Stuff You Should Know - How Menstruation Works

Episode Date: July 28, 2022

Two dudes talking about menstruation? You bet! And there’s no way you could be any more nervous to listen than we were to record it. But give it a listen, we think you’ll find it enlightening – whether you menstruate or not.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey friends when you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? So I was pretty surprised to hear about Lisa in Manitoba who got the idea to Airbnb the backyard guest house over childhood home now The extra income helps pay her mortgage. So yeah, you might not realize it But you might have an Airbnb to find out what your place could be earning at air bnb.ca Slash host hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new I hard podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation if you do you've come to the right place? Because I'm here to help and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life

Tell everybody yeah, everybody About my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye Listen to frosted tips with the Lance Bass on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts Welcome to stuff you should know a production of I heart radio Hey and welcome to the podcast I'm Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here with us For oversight and this is stuff you should know Yeah, just a couple of dudes tucking minstration That's right, and it sounds totally normal when you say it like that sounded like the making copies guy

You sounded to me like Troy McClure Yeah You're right. I am. I'm definitely more right than you were Troy McClure That's right. That's exactly right. That was dead on actually. You weren't even trying Chuck. Oh, I used to do Troy McClure back in the day Yeah, that was one of my bits Well, you still got it buddy. Thanks And I don't know I think long-time listeners will have picked up Chuck that we're stalling right now New listeners might be like what are these guys doing and talking about I'm never listening to them again

But hang on wait just chill out. We do this sometimes especially when we're taking on a topic that we're Only equipped to understand as researchers. Yes, I think is a good way to put it We are researchers is what we do and anybody who researches something Well and with an open mind. I think is perfectly legitimate in a perfectly legitimate position to talk about whatever it is Carving out our Territor here. I guess so Yeah, yeah, we're talking menstruation today. We are and another bit of just upfront knowledge that we want to drop is We're gonna use different terms. We're gonna say girls. We're gonna say women We're gonna say people who menstruate

Because we don't want to overlook the trans community and even though, you know Most websites you go to will still say girls and women We're gonna just sort of interchange words here and there to cover all our bases and to be respectful of Everybody yeah, another one will be menstruators. Yeah, we should just say menstruators period Oh Didn't even mean that So yeah, I think that was really good to say and it's not like you know I'm sure we'll fall into women girls pretty frequently and that's not to say that we are

Judgy or critical of the concept of men menstruating It's just that it's it's a fairly new concept to us and we're still We're still getting used to it. So please please accept our apologies in advance if we do that and also For our younger listeners, especially our the young girls who listen to our show, you know In addition to our puberty female puberty podcast. We did we did male puberty too, right? We did both. Yeah. Yeah, we did both This is something that you know, I think is a lot of anxiety comes with We'll go ahead and say the word monarchy, which is the first period the first menstruation cycle That someone can undergo we've used that before it's one of our favorite words from the early days of the show

From I think the totem pole episode. I think so because Native Americans celebrate the monarchy, isn't that right? Monarchy, that's right but especially to those listeners We just want you to know that We hope that you embrace this as a the wonder of human biology that it is because it's just an amazing thing that happens and Knowing more about it. I think it's just powerful for little boys little girls across the gender spectrum and men and grown men and

women alike I Suspect out of all those groups grown men are the most childish about it probably and probably know the least about it Mm-hmm, but I think we're dying off slowly But surely we're being replaced by way cooler smarter with it People so that's cool. It'll go away eventually but what we're talking about is menstruation which is And again, we're gonna say some stuff like four weeks is a menstrual cycle a biological cycle But we know that there are wide ranges of times

There are people who don't menstruate at all or whose menstruation is occasional There are all sorts of reasons for all these things. So we're using a lot of like averages and average terms here So just know that going in but it's roughly takes place every four weeks And what is simply happening which is amazing is that the lining of the uterus the endometrium is getting ready to host an egg that is fertilized and that thing sheds and Yeah, with that shedding comes blood and become and some tissue and that's called men's ease and It starts generally with that monarchy anywhere from 12 to 13

It ends generally at menopause somewhere around 50 to 52 53 So that means that between the ages of 12 to 13 and the early 50s someone will go through an average of 456 cycles Or about 6.2 years of their life. Isn't that interesting? Wow, that's amazing nice math. Yeah, there's a lot of lifetime math. I figured out So I think even people who have had Cycles there they're reaching the end of there. What'd you say 436?

