the problem is that society has always doubted women’s capabilities, and dont want to accept women as being equal to men, so that is why they try to find so many excuses so women can continue to have less oppurtunities in life and never reach to compatible enough to men. Its too much, why is the pressure always drawn to women, the pressure of carrying a child, house chores, looking good, etc….Why ,men can look like trash and still be looked as cute and handsome…..thats my input. We are what we are, its not abnormal to have a period, to have menopause, its just process of the human body….The society are always seeking for diseases where it does not even exist so they can find treament, and increase their phaurmaceutical industries, meaning more money coming to them.
Why women have to take HT during menopause????? Peole should accept their phsycial changes. These treatments to me its just a way to build more money for society. Why dont they try to prevent osteoporosis by educating women since very young to eat enough cheeese, milk and have enough calcium in their bones so when they get old they wont have osteoporosis?????Why the goverment dont make all the hospitals measure calcium levels of patients when they go for a physical so the doctors can advise the patients to eat more meals with calcium…..Initiatives like that, that can make changes in ones lives. But when you get to menopause and start the HT, hormonal treatment you are also increasing health risks to have breast cancer…WHy make one problem into two?????
In these articles, they seem to point out how women are generalized and that all women get these symptoms and turn “crazy” when they get their period. It is funny for me to think that people really believe this. I never experienced the cramps and pains that many of my friends explained to me. Every woman’s experience is different and that should be taken into consideration. I never realized how negatively premenstrual syndrome and menopause have been portrayed. I’ve always been so used to hearing about the bad cramps and mood swings and hot flashes. I didn’t know it has become a biomedical issue because I always thought of your monthly cycle as a natural process that every woman has to go through. As discussed in the Hormonal hurricanes reading, women are often looked at as irresponsible and too unpredictable to hold good jobs. I think it is crazy that people would try to use PMS as another way to degrade women. If women are so irresponsible then how come they are capable of having the responsibility of being a mother. In the reading Hormonal Hurricanes, they make a good point in how women just can’t win. Because women expressed their pains in the past it was because they were neurotic and were making up excuses as to why they couldn’t become pregnant. Now that women have spoken up, the medical profession have found a way to profit and make menopause and PMS medical conditions that need “cures.” I found it so funny that they could even think that giving a woman a good education would create stress on them and effect their reproductive organs. I see many successful women today who have children..once again the strength of women is questioned. Women are often given prescriptions when in reality other social supports and herbal products could help and be better for her health. Menopause and PMS have definitely become defined by Western medicine and given them negative connotations. In other countries, menopause is embraced. For example, rather than marking menopause as the end of womanhood, Peruvian women gain their full adulthood around menopause and gain benefits in society. I think that our country is so used to finding ways to make women look incapable and irresponsible but in actuality women are fighting and proving their valuable status in society and it upsets the ones who are trying to keep women from being successful. Creating negative images and thoughts about women’s repoductive cycles are just another way to try and control women and profit off of it at the same time. It’s just not right and it’s sad that I had become so used to the negative talk that I never really saw the true problems and issues behind it.
Reading the articles on menstruation, especially the article, “Hormonal hurricanes: Menstruation, menopause, and female behavior†completely infuriated me. The notion that women are emotionally erratic and can not be trusted in positions of responsibility is absolute nonsense. The people who write such nonsense are ignorant and unintelligent. Yes, women do menstruate monthly therefore possessing a physiological factor that men do not, but this period does not render them dangerous or unpredictable. I agree with lil dre dre that menstruation does not make a woman incompetent or lacking ability in any part of life. Menstruation is a wonderful physiological process that without, these men would not be able to sit around and degrade and marginalize the very women that took part in producing them.
Hormonal hurricanes also touched upon the fact of how much our society fears aging, and not particularly the aging of older men but the aging of women in our society. I do believe that our society focus’s way too much on beauty and they associate beauty with being young and youthful. I already feel the pressure of keeping myself young by constantly being bombarded to put on my sunscreen, not for the purpose of protecting myself against skin cancer but for the mere fact that I might get wrinkles at a younger age. It sickens me to look through the tabloids and read that at age 23, Ashlee Simpson is already getting botox to prevent wrinkles. Every single magazine you open glorifies younger looking women as being the ideal woman. Not even just for women within their age range, but for women all around the spectrum. Just Monday I was watching dancing with the Stars and Jane Seymour who is rumored to be somewhere in her fifties or sixties, was standing there in a little tank top and mini skirt looking as if she was twenty years old. I can only imagine what that image does to women who are in their fifties and sixties and do not look anywhere like Jane Seymour. Women are constantly being bombarded with the ways in how they should and should not look and it is affecting them emotionally, physically, and psychologically.
