This text is part of the special Health and well-being section
Stereotypes still abound in the realm of menstruation, despite significant advances in research on the subject. How to distinguish the wheat from the chaff? To start thinking, a sociologist is interested in “menstrual health”.
Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM), Stéphanie Pache has noticed a renewed interest in menstrual topics. “I see a lot of questions about menstrual protection, the unecological nature of many of them,” she cites as an example. Pain linked to this time of the month is also more frequently discussed, but not always in the right way, observes the researcher. “There is still a trivialization of symptoms. »
Her observation led her to launch a research project around the concept of “menstrual health”. Through meetings with people suffering from “perimenstrual symptoms” and health specialists, she wishes to highlight the “tensions present within feminist discourses on health regarding the nature and causes of perimenstrual ailments”.
Because there are tensions. If on the one hand the development of treatments intended for those suffering from diseases such as endometriosis is desired and welcomed, some also criticize a form of “medical paternalism” and a “pathologization” of a phenomenon that is nevertheless natural.
Historical distrust
In the 1980s and 1990s, many feminist activists fought against the concept of “premenstrual syndrome,” recalls the researcher. “The scientific validity of the syndrome was debated, because the data did not seem robust. In reality, many studies aimed to prevent women from accessing certain positions. We measured, for example, the frequency of accidents linked to the menstrual cycle, so that they could not become airplane pilots. »
While we now understand that rules do not prevent complex tasks from being accomplished, the ghost of that era still haunts the relationships between patients and medical professionals. “Things have changed in the last 30 years,” agrees Stéphanie Pache. Greater attention is being paid to the inclusion of women in biomedical research. » She believes, however, that studies on menstruation are still too uncommon. “There is not that much attention paid to a subject that affects half of humanity! »
A subject to understand
During a round table organized on May 9 by the researcher at UQAM, experts from all backgrounds were invited to express their views on menstrual health. Doctoral student Marie-Laurence Raby highlighted the importance of the “feminist self-health” movement in facilitating access to abortion in the 1970s — a movement that helped destigmatize the practice and disseminate information on sexual and reproductive health — in short to “give women power over their health management”.
But the work is not finished, underlined postdoctoral researcher from the Quebec Women’s Health Action Network Victoria Doudenkova. For her, menstrual health involves questioning the “expected social performance in relation to our biological rhythms”. Rather than taking medication to allow women to continue their activities during their periods, why can’t they just
to rest ?
Doctor Sophie Desindes, for her part, declared herself passionate about the menstrual cycle. “You have to know the normal to know how to detect the abnormal,” he said.
she throws. She encourages her patients to explore their body to better understand it. “I ask them: have you ever looked at your vulva in the mirror? Have you ever inserted a finger into your vagina? » At her side, physiotherapist and author Caroline Arbor wanted to encourage her patients to trust themselves. “They are told so much that it is normal to be in pain that they end up stopping believing in what they feel and thinking that they are abnormal, broken. »
Through these discussions, the contours of what constitutes menstrual health are becoming clearer. This must take history into account and recognize that women have long been neglected by science. It must also participate in education on this still poorly understood natural phenomenon. Finally, it must help ensure that the main stakeholders can make their voices heard.
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