Here’s the bottom line on the huge gaps in our understanding of menstruation, from my Scientific American piece in the May 2019 issue.

Let me also say, quite clearly: I’m part of this experiment. I’ve been suppressing my menstrual cycle for years to keep my endometriosis under control, because other treatments failed and I’m a mom and a journalist and I don’t have time for that sh*t. But it’s bonkers that mainstream medicine can’t offer us real, evidence-based solutions. It’s insane that we still barely understand what menstrual blood is, or why humans are one of only a few species on earth who evolved to do it. It’s infuriating to know how problematic the original studies of birth control were — performed on poor women of color before we had a clear definition for informed consent, with side effects ignored and discounted by white male scientists — because birth control is still arguably the best thing that ever happened to women. (Please don’t take it away.)

So as with everything I write, my goal here isn’t to make any woman feel worse about her choices or her body. We’re all making the best decisions we can, in a culture that pathologizes what’s normal about our bodies, and ignores the real problems that do need treatment. But we deserve better choices. We deserve true body literacy. We deserve science.

Read the piece here.