I believe women of age should be respected for their wisdom and knowledge and not pushed aside to separate housing complexes, essentially placed out of vision from the younger mainstream societies.. As a society I believe that aging should not be looked upon as an undue burden which we fight with all we have using plastic surgeons and unnatural procedures to prolong our youth. If the media and magazines didn’t glorify youth and associate youth with beauty, I believe women would feel more comfortable by getting older. I believe that women should embrace aging and not fight what Mother Nature inevitability has in store for all of us
Anne Faustino-Sterling’s article Hormonal Hurricanes addresses the extent to which sexism exists even today. After reading this article, a multitude of things come to mind- FOr example,women who kill their abusive husbands, or lash out “uncharacteristically” in response to continuously oppressive forces are seen as overly emotional, hysterical and crazy, but the hyper-masculinity unwarranted aggression is seen as a “trait” not a flaw. Women have been constantly compared to a ticking monthly time bomb. Another article that we addressed mentioned the idea that the “energy devoted to scholastic work would deprive the reproductive organs of the necessary ‘flow of power'”. This, along with the denial of women to fill some positions claiming that the exposure may cause birth defects but giving the position to men instead, is just one of the many more recent scapegoat excuses used. “PMS” (if such a thing exists) is shows as sucha debilitating conditiont that it has begun to act like propaganda in the media to hinder women from participating in things they may otherwise participate in! All the commercials making it seem like women are cranky, bloated, and irritable is absolute bullshit- yes, there are physiological symptoms that accompany menstruation, but we are doing ourselves a huge disservice by being manipulated by the idea that PMS keeps most women from participating in every day activities.
Kelly Blanchard’s To Menstruate or Not came as a shock to me. Im not exactly sure why, but i cant help but think that without menstruation, we are taking away something that makes us different and unique, and beautiful from other sex. Whether the act of menstruation is actually beautiful is not the issue. If we could be more aware of our body biologically and hormonally, we could easily have the resources to make decisions about the frequency of our menstruations. Eliminating the occurrence altogether seems almost like sacrilege. I am all about empowerment, but it should not be something shameful, or a topic that should be kept a secret like the tampon commercials convey. These “covert” operations to get a “tampax pearl” so that she can go to the party, or that gentle glide to go in the pool without anyone knowing. It just seems like menstruation should be something that is shameful. If every woman menstruates….how can it be socially possible for it to be shameful??? No one likes to be uncomfortable, but i think when reading this article, you have to think about the social impacts of making the decision not to menstruate and question who you are stopping it for….
I just want to note that I read in an article once that although women have monthly cycles, men have daily hormonal cycles. I can’t remember where I read this so I’m not sure how valid it is but an interesting thought none the less. That would make women the more “stable” of the sexes now wouldn’t it?
In many of the articles, the idea of “normalizing” menstruation is spoken of in terms of the monthly timeline of a “normal cycle” being 28 days and there being “normal” aka negative symptoms during this cycle that many women experience. Another “normalizing” aspect of menstruation that wasn’t spoken of but relevant in today’s culture is the “normal” age during which menstruation begins.
In recent years, the average age of menarche has become younger and younger and this has set off alarms. Why would this alarm the general public? One reason is the hypothesis for what is causing this jump start on menarche. Some believe higher concentrations of hormones that are added to meat and dairy products is causing earlier menstruation. I can understand this being a legitimate concern because these high levels of hormones aren’t natural in younger bodies (possibly) and might be harmful in the long term.
However, the alarmist attitude may be linked to the belief that when women begin menarche they lose control of their sexuality. This makes them hard to control for their parents and society. The “normal age” for girls to begin menstruation is between 13 and 14 years old I think. But many girls are having their period much younger, sometimes even 8 or 9 years old. Maybe this alarmism is because they believe girls are supposed to learn their gender roles during the period leading up to their menstruation so by the time they begin, society has already ingrained in them how to act and what is expected of them. Theoretically, if they skip this period of gender identification, and menstruate early, they are even more uncontrollable because they have no ingrained societal restraints.
This is just a proposed theory of mine of why our society might be alarmist about this recent occurrence even though I do believe the biological involvement of high levels of hormones probably isn’t a good thing for these girls. However, I’m not sure it has been proven that these hormones have an effect on menstruation. Does anyone know?
HORMONAL HURRICANES
I don’t know how many times during my adolescence I heard my father say “what, are you having your period?†or “it’s that time of the month isn’t it†in response to a statement I made about my feelings or opinions. My thoughts, opinions and feelings could not be considered outside of the possible effects of my hormones in my household as I grew up. Soon enough, my younger brother started with the same discounting of my feelings. At times in my later teen years, maybe 15 – 17 I started to wonder, often, if I was being “irrational†or “too emotional†or “typical for a young woman my ageâ€. I wondered if my thoughts, feelings, opinions were not really valid, but simply something overblown by my hormones. As Ann Fausto-Sterling writes “how often are women taken less seriously because of beliefs about hormonally induced erratic behaviorâ€? I know that as a teenager and now as an adult, my father still hears me through this lens, often asking me how things are going and then replying with some comment about my “cycle†if I am frustrated or sad or upset about something. As Sophie Law is quoted as saying in If a Situation is Defined as Real “the “symptoms of PMS which the doctors show most concern over – depression, anxiety, and so on – are mental states which do not “fit†with women’s culturally created notions of ourselves as nice, kind, gentle etc.†Further evidence of this “crazy menstruating woman†lens is displayed in the scientific statement from 1974 saying “……the few women who do not admit to premenstrual tension are basically unaware of it but one only has to talk to their husbands or co-workers to confirm its existenceâ€.