556 give it 456 cycles. Maybe they're on 455 and they're like one more baby By the way, if you're just going through monarchy, it doesn't actually work like that. I'm just teasing right But my point is is that I think even people who menstruate and have menstruated for years and decades Don't necessarily know why? Women menstruate in the first place. Why would a human being menstruate? There's practical reasons which we'll get into but evolutionarily speaking We don't fully understand it and the reason why we don't really understand is because so few mammals actually menstruate There's plenty of other adaptations for getting an egg ready to be fertilized

And then what happens if the egg doesn't get fertilized what you do after that? But menstruation is is fairly rare in the animal kingdom humans are one of just a handful of bright shiny People yeah, they have companions and the some primates like the chimp or the large-headed capuchin The fulvis fruit bat interestingly There's a shrew an elephant shrew and a mouse. Did you look those up? Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh And the spiny mouse they all menstruate

But most mammals undergo something called an estrus cycle It could be a seasonal thing which is why you have things like mating season In the case of some other mammals like cats It's actually or our friend squirrels Friendly squirrels that we just talked about for sure It's actually brought on by the act of sex, which is really interesting and sort of make sense last minute Yeah, but it also makes sense. It's like let's not let's not get into anything before it's really time, right? So that to me makes a tremendous amount of sense and the reason that there would be any kind of cycle at all

Whether it's an estrus cycle or a menstrual cycle Is because there's a really high energetic and metabolic costs to keeping the uterus prepared to host a fertilized egg and That if you're an animal that Constantly has a uterus ready to accept an egg you're going to expend way more energy way more of your metabolism Keeping that uterus Fluffy as they say sometimes and ready for an egg a fertilized egg Then an animal who just does it once in a while or when it's triggered by sex

So evolutionarily speaking it makes sense for it to be seasonal or activated by sex or even a monthly thing Yeah, and I just that's something I never thought about I never stopped and thought well Why can't you just get pregnant anytime evolutionarily speaking because that would seem like a big-time? Advantage yeah, if you're trying to you know put people out and if you're took took and you're trying to help put people out There in the world right, but it does make a lot of sense and they've seen evidence in this like if Someone and like a developing nation. Maybe this you know have like extreme nutritional deficiencies They may not Minstrate at all because their body like it extends that kind of like that drastic of a I guess just a

Workload on the body that that's that's one of the things that can get rid of if you're malnourished Yeah, malnourished it also pops up in elite athletes because they are Exercising so much and also usually have such a small amount of body fat So there's like I guess your your body does like a body check Every month and it's like okay, are we equipped to do this and if not, okay? We'll just skip it if so let's go through it. Yeah, and the really interesting thing is we were talking about some of the mammals that go through the estrus cycle They don't actually

Believe they don't have an external shedding process They reabsorb it and it is literally digested in the body by enzymes that are there just to do that So that question is still there like why would? Evolutionarily speaking why would the menstruation process to where you literally shed that lining out of your body? Take place and they're not really sure why No, but there's theories and one of the predominant ones up until the 1990s and after I say this you'll be like you mean the 1890s and I'll say again. No the 1990s. Yeah, they used to think that the purpose of menstruation was to wash the uterus out of pathogens that might have been

introduced by semen during sex Until the 1990s, that's what they thought that menstruation was for and then finally somebody was like Let me let me study this and they did they conducted a study where they tested bacterial loads of different phases From a woman's uterus and found that no that's actually not the case at all So that one finally got discarded it did and whoever proposed it to begin with you're lucky. Sure And I'm like, yeah, man, I got a nirvana show. I'm trying to get to it sounds good to me They went nirvana. This is the 1990s Yeah

That was kind of a dud I'm sorry. I tried to bring forth the chuckle a laugh or something. I can't do it like you. That's okay The other thing they thought might at least be related to this is maybe the size of the animal or the size of the uterus In relation to the size of the animal But there's such a large range of uterine size in the animal kingdom that do menstruate that they basically kind of toss that out as well Yeah, and it's the reason why that was a theory because you're like elephant shrew spiny mouse Right kind of stupid theories that we've just very recently discovered that other animals menstruate. We didn't know that at all So that's why that theory was so long-standing and then also they think maybe it has to do with

