"To-day women can be on active service every day in the month"

"To-day women can be on active service every day in the month. They're free of traditional disadvantages," went the cheery Tampax ad copy (left) in those giddy early days of the nation's involvement in World War II. Who knew where this would lead? Slippery slopes always start out level and dry. The way ahead seemed full of hope and promise. As a young woman growing up in the 60's, we welcomed the freedom implied in the 1941 Tampax headline, "What a blessing it is that sanitary protection is now worn internally." Somewhere along the line, things went terribly wrong, as the once provocative if always air-headed Madonna went off the deep end (above, right, top headline now on Drudge: "CHURCH SLAMS MADONNA ON THE CROSS"). Isn't that special? Update: Kiran Chetry of Fox & Friends puts her finger on what's wrong with Madonna's latest effusion: "It's getting old. I mean been there, done that."

"Menstruation Is Fast Becoming 'Optional'" goes the Drudge headline, one among many, all trumped by the one at the top of the left column, "MADONNA TOUR OPENS TO CONTROVERSY." So much for national priorities. We don't wish to embarrass Goomp or Tuck or any of our other esteemed male readers, so we're going to tread lightly on this one, but the issues raised are HUGE:

Most doctors say they don't think suppressing menstruation is riskier than regular long-term birth control use, and one survey found a majority have prescribed contraception to prevent periods. Women have been using the pill for nearly half a century without significant problems, but some doctors want more research on long-term use.

The new methods should be popular. A non-scientific Web survey for the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals found at least two-thirds of respondents are bothered by fatigue, heavy bleeding, "really bad cramps" and even anger. Nearly half said they would like to have no period at all or decide when to have one.

In our salad days we dabbled with "the pill" but finally decided it was too risky -- cancer worries, mainly -- and opted for other means to the same end. Even as we found periods oppressive, they were, at the same time, a sign of physical well being. We were forever wondering how women managed in the old days -- mostly every era until the aftermath of WW II, when Tampax, popularized during the war, caught on amongst the general population of women both here and abroad. Then came the toxic-shock-syndrome hysteria, when lots of women of our generation turned their backs on "No Belts, No Pins, No Pads, No Odor." That is all we will say about these female mysteries to spare our male readers' delicate sensibilities.

Now we're wondering what role this toying with the menstrual cycle may have had in leading to the grim realities of our own and especially Europe's dwindling reproductive rates, even as hate-mongering Muslim immigrants spawn at will. Glenn Reynolds's Tech Central Station article the other day, "The Parent Trap," catches the conscience of the thing:

We've taken a lot of the fun out of parenting. Or to echo Longman, the "social costs" of parenting continue to rise, and, more significantly, perhaps, the "social returns" continue to decline.

Parenting was always hard work, of course. But aside from the economic payoffs, parents used to get a lot of social benefits, too. But in recent decades, a collection of parenting "experts" and safety-fascist types have extinguished some of the benefits while raising the costs, to the point where what's amazing isn't that people are having fewer kids, but that people are having kids at all.

Our sis has always said how glad she was she had her two Barneys before the pc police stepped in, uninvited, and took all the joy out of it. Is it too late to turn back and take another look at what we've wrought?

Comments

[Teresa]

It's always a gamble to mess with Mother Nature. Especially since the only way to study the effects of this, over the long term, is to "declare it safe" and then wait to see what happens as millions of young women use it.

As for parenting - if I was going to have kids today, I'd certainly have second thoughts. It seems like you have to be "parent perfect" these days. Any deviation from the pc police norm will get you into trouble for child abuse. I cringe when I think about it.

[pam]

The side effects of no periods can be very personal, indeed. 'Passages' can dry up, the layers of tissue become very thin... creating more problems.
Not good.

[Goomp]

Life is not all dessert. And then either before or after one has to pay the check.

[Laura Lee Donoho]

Great job handling a delicate subject. I love the funny television show, "Scrubs" and the silly but believable way the two female leads distract the males when they want to tell each other confidences. They start talking about shoes and the guys zone out. When they want the guys' attention again they say something like "lace bras."

[Patti]

Oh I'm just SO glad I'm fifty!

[pb]

With nearly an entire adulthood of dysmenorrhea, cysts, endometriosis and fibroid tumors, I am thrilled to A) be finished with the whole mess and B) see that my daughters will not need to go through it all much longer.

At this point in life, I still have my uterus and one ovary, but it's been a battle all the way.

Anything we can do to get it under our own control is welcome, says I.

[kitty myers]

My late aunt (no pun intended, considering the subject) was an OR nurse in the WAVES during WWII. She was stationed for a while on some Godforsaken tropical island in the Pacific. I think she told me that, since it was the tropics, they couldn't use tampons for fear of disease. It's one of the handful of conversations I had with her which I recall.

[Laura Lee Donoho]

Remember when Newt Gingrich got in trouble for his statement that female soldiers can't take being in trenches? Well, it's true.

Everyone of the female soldiers who deployed to Somalia had to be sent home because it was so filty there that the bacteria did horrible things to their reproductive organs.