A British company has just introduced menstrual leave for female employees. But such a policy risks creating a blanket expectation that all women are crippled by their periods.
We must try harder to explore what causes endometriosis and not reinforce theories that imply fault on a woman’s part, or are shaped by old ideas about women’s roles and bodies.
There are endless euphemisms for women’s conditions and body parts. If you can’t name a body part, how can you seek medical help if something appears to be wrong with it?
Women visit the GP more than men, particularly between the ages of 15 and 44. This difference is partly due to the management of gynaecological and reproductive issues.
Ask any young woman whether she feels embarrassed by her periods and she’ll likely deny it. Her grandmother might have hidden all evidence of “the curse” but not today’s liberated women. Right?
While everyone needs access to proper sanitation to stay healthy, for girls and women it is also an issue of safety and equal participation in society.
The inclusion of menstrual hygiene in the Sustainable Development Goals marks an important step forward, but to what extent will it address the issue of schoolgirl absenteeism?
Donald Trump got menstruation onto the front page of the New York Times. With the taboo broken, it’s a good time to talk about how all girls everywhere can manage their periods safely and privately.
The only approach that you don’t find used in menstrual power protests is the use of menstrual blood as a love charm. Perhaps that’s because it taps into the deepest fears of people, especially of heterosexual men, of being entrapped by the power of women’s fertility.
Premenstrual stress (PMS) runs the gamut of minor inconvenience to severe life-disrupting distress. So is the packaging for a range of “ice-cream that understands PMS” created by a 21-year-old American…
Already widely prescribed as antidepressants, SSRIs such as fluoxetine (the non-brand name for Prozac) have gained increasing acceptance over the past 20 years in the treatment of premenstrual syndrome…
It wasn’t that long ago that it was believed that regular periods were essential for women’s health and in their absence, a loss of blood through another orifice was a fair substitute. In a classical Greek…
From the time of Plato and Hippocrates, women’s emotions have been attributed to the menstrual cycle. The Greeks believed the womb travelled around the body, causing all manner of ailments – sex and pregnancy…