The way the endometrium forms or the fact that some animals Carry their young and placenta. Yeah Yeah, those are still the juries out on them But yeah, we don't really have any idea of you know, what what menstruation is actually For we know what it does But how did it come along and so it remains a beautiful mystery of the springtime of womanhood All right, should we take a break and get into the the nitty-gritty? Yes, all right, we'll be right back after this with details on

menstruation Hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new I hard podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road Okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands Give me in this situation if you do you've come to the right place because I'm here to help this I promise you. Oh god. Seriously. I swear and you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you Oh, man, and so my husband Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep We know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy band or each week to guide you through life step by step

Oh, not another one. Uh-huh kids relationships life in general can get messy you may be thinking This is the story of my life. Oh, just stop now. If so, tell everybody. Yeah, everybody About my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never ever have to say bye. Bye. Bye Listen to frosted tips with Lance Bass on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts I'm Mangesha together and to be honest I don't believe in astrology, but from the moment I was born. It's been a part of my life in India It's like smoking you might not smoke, but you're gonna get second-hand astrology and lately I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention

Because maybe there is magic in the stars if you're willing to look for it So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you it got weird fast Tantric curses major league baseball teams Canceled marriages K-pop, but just what I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology My whole world can crashing down situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father And my whole view on astrology It changed Whether you're a skeptic or a believer

I think your ideas are gonna change too Listen to skyline drive and the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts Here's to the great American settlers The millions of you has settled for unsatisfying jobs because they pay the bills and uh You just kind of fell into it. And you know, it's like totally fine Just another few decades or so and then you can enjoy yourself Of course, there is something else you could do if you got something to say You could oh, I don't know start a podcast with speaker from my heart and

Unleash your creative freedom and spend all day Researching and talking about stuff you love and maybe even earn enough money to one day Tell your irritating boss as you quit and walk off into the sunset. Hey, I'm no settler I'm an explorer Spreaker.com. That's a sbr eak er Hustle on over today I

Chuck no one can see me right now, but I'm holding each elbow Very tightly and I didn't realize I was even doing like I'm really anxious right now We got this we didn't we shouldn't get nervous about this stuff every time we tackle something like this we always get great support and say you guys do what you do which is You know research something and it's not like we're not serial killers yet. We've talked about them. I Would have to say that almost all the things we talk about we don't have experience with no no definitely I'm not really anxious about that what I'm anxious about is screwing it up. Yeah, I'm doing a 13 year old some bad information or

Making it harder to understand them before or you know, just I just want to be helpful with it And I'm anxious about not being as helpful as we could be that's what I'm worried about. No, I'm totally with you and I think that this nitty-gritty part is Straight-ahead science pretty easy So let's do it. Yes, but we have to say so Ed helped us with this one Ed doesn't menstruate either But he's a really good researcher too and our hats off for really kind of diving into this and wrapping his head around it But he he points out something that is not commonly seen, but I researched it and it's it's I guess the more clinical and medical You go the deeper into it the more it becomes apparent that the menstrual cycle is actually

What we think of the menstrual cycle is actually a couple of different cycles and Ed did the clinical way and like really broke it out Into these two different cycles that are happening simultaneously into the same end, right? So we're talking about the ovarian cycle mm-hmm in the men's in the menstrual cycle, right? and like I said generally like when you think about you know a period or something you think about a Week or so in someone's life, but it's really it's a four-week cycle and Each part is triggered by the release of hormones and it's sort of always going on and these two different cycles are sort of working with each other to you know to Get ready to have a baby basically

Yeah, and an easy way to remember it or think about it that I kind of stumbled upon is that the menstrual cycle gets the uterus ready for an egg and the Obulation cycle gets the egg ready for the uterus. What a beautiful dance Thank you. You know well, I think so too. I wasn't crediting you with that. I was saying biology and nature, but sure Well, I consider myself God. I created all So in this case, we're gonna describe it and I think Ed does a does a good job of where he places this in the cycle as a Listener or you know in this case as readers But we're gonna start at the midpoint of the cycle