Then comes the discussion of menopause. “The unpalatable truth must be faced that all postmenopausal women are castrates†And those same women are described by Dr. David Reuben as “Not really a man but no longer a functional woman, these individuals live in the world of intersex.†NO LONGER A FUNCTIONAL WOMAN? As if our only function on earth is to be enslaved by our hormones, which control us in so many different ways, reproduce and then when we are done, die as our usefulness has ended. Is it any wonder that some women see PMS and Menopause as disease states with symptoms rather than natural processes that can be lived through as normal aspects in the lifecycle. It is hard to know whether it truly is our biology that is responsible for these undesirable symptoms of PMS and menopause or whether it is our cultural perspective that lends weight to these symptoms. This is not at all to suggest that hormones have no effect on our emotional, physical, mental and psychological states, but perhaps these effects are not negative. Perhaps they are viewed as negative by male dominated popular discourse on the subject, by pharmaceutical companies pushing treatments for our “symptoms†and doctors falling in line with this readily accepted social belief in PMS and menopausal symptoms. As demonstrated in other cultures, with other ways of thinking about menstruating and menopause, women are viewed as having great power and knowledge at these times in their lives. They are honored and protected and sometimes even feared because of their power during these cycles of life. Perhaps it is the social construct of PMS and Menopause as “difficult’ or “disease†or “deficiency†states that is the actual problem for most women.
“Is There A Menopausal Syndrome? Menospausal Status and symtoms across racial/ethnic groups”
When I was first reading this article I was having a little trouble with the terms that were being used because I did not feel as though they were defined for the reader and given that I know little about menopause it was difficult to follow. However, as I finished the article things that were previously unclear became more understandable. Vasomotor symptoms was a term that I was not familiar with before reading this article, I now know that they were reffering to hot flashes and night sweats.
All that I know about menopause basically comes from the stories I hear from my mother since she is going through menopause currently. Other than the symptoms she often coplains of, all consistant with the symptoms of other white, middle-class, Western women, I was unaware of the differences across races and cultures. However, the results that were found do not surprise me. They authors concluded that it was more likely for African-American women to have gone through surgical menopause, meaning that they had surgery to end their periods. It did not surprise me that African-American women were the highest in this category given the rate at which they are sterilized, whether it be forced or not. Another conclusion that was made was the women from the two Asian groups reported far less symptoms, if any at all, than the other three groups studied. I may be looking at these two groups stereotypically but I have always believed Chinese and Japanese women to be very strong women who are not affected by much. In my eyes these women are strong, fierce women who live to be very old and independent to nearly the age of their death. For example, my landlord is an older Asian woman, probably about 55 years old, and she is the toughest woman I have met in a long time. She was here fixing our house when we moved in until 2 or 3 a.m. every night, determined to get everything done quickly and with no help. Because of the light I see Asian women in it does not surprise me that they would be the ones to not complain of any symptoms. I am curious of the cultural difference here though and how much of it is that these women in fact experienced no symptoms related to menopause or if they just were not reporting any symptoms. I am assuming that they in fact did not experience any given that the study seemed to be pretty well set up to make the participants comfortable enough to be able to express their true feelings. But I do believe it may be possible that there are other factors, cultural factors, for the differing in results of symptoms.
Look it back at other responses it seems as though everyone commented on the Hormonal Hurricane article. This makes it slightly difficult for me to respond or include others responses in my own. But I think that a general feeling is that women are made to look crazy when it comes to PMS, menstruation, and menopause. Men are often using negative terminology such as “its that time of the month”. I believe that there is a stigma surrounding women and there periods from the time they hit puberty and get them to the time they are in there 50’s and their bodies are change yet again to stop them. It is unfair the way that women are treated surrounding menstruation and I think that men should just forget about it. What is it their business? What does it matter to them? And as AutumnRocks mentions men may have daily hormonal cycles. I cannot say how reliable this information is but I have also, in passing, heard or read something about the changes in mens hormones and the possibility that they too go through some type of cycle that affects how they act. I think that more focus should be put on this idea and less on women. I think that women should not be put down and made powerless because of something that their bodies go through. Might I mention that this is an amazing part of the female anatomy given that it allows us to reproduce, giving birth to everyones children.
