Yes, we were made in His image, so He must menstruate, too.
“Praise the Lord and pass the Kotex!”
Spiff
Hey! Have I really stumped the Dopers on this one!?!
Autz - was that your intention? Most of us stop in here from time to time to learn or to help someone else learn. On the other hand, if your question was, why can’t the uterus just stay “prepared” until a pregnancy occurs, then it should have been phrased thus. The cycle, as many have said, is common to most of the placental mammals in one form or another, so it’s clearly adaptive in some ways. If an evolutionary biologist were to weigh in here, we’d all get some more in depth theories as to how it has been so, although you have seen some pretty good speculation on that already.
(Dylan - check the link that Hedra included in her (?) post. Not real good science, but an answer - of sorts - to your question. Your next question will be, is misinformation better than no information?)
Has anyone done experiments on birth control that stopped menstruation? It sounds like a big plus to me. I’d go for that.
I did read that; which kind of inspired my question (as I said, I’d heard it before). Unfortunately much of the article appears to be anecdotal, and the references don’t appear very scientific in nature…but I don’t know, so I was hoping someone more familiar with the subject could enlighten me.
Oh god that raw foods thing is such bollox. If anyone knows where the “Myths of Vegetarianism” website is, please link to it.
Given that periods become irregular or cease with malnutrition, and fertility drops, to suggest that raw food stops periods (which it may) is to acknowledge extreme vegan-type diets are a form of body-starvation.
Thanks Istara. Googling for “Myths of Vegetarianism” found it for me. I’ll assume that this site’s data are valid unless someone posts otherwise.
Unfortanately it doesn’t deal specifically with this question; possibly because the “raw foods” claim isn’t really vegan/vegi. It includes raw meat if you want.
I’ve seen this claim before with the evidence that Inuit women following a traditional Inuit lifestyle did not have periods. Can’t find anything on the web about it. Still, other claims made in the document have been refuted, I’ll accept that it’s bunk unless further evidence comes to light. Just as I was about to change to the rare steak and raw veg diet too…
Um… if the implication of the site hedra linked to is that menstruation is linked to today’s poor diet etc, does that imply that women in the past didn’t menstruate at all?
Is there evidence that women have always had a monthly cycle, or is it really only a modern phenomenon? (Not sure what counts as modern here, however! Did, for example, ancient egyptians use ‘feminie hygiene product’, or is the idea that you have to go right back to neolithic times?)
I’m sure the Old Testament talks about menstruation (in the books of the law etc), and I guess back then their diet was pretty free from artificial additives and the like, but I guess they still cooked their meat so maybe they don’t count.
I’m no Ob/Gyn, but I think Cosmo has suggested using regular BC packages and skipping the inert pills, so a 28 day package lasts 21 days.
An cover story about a year ago in the New York Times magazine covered the pill & menstruation question - part of the history is that the inventor was Catholic and hoped that if his pill mimicked the natural cycle, the Church would accept it. Oh well.
The gist of the story, as I recall: because women now have so many fewer preganancies, they experience many, many more menstruations than prior generations - and that may well be a Not Good Thing for long-term health. (Although it’s probably a great thing in the short run, since so many women died of pregnancy or childbirth complications.) So one theory is that women might protect their health by going on a pill with no down cycle. Highly controversial, but interesting.