Right after the period has stopped and at this point like we said that the uterus The lining has been shed That would mean it's at its thinnest point at that point and this is the beginning of what is known as the proliferative phase Yeah, the proliferative phase of the menstrual cycle Is the the big star of that is a hormone called estradiol Which says hey endometrium get a little thicker Double in size. Let's how about we build some new arteries and blood vessels called spiral arteries to bring blood to all this

New tissue that's being developed New structures are are being built the cervical mucus take a break normally Well kind of yeah, or chill out. I think is a way to put it the cervical mucus usually has a pH of 2.8 to 4.5 or sorry 3.8 to 4.5, which is very acidic And the pH raises more toward neutral like around 7 during this time Which is makes the the the uterus much more hospitable the sperm because sperm thrive in about a 7 pH They would die very quickly in the normal acidity of the of the uterus So that's like this is the process that it's like the very beginning of the phase of prepping the uterus for

An egg if it happens, that's right. And while this is happening the ovarian cycle kicks in with the follicular phase there are two ovaries and they have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of eggs within these little sacs called follicles and the Hormones control all this like we said so in this case, it's a follicle stimulating hormone is gonna allow a few follicles to mature And eventually most of them will die off and then there will be one follicle left That's in to rule them all. That's right one to rule them all and this lasts about 10 to 14 days It's a little bit pre the proliferative man. That's such a hard word for me proliferative phase

The menstrual cycle and that's also about 10 to 14 days. So as you can see it's all sort of kind of syncing up Yeah, I saw the follicular phase actually begins on day one of the menstrual phase So it has a couple up to maybe five or so days head start on the proliferative phase But the two work in conjunction right egg starting get ready the endometrium or the you of the uterus is starting to get ready to That's right Now we move on to two more fun phases with fun names The the luteal phase in the case of the ovarian cycle and then the secretory or secretory phase I would say secretory me too

And that's part of the menstrual cycle Yeah, and they call the secretory phase That it's not a secret no, there's a lot of secretions going on that's right And this is when like those initial preparations that were begun in the proliferative proliferatory phase see proliferative phase It's a tough word all those preparations that were like the very basic structure of the endometrium that was being developed Really starts to fill out and I said the the womb is frequently referred to as being fluffy at this time It's maybe doubled in size

It's much more hospitable through an egg and then the reason it's called the secretory phases The chemicals that are being secreted are all sorts of like proteins and hormones and other things that will sustain Carbohydrates to that will sustain an egg if a fertilized egg shows up in your uterus It's it all sorts of secretions are being fed into your endometrium So that the egg will be nourished as it grows into a little bouncing baby. That's right Back to the luteal phase at this point. The follicle is going to rupture and this is called ovulation It's when the egg is released and the egg travels down that fallopian tube toward the uterus and If it becomes fertilized, it's you know, ideally if everything goes right and the wide end of the fallopian tube

Where it meets the uterus you can Also undergo what's called an eptopic pregnancy. That's when it implants on the outside of the uterus Emily and I went through one of these with one of our miscarriages that leads to a miscarriage It's very very sad thing, but also quite common at some point we should probably do a Whole episode on miscarriages because that is something that people don't talk nearly enough about Yeah, and it happens like 25% of the time and it's just not the sort of thing that people, you know Bring up with one another but once it is brought up among friends and family more people start saying oh, yeah

I had one I had two yeah, I had three definitely sure and it's all very sad stuff So we'll cover that at some point, but I wouldn't have the daughter I have now had our life not taken us in that direction. So I Can't imagine things any other way, you know It's like Garth Brooks said Chuck some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers You sure that wasn't Chris Gaines? Chris Gaines covered that Garth Brooks song in a head spinning dose of post-modern irony But at this point if everything is going well you have the egg

Again at the wide end of the fallopian tube Yeah, so that's where it's fertilized if it's fertilized it goes Boop and falls into the uterus where it sticks to the endometrium and gets secreted all over and nourished and fed with lots of carbohydrates and proteins and there's hormones going berserk and the pregnancy begins That's if the egg is successfully fertilized and we should say that ovulation phase is the shortest phase of this whole cycle It lasts only 24 hours That's how long you have for your egg to become fertilized into a blast assist is what they call it It's a very unromantic name for a fertilized egg, but that's that