In Anne Fausto-Sterling’s article “Hormonal Hurricanes†she discusses menopause and the treatment of it. One option for treating menopause was estrogen replacement therapy, which today is more often referred to as hormone replacement therapy. When my mother hit menopause she was a complete bitch, suffering from various symptoms of irritability and hot flashes. She decided that it would be a good idea for her to take estrogen replacement therapy due to her symptoms and also that osteoporosis runs in the family. We never really talked about how she liked the hormone replacement therapy, but one day she decided that she wanted to take the more natural route of letting your body adjust to the new hormone levels over time. So when she stopped hormone replacement therapy it was like menopause hit all over again.
With my mother’s case it was also important for her to get either estrogen or calcium supplements to prevent bone loss. I think a lot of people don’t understand how estrogen and the lack there of effect bone mineral density. We know that women who are older get osteoporosis the most but why? One function of estrogen is to act as a protector of bone density. Estrogen encourages bone growth cells and discourages bone breaking down cells. Without estrogen the bones break down more rapidly than they produce causing loss of density. In the end of Sterling’s article she suggests that we may have things to learn about menopause from non-western cultures. One thing that I found when studying osteoporosis in postmenopausal women was that not all cultures report experiencing the same symptoms of menopause. One example is that Japanese women experiencing menopause rarely have problems with hot flashes and bone loss. A proposed reason for this is due to the fact that these women include much more soy in their diet than their western sisters. Soy contains isoflavones which mimic estrogen in the body. One possible treatment of osteoporosis and hot flashes, even menopause in general could be supplementing soy in the diet, to receive a more natural kind of estrogen than hormone replacement therapy.
In Moore’s article about PMS and menopause she discusses how the medical community has viewed the female body as abnormal in light of the male body. The cycles of a woman’s life are seen as disease and in need of treatment. When infact the menstruation cycles and menopause are perfectly normal for a woman. For a long time women complaining of PMS were told they were crazy or hallucinating the pain. Now we know that symptoms that come with menstruation are real and need to be validated. When I was a young girl, 12-14, I used to get the most unbearable cramps that would cause me to be incapacitated, unable to go to school, causing extreme back and abdominal pain, and often causing me to throw up. After suffering through each period for about a year, I decided that this wasn’t normal and I needed help. I went to my family doctor, who is male. I told him about my symptoms and how much pain I was in. He told me that the pain I was feeling was just cramps that happen to everyone and I was overreacting. I was very insulted and I felt like my doctor didn’t know shit when it came to women’s health issues. So unsatisfied with his answer I went to a gynocologist NP at Planned Parenthood. I told her about my symptoms and how painful my cramps were. I told her that they weren’t normal cramps but really painful and incapacitating. And she believed me! She recommended that I get an ultrasound to check for anything unusual for it was less invasive than a pap smear, which I hadn’t experienced yet. So I got the ultrasound and low and behold they found a benign tumor on my left ovary the size of a small orange. No wonder I was in so much pain and puking. The tumor was pushing on my uterus, stomach, and up against my spine. I had to have surgery to get it removed, and if I hadn’t done something about those aweful cramps I might have died. So I just want to thank the women out there for believing me, even when my male family doctor did not.
I am really looking forward to seeing today’s guest speaker Lynette Sievert, since not only is she an intelligent and interesting woman, but she also teaches a great anthropology class called Evolutionary Medicine, which I am taking this semester and highly reccomend to everyone. Anyways, after reading through Professor Sievert’s introduction, from “Menopause: A Biocultural Perspective”, it only further supports the idea of looking critically at health-related events, especially regarding women. There are many parallels that I have found between her class and this class, since both challegnge issues regarding women’s health and promote students to look at these topics intersectionally, as well as cross-species. The impact of cultural norms on healthcare is another common theme between these two classes and I believe that it is important to take into account that our environment and society that we are surrounded by, largely infuences how we view healthcare as a whole.
In relation to menopause, it is evident that once again, the medical field is imposing their viewpoints on women, without taking into account their actual experiences. As Professor Sievert points out, “The definition of menopause is a symptom that can be identified by a woman and a sign that can be measured” (Sievert 8). This ability to measure menopause, allows clinicians to force a variety of women’s experiences into a constricting definition, as well as impose “medical management”.
It seems that culturally, women’s experiences of menopause are trying to be placed into a generalized definition. However, after reading through Professor Sievert’s chapter, women experience menopause in many different ways, including biologically and experientally. Rather than developing definitions for the major biological events in women’s lives, we need to incourage communication among women. In turn, this will provide women with the support that we both deserve and need. In order to survive in a culture that many times exploits women, and targets them especially within the medical field, by inflict technology on our bodies, it is essential that we continue to promote discussion and critical thought regarding these issues, which I found both this class and Professor Sievert’s class to do.
first, if anything, i think menstruation enables women more emotional stability! in our society, men are taught from a young age to distance themselves from any emotion apart from anger. therefore, men don’t have more control over emotion but rather a lack of an emotional canvas. women are at liberty, for the most part, to express their emotion due to a lack of societal constraint placed upon them, in comparison to men, and thus are seen as emotional hurricanes. more so, i think the argument behind calling women emotional wrecks is to prove that the female body is one in which men need to control- for our own good.
