Machismo culture, period products and hormones

A rant

I don’t think I have to say that you don’t kiss people without consent, right? I don’t even know what to say other than … if this is how you celebrate a big victory in Spain then where’s the pictures of this dude kissing male soccer players? Have they never won anything? I mean, it would only be fair, wouldn’t it? I’m kind of reminded of why I’ve stayed away from Spain. Sorry to say, but … the way women seem to be treated really doesn’t make want to go there. Tip of the iceberg and such.

Reminds me of that (female!) judge who decided that touching somebody’s butt for less than 10 seconds is okay whether they like it or not. I remember going down the rabbit hole of how there is a pattern to how sexual harassment and sexual assault are dealt with in Italy. That would have to be a rant of its own. It’s infuriating in the 21^st century. Don’t get me wrong, it was never okay, but women’s rights have come a long way. Let me mention the “jeans rule” again. Apparently, you can’t be raped in Italy if you’re wearing jeans. It’s impossible for a man to take off a woman’s jeans without her help. How sick is that? I need to stop here – my blood pressure. Look it up. This is real. Also, when that 10-second rule verdict came down, nobody reported that the judge in question was a women. If I remember correctly, it was even three women who heard the case. Plus, the aggressor’s lawyer was also a woman who stated that a guilty verdict would end her client’s career. Well, he really shouldn’t be working as a janitor in a school if he likes touching students’ butts, should he? The problem is deep-rooted!

Sorry, Spain and Italy – it’s a no from me. I’ll keep traveling north instead.

Science – so important!

Remember me talking about science education? Well, you don’t really need ANY knowledge of science at all to realize that blood and a saline solution are different things. They do behave differently too. I mean, where do I even start? Only now are period products tested with actual blood. How? How is that even possible? How is a saline solution absorbed in the same way as blood? I don’t want gross people out, but we’re talking blood that comes with pieces of tissue as well. I don’t even know what the thought process behind using a saline solution instead could have been. As I said, it’s not even science, it’s common freaking sense.

And the gaslighting that’s been going on in terms of telling women about excellent absorption and how safe the products were and if we didn’t agree it was clearly our fault. It’s almost like society doesn’t care about women. How easy would it be to test period products with blood? And if this hasn’t been done properly, what else are they hiding? This is super basic and super easy. Come on!

Hormones and such

I’m well aware that men have hormones too, don’t worry. Some of it might apply to men too, but, as I’ve said before, I can only talk about my own experience. And perimenopause is a bitch! There, I said it.

I started looking into how certain substances or over the counter drugs might influence hormone balance. I also looked into food and hormones. You know what I noticed? There’s not that much qualified information out there. And by qualified I mean proper scientific studies with many participants of all ages that are being tested during different stages of their menstrual cycles or who are even in perimenopause – imagine that. That might actually yield useful information. You know what excuse is given? It’s too complicated. We only test drugs on men or women who have been through menopause. We can’t have test and control groups that are all over the place – hormonally speaking.

Sure, let’s exclude half the world’s population from being given medication that is safe for them. Let’s completely ignore the complexity of hormone-processes in our bodies. Let’s pretend that if drugs have been tested on men, they are automatically safe for women of all ages. How is this practicing medicine? How is this scientific? Hormones? Oh no, that’s too complicated.

I’m so gonna become a pain in my doctors’ you know whats. I don’t care what they prescribe, I’m gonna wanna see scientific studies done on women my age and read about what this specific drug does to my hormones. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable request. And I do think doctors should know this information about all the medication the prescribe. I’m not talking male doctors here; I’m talking female doctors and also my (female) gynecologist. You would think they’d need to know a lot about hormones. Well, what can I say … my symptoms have nothing to do with hormones, hormone balance or perimenopause. Nope, I just need to lose weight. That’s it. That’s all I can do. Right … I don’t entirely disagree with the losing weight part - my joint would love it. I’ve talked about that before, but there might just be some hormone crap going on that makes women gain weight during perimenopause - especially around their middle. How about we address that specifically? And lots of cardio and eating less won’t help. I mean I could be wrong of course … but I’m really not. Very short, high intensity workouts work much better - like a maximum of 10 minutes. The 10 minutes include active recovery. Lost a couple of inches around my belly that way. But yes, let’s tell perimenopausal women that eating less and lots of cardio is the answer. That’s easiest. That’s what we tell everybody.

If it’s my own responsibility to learn about hormones, food, drugs, exercise during perimenopause myself, what do doctors do? Oh and just for the record I’m not blaming female doctors for not knowing more about hormones. I just wanted to make clear that it’s ALL doctors. The problem is more systemic than male/female it’s the entire health care system that’s ignoring women’s health. I know I’ve said this before, but I got triggered again.

Next time I’m told “this is normal – all women go through this”, I won’t accept that as an answer. If ALL women are going through this, this must mean that scientists, doctors or whoever will have found a cure or something to help alleviate the symptoms, right? I mean that would be the logical conclusion. And don’t get me started on women who’ve been through menopause that give you this knowing smile and you can just see that they’re thinking “suck it up, I went through that too”. It’s exactly that attitude that won’t bring change.

I won’t shut up about this. There are too many examples of women being gaslit by doctors. It’s somehow always our own fault or just “normal”. Do your freaking job! Investigate what the problem could be. And certainly don’t take an average of eight years to diagnose endometriosis. That’s just pathetic and should be a sueable offense, really.

And the next doctor who wants to send me to get a mammography – how about we stick your balls in there and squeeze them a little? If that was how we diagnosed testicular cancer, another way of doing it would have been found a long time ago. Just saying.

Anyway, it might not sound like it, but I’m in a good mood today. Have a lovely day everybody.