So you've got 24 hours and if that doesn't happen that the Luteal phase keeps going so you've got that that follicle that the egg came out of That turns into like this kind of conductor that's conducting the symphony that's going on in your uterus That's making it just more and more hospitable for a fertilized egg if it shows up So the egg has 24 hours, but the Luteal phase keeps going on well beyond that 24 hours It doesn't know immediately that there's There like the fertilized egg isn't coming so it keeps preparing for it as if it's going to for many days I think

Something like a week and a half the Luteal phase lasts and then eventually They realize that the fertilized egg isn't going to show up and so that follicle that's a conductor. It's putting out Progesterone suddenly just stops putting out progesterone and all of a sudden you have a huge imbalance Between your progesterone levels and your estrogen levels and it can make you Extraordinarily irritable sad anxious and a bunch of other stuff just a few days before your actual period starts And that's what they call premenstrual syndrome aka PMS. That's right. It is a very normal thing to happen This is something that we maybe could we could probably get a whole episode out of this It can be very severe in some cases and be very disruptive in some cases

And when that is the case it's called premenstrual dysphoric disorder And it's funny, you know Emily and I were talking about menstruation, you know because I was researching this and She just got back from the doctor and they told her flax seed Mm-hmm is can really aid with PMS symptoms. Oh, yeah, and you know, it's like here We are, you know, she's cruising up toward 50 years old and it's you know, just learning this stuff About flaxseed. So there's always room to learn I guess is what I'm saying You said that

The progesterone and estrogen are gonna cease to be produced at this point Mm-hmm. And but what does happen is a substance called? Prostaglandin is gonna come along and it's gonna Constrict all those spiral arteries that made those connections To get ready for you know, they're big scene and that's gonna cause them to tear themselves apart and It's gonna basically you're not gonna get the blood flow to the endometrium that you had going on So it's gonna start breaking down away from the uterine wall And so that that is the men's ease that is the menstruation and that's what's happening is those blood vessels

That's where the blood comes from right And then the tissue is your actual endometrium that lining of your uterus that was built up into like this fluffy Fertilized egg-loving habitat that's no longer needed because the fertilized egg never showed up So you got to get it out somewhere and again animals that go through estrus they reabsorb this Animals that menstruate get rid of it They discharge it and the reason why is because if you didn't that stuff would build up awfully quick over the course of even Just the first year you started to have periods and also as we'll see it could cause you a whole host of health problems So it's actually really good and really smart

Evolutionarily speaking and biologically speaking to have the menstruation phase of the menstrual cycle And one of the things with that endometrium that I saw Chuck it can come out Almost intact as a whole Like it can come out in the shape of the uterus like the whole lining just comes out And as in one chunk it's very rare, but if you go look on the internet, it's actually a real thing They're called decidual casts like a cast of something Not a not a cast of like a play a A cast of like a like you'd make of a statue. All right, so I mean that's that's it in a nutshell, right?

Yeah, I would say even more than a nutshell like that's several nutshells worth Acorn squash shell. I yeah, I think that's good But we should say that you wouldn't need an acorn squash shell to hold all of the blood that comes out because typically When you go through the menstrual phase of or the menstruation phase of the menstrual cycle What you call your period? Usually it's only results in about five or six tablespoons of blood over the course of like five to seven days That's right, but it can come in inconvenient times. People can be caught off guard And we'll talk about all that stuff, but first let's get into some of the disorders and Problems that can happen with the menstrual cycle because it can be a very finicky thing

if you are someone who has just a super regular very You know Straightforward menstrual cycle, then you should count yourself lucky because it can go in all sorts of different ways there's one way can go called dysmenorrhea and These are cramps basically it there are changes to the uterus that can cause these muscle contractions and That cramping is very normal And I think most people who menstruate have some amount of cramping generally

But it can get really severe and also as with other things very disabling a disruptive Right. There's also a menorrhea Which is where you just don't menstruate when you should be menstruating at least biologically speaking, right? So they say that there's two kinds primary a menorrhea is after a girl Who has turned age 15 still hasn't had her first period. That's primary a menorrhea and then a woman who has Had periods regularly before and then all of a sudden misses three of them and we should say in who is also not pregnant at the time That would be secondary men a menorrhea and both of them are nothing necessarily to be super scared about or anything But they're probably something you would want to go talk to your gynecologist gynecologist about