and since when does expression of emotion make null and void the ability to lead? i think the ability to express emotion is an amazing tool in social movements. for example, martin luther king exuberated emotion in his speeches, thus giving him the charisma which so many endeared to him. i think our society needs to be more open to emotion.
on a side note, i think men are intimidated by menstruation because it gives women an element of control. recently, i read the red tent and i was fascinated to find that menstruation use to be a thing of community amongst women which empowered them and gave them control over their bodies. on that note, a few years back i didn’t get my period for an entire year and i found myself rather depressed. i like getting my period. somehow getting my period makes me feel more connected to nature and gives me a sense of empowerment and community amongst my fellow women. i think this sense of empowerment and community intimidates men.
in addition, i agree that men have their own hormonal cycles. my boyfriend is a bundle of hormones and at least once a month i joke and say he must have his period because he gets just as snappy and short-tempered as i do when i have PMS. i think men just point to the emotional instability of menstruation to try and take away the empowerment that comes with menstruation and the ability to reproduce… because after all, menstruation is a sign that women are reproducers.
I always had so much fun when I’d make my guy friends super uncomfortable when I’d be having bad cramps during my period. I’d tell them that the lining of my uterus was shedding and blood was coming out of my vagina and they’d freak out and would be really uncomfortably awkward about it. I thought it was hilarious, using the huge stigma attached to menstruation for my amusement. As discussed in “Gender and the Social Construction of Illnessâ€, other cultures have a more positive view of menstruation, where it’s celebrated and not shunned. I always see ads of TV’s for tampons, Midol, PPMD drugs, etc . One ad that sticks out in my head was promoting this super tiny tampon that fits in the palm of one’s hand. Shot opens up with a girl beginning to walk out of class while it’s in session, with her palm closed. The male teacher stops her, thinking there’s something along the lines of a cigarette in the palm of her hand. But alas, it’s only a microscopic tampon and she’s very, very ashamed. I mean, who wouldn’t be…menstruation (as discussed in many of the articles) is made out to be very an embarrassing thing; being unable to function, too emotional, not pregnant etc. Then, there’s always an ad with a girl saying something along the lines of ‘ woah, I wouldn’t be at the beach in a bikini with all these cute boys if I didn’t have (insert product here) to help me with (insert symptom here). There’s a huge economy involved in menstruation.
Years ago, talking to a male feminist friend of mine about issues involving menstruation I was really shocked about how he said PMS wasn’t real, how it was socially constructed. Like Floyd said above, I also think PMS is maybe BS, but maybe not. Biologically speaking, women’s bodies release the hormone prostaglandin which causes contractions which pushes the endometrium out of the body. Prostaglandin is the same hormone released when women go into labor. When I used to get cripplingly bad cramps, I’d be able to see the contractions in forms of my muscles twitching. I think that would happen regardless of if the culture I was in was positive about menstruation. I surround myself with women that are empowered by their periods and would make art out of their menstrual blood, etc. But the cramps still occur. I have a friend, who when she’d get her period, she’d literally pass out from the pain. But social realities certainly influence the way women consciously or unconsciously deal with menstruation, I have no doubt about that. I also very much believe that, if this syndrome called “PMS†were to exist, men would PMS as well. Having most of my friends being guys, it’s true. This was acknowledged in the “Hormonal Hurricanes†article when a doctor Dalton says that men experience PMS “symptoms†at random times during the month.
In the section in “Hormonal Hurricanes†about women’s intelligence, I was reminded about a lesson that took place in my philosophy class. We were learning about certain arguments in which their rationalization involving something being natural. Philosopher Kant said “the fair sex is fairly incapable of principle…men’s faculty of understanding is sublime; women’s is merely beautifulâ€. By this Kant is saying that women cannot rationalize anything because of their intuitiveness, and their intuitiveness is affected by women’s supposed influx of hormones that make them do crazy things. The ending conclusion for Kant’s (and most other philosophers) is very demeaning because they would think that humans are valuable and distinctive from the rest of the animal world because they hold the capacity for moral law, which Kant is inferring women lack.
As with much of the readings in this class, this weeks gave me a new perspective on what it means to be a woman. Due to eating disorders, I got my first period fairly late in life. Until I went to my first gyno exam, it was embarassed to tell my friends that I hadn’t gotten “it” yet, and even more so that I was completely flat chested. However, thats about where it ended. Once I started getting my periods I HATED it!! I’ve been on birth control most of my menstral life to regulate my crazy cycle, and alleviaite some of the intense stomche, neck, back, and leg pain I endure from cramps. I also am perscribed painkillers that I take during my period. I suffer from intense PMS, and usually spend the first day of my period in bed with a heating pad, in between bouts of vommitting. The wonder of being a women!!
