The race to understand--and profit from--period blood.

July 3, 2024 8:12 AM

Other researchers are examining period blood’s potential to treat diseases. The uterus is an incredible organ for many reasons, chief among them is that it repairs itself—without scarring—after shedding its tissue every month or so during a person’s reproductive years. It does this with the help of stem cells, some of which are present in menstrual effluent. There have recently been clinical trials testing the use of these stem cells for conditions such as infertility and severe Covid, and studies showed they helped with wound healing and stimulating insulin production in diabetic lab mice. (slMotherJones)
posted by Kitteh (15 comments total)

TFA is fascinating, but I really wish so many of the illustrations hadn't been chosen basically to illustrate (and thus reinforce) period stigma.

Talk about it, sure (and the text deals with it respectfully and with an appropriate amount of detail -- not too little, not too much). I ain't need to see it, though.
posted by humbug at 8:33 AM on July 3

I think they thought going back far enough in time would render them harmless. It is true that the "Pursettes" comic... thing was rendered hilarious by the word salads the ad guys produced in trying to emulate hip 70s teens. "You trying to make a basket case out of her?" "Just think of them as tote tampons!" Golly, yes, here's my 25 cents, gimme them tote tampons in the elegant gold-embossed black plastic cigarette case, stat! No way are we teens ordering these to use as stash boxes!
posted by Don Pepino at 8:56 AM on July 3 [3 favorites]

It remains wild, in the year of our Audre Lorde 2024, that so many men I know are still like EWWWW GROSS when it comes to period blood. Like, seriously?

I am always wary when it comes to anything involving period apps--and would be especially so if I lived in the US still--but I would love more research to be done when it comes to menstruation.
posted by Kitteh at 9:00 AM on July 3 [14 favorites]

I am always wary when it comes to anything involving period apps--

I was somehow a beta user or maybe a test survey user (been a long time) of the Planned Parenthood period app Spot On. I had a hormonal IUD at the time and was using ALL the app features to test the thing as thoroughly as I could. The several months test period ended with a call with their team to go over some use survey stuff.

Anyway, that process is what revealed to me that the hormone on my IUD was wearing out, because I realized I was having more and more symptoms of my gut-involved endo over time. Which, on the app, I could track by dropping a cute little poop emoji into my calendar for the day. 💩💩💩 Loved being able to share that with the PP team, I hope my butt data has served their userbase well.

Anyway, haven't used that app in years now, but back when I needed it it was great, and the thing I liked the most about it was how gendy nooch it was.
posted by phunniemee at 9:09 AM on July 3 [13 favorites]

Apologies for not having read the link yet, but that topic (period apps) always reminds me of the scene in Community where Danny Pudi's character surreptitiously gives each of the women (or maybe just Alison Brie?) a chocolate, and it turns out he had been tracking their moods on a calendar. uggggggggh, no.
posted by Glinn at 10:21 AM on July 3 [1 favorite]

Oh of course it's profitable to sell your period blood riiiight as I stop having any available.

(I know that's not what they're saying, but: man, I could have made BANK from the ages of 11-45 if it was).
posted by emjaybee at 10:39 AM on July 3 [15 favorites]

Don't tell the MAGA crowd - they'll either make it illegal or start demanding blood farms.

Or both.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 10:49 AM on July 3 [7 favorites]

Don't tell the MAGA crowd - they'll either make it illegal or start demanding blood farms.

Or both.

Only pure, red-blooded 'murican menstrual blood'll do!
posted by ApathyGirl at 10:54 AM on July 3

It's sad that longstanding contempt for the uterus as anything other than a babymaking chamber, and for menstrual blood, has meant that we're only finding out all this useful medical stuff now. That the uterus hasn't long been considered a fascinating self-healing organ feels like a failure of medicine and society to value it - something that's only become possible in the context of recent-ish shifts that have brought more women into research, and de-misogynised ideas about the value of organs that have historically been coded as valuable in gestatory function but otherwise gross, shameful, inferior, to a sufficient extent that science is now curious about rather than dismissive of the uterus - rather than a limitation of medical knowledge or technology.

I blame the Victorians. But I once had to break up with a therapist because all of our sessions drifted into blaming the Victorians for all the bullshit patriarchal and moral ideas that still negatively infect our society today, instead of doing therapy, so I guess I would say that.
posted by terretu at 11:32 AM on July 3 [8 favorites]

the something something must flow!
posted by 1024 at 11:35 AM on July 3 [5 favorites]

I should have just said menstrual blood why am I uncomfortable.
posted by 1024 at 11:36 AM on July 3 [6 favorites]

Between fibroids, polyps, adenomyosis, etc., I think that "without scarring" part should probably come with a bit of an asterisk.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 11:58 AM on July 3 [13 favorites]

You bet if drinking menstrual blood could enhance erections men would be all up in the uterus with a straw and demanding more. I'm sure if there's a buck to be made from menstrual blood politicians will demand that woman stop using the COG pill because it's both unchristian, unamerican and anti-corporate.
posted by BlueHorse at 5:39 PM on July 3 [2 favorites]

There are people actually into this research and have been for a while, they just don’t get alot of publicity. I found this place (from Jezebel maybe?) and kept up with their blog while it was active but for anyone interested in what kind of research has been going on here ya go: The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
posted by LizBoBiz at 7:25 PM on July 3 [3 favorites]

Well. That was every bit as fascinating and enraging as I might have expected. I knew, intellectually, how hard science has devalued knowing literally anything about female bodies, but I didn't really grok it until I was pregnant and gave birth myself. It is absolutely WILD the depths of knowledge that institutions have been completely incurious about for all of modern history. My personal favorite learning topic was the placenta - it still amazes me that we can grow a whole new organ, and then use it to grow a whole new person, and then just expel it! I got to look at mine after I gave birth and it was kind of neat to see the thing that I had blamed for so much of my misery.

Also, microchimerism. It's amazing (and sort of sentimental) to think that I may carry genetic remains of my son in my body for the rest of my days. Female human bodies are such a wealth of interesting things to research and it's so maddening that so few people (companies and institutions, I guess) have ever been interested.
posted by bowtiesarecool at 8:27 PM on July 3 [6 favorites]