I’m sure this has been asked before, and I have searched the archives, but have found various answers… most of which are contradictory.
I don’t believe there is any truth to the rumor that a woman’s period is somehow related to the phase of the moon or ocean tides but that if you throw a bunch of women together in one place (like an apartment) for a long enough period of time strange things start happening to their periods.
Here’s what I’ve heard or read:
Put a bunch of random (unrelated) menstruating women in a common living situation and sooner or later they will all end up with synchronized periods.
Put a bunch of random (unrelated) menstruating women in a commmon living situation and sooner or later SOME of them will end up with synchonized periods.
Put a bunch of random (unrelated) menstruating women in a common living situation and you won’t ever end up with synchronized periods and if it appears that’s what’s happening it’s merely by chance.
Is there a definitive answer as to whether this phenonmena really happens or not?
As for the moon and tides, in “The Descent of Man”, Charles Darwin cites the relationship between tides and the menstrual cycle as one more piece of evidence that we evolved from creatures who lived in tidal pools (and needed to coordinate sexual activity with the tides.)
I just asked a friend of mine (a lesbian woman) about this last week. She promised to get back to on it, after some observation of herself and her new GF.
I’ll remind her.
Peace,
mangeorge
I’ve heard this before as well and I just read Cecil’s column on it. But… I’m a lesbian who has lived with different women over the last 10 years. This synchronization has never occured for me. So I’m begining to doubt that it’s true.
What I’ve seen is that one of us has a cycle that is a day or three shorter than the other. So as the months pass, we will eventually synch up. As a few more months pass, we are way out of synch again. This drifting in and out of synch goes on for years.
Considering the nature of the relationship, I’m pretty sure we had plenty of chances to exchange “scents”. (is that what they’re calling it now days?)
I’d never go so far as to say that Cecil is wrong (heaven forbid!), so maybe I’m just weird.
Cecil’s column seems to indicate that it is the presence of a “dominant woman” that affects the synchronization. Therefore, it seems possible to me that if no “dominant woman” is present in the living situation, no synchronization will occur.
I personally have experienced synchronization when living with family members, but not when I was living in a dorm, for what that’s worth.
I, personally, have experianced this phenominon. When I was in high school I was in a dance company with about fifteen other girls. We practiced everyday after school together. We spent a lot of time together. And, as luck would have it, every single one of us started our periods on the day of the dress rehersal or opening night of The Big Show. I think that that was just to many people to chalk up to coincidence, so, I am inclined to believe in the syncronization.
Years ago, I read about a method a woman can use to change her period. It involved changing the amount of ambient light by, for example, opening curtains to allow more sunlight into the house if she normally kept the curtains closed or vice versa. I will try to find a reference. If lighting conditions effect the timing of menstruation, then women exposed to similar lighting conditions would synchronize. WAG until I find a reference though.
I have been synchronized with both my sister and my best friend, until I went on the pill. I actually was synchronized with my best friend for about half a year, and after a couple of months my sister was at the same time as me, too. I think it would have continued, but as I said, I went on the pill. I know my best friend was in sycnh with her sister as well, who was at the same time as her best friend. So I’m pretty much convinced synchronization can happen.
There was an article in CoEvolution Quarterly some years ago which I believe was reprinted in an issue of the Whole Earth Catalog (or Whole Earth Epilog); I can’t find it on the 'net, though.
The author (female) theorized that the menstrual period is influenced by ambient periodic light level, so that the periods of a group of women living without artificial light would tend to synchronize to the moon. She suggested a method to synchronize one’s own period involving a light source in the sleeping area rigged up to simulate the lunar period.