However, this articles did help my perspective. First of, as a product of my generation, while I did consider getting my first period a rite of passage of sorts, it wasn’t the natural and spritiual expierence that I now realize it can be. My passage was to the world of tampex, midol,and always sanitary napkins. One article put it as equating the expierence with a hygeine product. I really had NO idea what have a menstral cycle really meant, even when I knew the science behind it. However, despite my expierences, it was my first lesson in solidarity between women. In addition to being able to relate to my female peers about the ails of that time of the month, I was always one of the ones who held NO qualms about discussing the basics of my period with the opposite sex. In my opinion, they need to know just how much some of us suffer, especially in combatting any male attempts at belittleing female emotions by blaming hormones. During one arguement, I almost lept at an ex-boyfriend for blaming the issue I was taking up with him on the fact that I had my period.
On the other side of things, I never really quantified what menopause actually means to a women. My mother went through menopause at just about the same time I began getting my period regualry. To me, this was a time of fighting, cramping, and hotflashing. More than anything I was jealous that my mother could be done with this horrbible affliction of menstration, and I was sure feeling hot was not nearly as bad as what I was going through. However, I now see what an important time this was in both our lives. For my mother, it must have been emotionally difficult, as it is traditionally a signal of aging, something that isn’t always easy. The concurrence of it was also something that could have been viewed as more special, had we only realized. I feel that we could have expierenced it as a type of empowerment, mother passing on the ability to pro-create to daughter.
Unfortunatly, even with hopeful new perspecitves I think the menstral cycle is a cruel joke by mother nature. As a women I have to pay more money for sanitary supplies, I have to pay a co-pay for birth control pills (even if I’m not sexually active) and perscription pain killers for cramps. I also am more likely to do worse in my classes that take attendednce than a man or even some women, because at least one day our of every month (usually more)I am in bed with crippling pain and vommitting. Also, because of my early menstral troubles, it is a constant concern of mine that I will encounter fertility issues later and life.
In “If a Situation Is Defined as Real” article states that a women goes through menopause with a culturally constructed idea “a sign of aging and the end of procreative capabilities”. Whereas it is mentioned that in the a southern country, Peru, women reap social and financial benefits “freedom from daily chores for large extended families”. It seems that our cultures have a lot to do with how women feel about the process of menopause. It is also interesting how this article depicts men, who have for most of history not had to worry about growing older. But now, by having women more financially strong and independent make men more vulnerable on their cultural protection.
I feel that the experience of menstruation as a teenager should be empowering and not something to be made ashamed of. It is a powerful tool a women brings to this world, the fact that they can procreate is unique.
The article Hormonal Hurricanes, the section about PMS in particular, made me think about my mom. Whenever it’s my mom’s time of the month, she experiences severe PMS.. her mood swings are crazy, she is irrational, overly emotional, along with all of the other physical symptoms that can be experienced. She told me that she has always had bad PMS, but it’s gotten worse as she’s grown older. These symptoms have never prevented her from being the best mother to her children, holding down the fort, and performing at her job. The fact that Berman and Goldberg had raised questions about women having the ability to work effectively in positions of leadership really annoys me, simply because it seems like just another reason for the discrimination against women. I agree with Lil Dre Dre in saying that PMS, menstruation and menopause should not be issues when considering the ability of a woman.
In this same reading, I found the section about how to diagnose PMS as very interesting. I really liked the quote by Dr. Katharina Dalton: “PMS is any symptom or complaints which regularly come just before or during early menstruation but are absent at other times in the cycle”. I understand that for women PMS and ailments that they may experience before or during their period can be different, and there can be a wide range of symptoms, just as there can for other syndromes. I think the reason that PMS is being questioned by so many is because it is an issue that pertains to women and their emotions. I feel like if a man had a particular syndrome, it wouldn’t be questioned as much. Speaking of which, I agree with Sassy and others in saying that men do have their own type of PMS! I truly believe that men do experience cycles of emotions, and are more emotional at certain times than others.
In discussing menopause, and how it is sometimes viewed as a woman no longer being functional absolutely pisses me off. I’ve heard stories about how when some women go thru menopause and become depressed because they can no longer have children, or for other reasons, possibly including hormones. I think it is totally understandable for women to feel this way, but it doesn’t help when people are labeling women as no longer being functional.
I agree with Lil Dre Dre and McLovin that the “Hormonal Hurricanes” article really got a rise out of me in regards to women being out of control and basically not being able to control themselves because of menopause or pms. This demeaning and generalizing all women. My mother is going through menopause right now and I saw her experience a hott flash for the first time last month. Men are so intimidated by not understanding, there fore not being able to control, something a bout women that they must slander it and make it something bad. In my women studies class at the beginning of the semester we did reading on menopause and how years ago it was viewed as women becoming worthless and decaying. How can you say that about a human being? So if a man has issues with his semen he is worthless and decayed?? To say that a woman should not hold a high position in office or have a job in which she has to make important decesions because she might PMS or go through menopause is not a legit argument. Men have hormones too and are just as likely to make decisions based on how they personally feel about something as women are. How is anyone to assume what will happen until a woman DOES become President?
