Bethany Black (@BethanyBlack@mastodon.social)
mastodon.social
After all these years I’m rarely surprised by medical misogyny, but finding out that the research from the first ever tests on period products using blood instead of water were published LAST WEEK is one of those surprises.

Archive link to story here: https://archive.ph/HVNLH

Posted here because there is no community for Absolutely Infuriating (that I know of).

  • Throwaway@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    I imagine that its extremely hard to get the mass quantities of blood you need for actual testing.

    • JoBo@feddit.ukOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Maybe, maybe not. Blood stocks are precious but they do go out of date and blood banks would jump at the chance to do something useful with the wastage. It would also be perfectly possible to do RCTs with actual women. At the very least, it would be possible to produce a liquid with the right sort of viscosity instead of using water or saline. It’s just so ridiculously shit.

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’m still not satisfied because menstrual blood is much chunkier than a donated pint from your arm. Until they’re using mucus blood we’re still in the dark ages.

      • Risk@feddit.ukEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        Eh - it depends on the test.

        Laboratory tests for pure absorbency makes sense for blood volume.

        Functional absorbency is always going to be so much more nuanced as each woman has multiple factors in play. You’re better off calibrating pure absorbency first, then carrying those results forward to study and understand functional usage.

        • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          I guess it depends on your goal: better tampons or better healthcare. Is the problem that you can’t switch brands and have any expectation of similar absorbency? Or is the problem that your doctor asks “how many tampons do you use in a day?” and thinks it will tell him whether you really have a heavy flow, because he doesn’t believe you and doesn’t really understand how periods work? Both are real problems. Both deserve better research.