{"id":2737,"date":"2007-02-21T20:56:12","date_gmt":"2007-02-22T04:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wpotclass\/?p=117"},"modified":"2007-02-21T20:56:12","modified_gmt":"2007-02-22T04:56:12","slug":"history-of-birth-control-and-menstruation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/2007\/02\/history-of-birth-control-and-menstruation\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Birth Control and Menstruation"},"content":{"rendered":"

<![CDATA[Really, it's a fascinating field. And, like all subjects, its history is NOT one of primitive past methods yielding to modern progress. That's the Major Myth of History<\/b><\/font>. We westerners love the idea that everything and everyone in the past was uninformed, non-scientific, and backward, in the dark about basic information and deep intellectual ideas.<\/p>\n

Not at all. There are any number of items of information from the past that are equal to or superlative to what we’ve got now. The history of contraception and menstruation provides excellent examples.<\/p>\n

Current approaches to birth control sanctioned by modern society include<\/i>:<\/p>\n

Condoms <\/b>
\nCondoms are expensive and embarrassing to purchase. If you’ve got latex allergies, you can use the non-latex ones, which break and slip.<\/p>\n

Standard birth control pills and patches<\/b>
\nThese contain artificial hormones and health risks<\/a>, especially with the newer versions<\/a>. Another example of older being better.<\/p>\n

New no-period pills <\/b>
\nI predict these will have horrifying health impacts. They are currently marketed by Wyeth as Anya or Lybrel<\/a> . Some feminists are actually touting this as the ultimate freedom from being female<\/a>. So much for power periods, a connection to nature, and paganism as feminist goals. The FDA is being amazingly wimpy<\/a> about safety. There simply are no long-term studies yet. And there are signs that it will be prescribed as a mood enhancer — it’s already seen as a treatment for PMS<\/a>. The lack of skepticism (there is a litte bit<\/a>) is worrisome to me.<\/p>\n

Diaphragms<\/b>
\nIn this country, these require a gynecological exam and a doctor’s prescription.<\/p>\n

Abstinence<\/b>
\nUh huh. The Virginity Pledge movement has done a lot to make sure that when teens DO have sex, they aren’t using birth control<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But lesser known methods are out there and, guess what? Many of them are pretty old.
\nJust as an example, why don’t more of our women today know about<\/b><\/font>:<\/p>\n

Natural contraception<\/b>
\nNot the “rhythm method” where one counts days (woefully inaccurate) but scientific work with ones own body. Here’s a current BBC article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other barriers<\/b>
\nThe contraceptive sponge dates back to ancient Egypt at least, where women soaked sea sponges in the lactic acid from acacia trees to make spermicidal sponges. Removed from the market recently for a weird FDA lab inspection reason, the Today Sponge<\/a> has now returned. But in my neck of the woods, I only found one drug store carrying it. Canadians have access to a much wider variety of choices<\/a> in general. These include cervical caps, far more convenient than diaphragms, and available without a prescription in various sizes. I never even heard of Lea’s Shield<\/a> till I stumbled on a Canadian website.<\/p>\n

Items not around anymore<\/b>
\n100 years ago, at the beginning of the birth control movement led by Margaret Sanger and others, there were various types of pessaries (items that could be inserted and held inside the vagina). At least one was a combination pessary\/sheath which could be rolled up to form a cap or unrolled to form a washable, reusable condom. (My students, accustomed to disposable everything, often cannot see how soap and warm water can solve icky problems.)<\/p>\n

Methods for helping with menstruation have a similar set-up. In the average U.S. drugstore, you have two choices for dealing with flow. <\/p>\n

Most people only know about:<\/i><\/p>\n

Pads<\/b>
\nCumbersome and annoying, even with the strips,they don’t hold much and are bulky. The less-bulky ones are filled with an absorbent gel that has health risks (same as with diapers containing it) and can cause allergic reactions and drying skin.<\/p>\n

Tampons<\/b>
\nToxic Shock Syndrome is caused by the super-absorbent materials in tampons. All commercial tampons are also bleached. <\/p>\n

Why don’t more of our women know about<\/b><\/font>:
\nMenstrual cups<\/b> like the Diva Cup<\/a>, and the Keeper<\/a> (American) are reusable and effective. The design for the Diva Cup goes back to the 1930s, but the use of cups goes back much further. Again, Canadians have more options in this area. Recently, Instead Softcup<\/a> came on the market (another old design), but again, can only be found occasionally.
\n]]><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<![CDATA[Really, it's a fascinating field. And, like all subjects, its history is NOT one of primitive past methods yielding to modern progress. That's the Major Myth of History. We westerners love the idea that everything and everyone in the past was uninformed, non-scientific, and backward, in the dark about basic information and deep intellectual ideas. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}