On another note, I am one of those people who gets sick during PMS and my period. It started happening when I was too young to make it up in my head or anything like that. I went on birth control in ninth grade because my gyno suggested that it would help with my nausea each month seeing as I was missing an average of 2 days of school a month. Star hits the nail on the head when she says that every women’s experience is unique and different and you cannot generalize someone just because of what other women go through. Our bodies are too complex to sum up or try to answer and fit into a nice little box. Just because we are complex and our bodies don’tt necessarily follow guidelines men set doesn’t mean that is a bad thing.
In completing the readings this week, I was reminded of an article we read earlier in the semester that revealed the power (and horror) of the way women’s health is discussed in the medical community. I am referring to the article “Discourses of the Female Body” which quotes Emily Martin, author of the book, “Women in the Body” as likening the experience of menopause to something like a overrun factory in which the “system’s” “functions fail and falter.” Likewise, in the article “Hormonal Hurricanes,” the author quotes several physicians with similarly ridiculous published opinions/descriptions about menopause, such as Dr. Edgar Berman who states, “there are just physical and psychological inhibitants that limit a female’s potential” and Dr Steven Goldberg who confers with the previous statement in his declaration that “the hormonal renders the social inevitable” (i.e., a patriarchal society).
It is true that to become a physician, it takes a lot of dedication, education, perserverance and intelligence. However, this is also applicable to many other jobs. Therefore, it is CRUCIAL to take a closer look at what physicians are saying and publishing to their patient-base, for in a world like ours, where we revere doctors above all other professions, we seem to take every word that a doctor’s says to us to be the word of law. It is immensely frightening then, considering this assumption, that people have listened and condoned the above quoted statements, because they came from a doctor’s mouth, and even if this doctor is promoting a completely dominating patriarchal society by manipulating bogus biological notions, it doesn’t matter bc what the doc says, goes.
The terms and connotations written, read, used, and spoken by medical professions have a PROFOUND EFFECT on the rest of society and our valuations of women’s health. For instance, in connection with the negative connotations about menopause written and discussed by med. professionals, Fausto-Sterling states: “ours is a culture that fears the elderly” which could not ring more true. Unlike the Eastern Word, Western perspectives seem to devalue growing older, thereby promoting serious agism in our culture and neglecting the needs of the elderly in our healthcare system. This is a serious societal problem that must be addressed with care.
In today’s world, it seems like every other day we are discovering new viruses, new symptoms, new problems to add to the list of things ailing our world. It is therefore INCREASINGLY VITAL that instead of leaving it all up to the doctors and pharmaceutical companies to figure out the answer, we should take part in our own healthcare, ask our physicians questions and demand an adequate answer, question the motives of big-wig pharmaceutical companies and push for more funding and research in newly-arisen (or not fully researched) problems rather than the current solution which is the jump to not-thoroughly researched medical treatment (i.e. HRT and menopause or Gardasil and HPV)
Like Gazpacho above, I’ve also had the experience of encountering male feminists who claim that PMS is not real. I believe the intention behind that belief is one of empowerment of women – at its base discounting the claim that women cannot function equally to a man in some spheres of life because menstruation makes them unstable or crazy. But it does include and promote a larger issue of discriminiation against women that some of the articles presented well – that PMS and the “changes” that are prescribed to it are not normal, and are not part of the human experience. It’s as if those claiming PMS isn’t real are also asserting backhandedly that if PMS were real, it would be detrimental to women and be an issue in their acheiving equality. I believe the actual challenge to defeating the questioning of women’s capabilities “despite their hormones” is not in picking apart why those hormonal effects are not overall a liability or claiming it’s unfair. I think it lies in accepting women’s experiences as part of the overall human experience – seeing hormonal cycles as the base of healthy human functioning for half the population, and seeing how women function during all phases of those cycles as natural.
It seems to me that many of the claims to decreased functioning in women during PMS and menopause are blatantly baseless and sexist. It amazes me that there are so many studies looking into defining PMS that completely fail to look at what hormone levels are actually present in women who report different symptoms. Like others have mentioned, we don’t talk about male hormonal disorders or syndromes very often. It is assumed culturally that our view of men as more violent and assertive than women is due to testosterone and other hormonal differences. Why do we never hear of studies looking into hormone levels for men reporting more violent behavior, or more aggressive interaction with others? Why are there not men suffering from Testosterone Syndrome, who may be unfit to be in areas that require cool thinking and stability? We accept any possible negative effects of testosterone as “just how it is”, even celebrating rash decision making and aggressiveness as manly and strong in many situations. It makes for exciting action movies and epic story telling. Women’s hormonal changes are never given that courtesy – women cannot and should not be rash and aggressive in our culture, and PMS is an easy way to pronounce that acting that way is pathological and unnatural in our sex.
In Hormonal Hurricanes, Fausto-Sterling discussed many methods of how bad science is used in our culture to prove women are unfit for professional careers and other areas usually dominated by men. Also, how in conclusion PMS is the cause of the violence, crimes, and suicide women commit. The studies conducted did not go any further to find out women’s personal social experiences that surely contributed to their actions more than symptoms of PMS.
I do believe PMS has real physical symptoms, however this article made it pretty clear PMS has been constructed by social institutions to be a dreaded disorder. This “disorder” is used to further medicalize women’s reproductive systems and prove women in general are truly irrational and neurotic.
In my women’s studies class today my professor brought up the topic of the birth control Seasonique, which is a daily pill that eliminates your period entirely as long as you are on it. I believe this would be a great method for those women who have horrible cramps and other related PMS symptoms. Personally I first went on birth control early in high school to prevent the painful cramps and irregular menstruation. However, I feel that advertising this particular birth control to all women only feeds into and propels society’s perception of menstruation as a disgusting and embarassing bodily function that ideally should be eliminated. Also, this could negatively affect the way women view their bodies, and how society views their bodies. This BC should be recommended by physicans and the drug company only to women suffering sever gyn issues, like ovarian cysts or long periods. In conclusion I think that PMS is an extremely commodified aspect of women’s health. It was very interesting to read about other cultures’ more celebratory models on menstruation and views of respect for post-menopausal women because in today’s society and within my own home I have never been exposed to these empowering views.
As someone who has never experienced menopause, I learned a lot about this female phenomenon which causes quite a stir. I truly believe that there is no universal “menopausal syndrome” which can be attributed to all women. I know that I experience different emotional and physical menstrual symptoms than do many of my friends. Hormonal changes are occurring in the body, and therefore there will be effects upon a woman’s emotional and physical state. Just as any issue in health should be addressed; there are different conditions and situations for individual women. Though there are similarities, women should not be lumped together as an emotional, abnormal, hormonally-directed group.
On a separate note, PMS is a real thing and can affect women in many specific ways, but women are living with it and accomplishing wonderful things. In my opinion, it is something that many women have accepted about their menstrual cycle…something that is part of their lives and they simply deal with.
I enjoyed Pomona’s comments about a possible Testosterone Syndrome. I agree with her thoughts of why men’s behavior in relation to testosterone is not considered “abnormal”. The aggressive actions and violent behavior of men is viewed as acceptable, because the hormone testosterone is causing such behavior. It could be said that men are not to be trusted in positions of power, because their moods can change in an instant and their decisions are often dependent upon their testosterone levels. Both men and women are not consistently stable in all that they do, because both genders are strongly affected by hormones as well as many outside factors.
Personally, I have mixed feeling about menstruation. When I learned that “the modern woman may have up to 400 menstrual cycles total”, I am not particularly looking forward to another 30 years of getting my period. Though periods can be messy and frustrating, they do not negatively affect my daily life, in the sense that I accomplish less. I am proud to see the “modern women” having her period and living her life to the fullest. One thing that comes to mind is that having my period can be a good thing for me, because it forces me to take care of my body and to slow the heck down. American women are often go, go, go and do not listen to their body and take care of themselves. In this sense, I think pre-menstrual symptoms and menses itself are a positive thing for women.
Lastly, menopause is not a diseased state of health. It is a change in a woman’s body and reproductive capabilities, but it is not the “end of her womanhood”. I think that menopause is blown out of proportion, and if you asked women themselves who had experienced menopause, they would have drastically different things to say than the medical world, the media, and pharmaceutical companies.
In no way is menopause considered “partial death” for women. Maybe in a hunter-gather time period, women were only valued for their reproductive abilities, but in modern society, I sure hope that this is not the case. Therefore, a woman not being able to reproduce anymore is not the end of her life as a woman. She is still very much alive and well, and ready to embark on a new time in which she can enjoy a safe, satisfying sex life with no risk of unwanted pregnancy. Personally, after many years of trying to prevent pregnancy at certain times in my life and trying to encourage a pregnancy when I desire…I am looking forward to a time period in which I can have sex and that’s it! Sex will be for pure emotional and physical enjoyment.
After reading what senorita wrote, i completely agree with her comments on pms and menopause. Pms affects all women, in unique ways for everyone, and it is something that women have learned to factor into their lives so it does not bring down their capabilities. Pms is alot like menopause in that hormones are involved that can affect a woman’s emotions and behaviors, but menopause should not be treated like a disease or syndrome. Menopause is also most definitely not the end of “womanhood”. Simply because a woman does not get her period anymore or have the ability to bear children, she is no less of a woman. She has probably had about 40 years of dealing with her period, pms, hormones, and possibly child bearing, as well as birth control methods. After menopause, as senorita said, a woman deserves to not have to deal with the inconvience of having her period or taking her birth control, or worrying about missing a period and possible unwanted pregnancy. She has also had her fair share of hormone ups and downs and emotional unstability, from both pms and menopause. Menopause should never be looked at as the end of being a woman, but as a way to recognize many years of those both unfavorable (period, pms) and beautiful (giving birth to a child) events every woman goes through.