One other thing well a bunch of other things that can cause a menorrhea to like I said Elite athletes get it from too much exercise and not enough body fat You can be malnourished for whatever reason or maybe have an eating disorder that causes you malnourishment Stress can do it. Your doctor might say I think you're sniffing too much cocaine that can definitely bring on a menorrhea There's a lot of lifestyle changes that you can make that are probably fairly easy That would that would bring your period back again if you want that kind of thing, right? and we'll talk about it, but birth control pills or Sometimes people get on birth control pills to regulate their period and it really has less to do with getting pregnant or not

Yeah, so what else is there? Menorrhagia Is that what you're going? I see that Menorrhagia I heard and you know I looked it up, but again with these pronunciations Sometimes that you'll get three different ones. So it's kind of frustrating, but I saw or heard rather Menorrhagia Okay I'm gonna go with Menorrhagia. Well, this is essentially heavy flow, right?

Yes, and again usually you're looking at what three to five tablespoons of blood that comes out again over the course of five to seven days On average that is that is not there plenty of people who menstruate out there who are like Yeah, like quadruple that or whatever There are there are people who have heavy bleeding and either it's they bleed for longer like beyond seven days is considered Menorrhagia or if you apparently soak five sanitary products a day or You soak more two or more in two hours You definitely have Menorrhagia and the two or more in two hours actually means you want to go to the emergency room

because you're losing blood don't forget and there's all sorts of things that can happen when your blood levels drop like Iron deficiencies like anemia All sorts of terrible stuff. So you want to go to the ER if you're bleeding that often or that much. Yeah, you're probably Passing more clots as well And you're probably also going to be having much more severe cramps if you're undergoing Menorrhagia sounds no fun. It does sound no fun And I guess we should talk about

Dealing with periods. I mean, that's all part of it, right? Or should we take a break and do that? Yeah, I say we take a break Chuck and we come back All fists and elbows talking about dealing with periods. All right, let's do it Hey, I'm Lance Bass host of the new iHeart podcast frosted tips with Lance Bass the hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or You're at the end of the road. Ah, okay. I see what you're doing Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation if you do? You've come to the right place because I'm here to help this. I promise you. Oh god Seriously, I swear and you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you

Oh, man, and so my husband Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yeah, we know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boyband Are each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one Kids relationships life in general can get messy. You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody Yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye. Bye. Bye Listen to frosted tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts I'm Mangesh Atikular and to be honest, I don't believe in astrology, but from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life In India, it's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're gonna get secondhand astrology And lately I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention

Because maybe there is magic in the stars if you're willing to look for it So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you it got weird fast Tantric curses, major league baseball teams, canceled marriages, k-pop But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology My whole world can crash down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father And my whole view on astrology It changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too Listen to skyline drive and the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts

Here's to the great american settlers The millions of you have settled for unsatisfying jobs because they pay the bills and uh You just kind of fell into it And you know, it's like totally fine Just another few decades or so and then you can enjoy yourself Of course, there is something else you could do if you got something to say You could oh, I don't know start a podcast with speaker from iHeart And unleash your creative freedom and spend all day researching and talking about stuff you love

And maybe even earn enough money to one day tell your irritating bosses You quit and walk off into the sunset Hey, I'm no settler. I'm an explorer Spreaker.com. That's a sbr eak er Salon over today All right, uh We talked a little bit I talked a little bit about uh in the beginning about

just Getting past monarchy can be very anxiety inducing uh getting into the world of administration For someone at the age of 13 or so can be very anxiety inducing But it's again, it's a wonder of nature. It's not unusual. It's not uh gross. It's not weird At the same time it is blood coming out of your body. So it's something that Uh, you want to you know, take care of you don't want to I read that god, I can't remember the statistic of the amount of ruined underwear That a person goes through in their lifetime of administration and just the simple cost of that So if for no other reason than that

And you know health and sanitation it's something that you're going to want to take care of with what's called a sanitary product Yeah, and from what I can tell The desire and the drive to use sanitary products Um is almost innate to where it's like you said, there's nothing to be ashamed of but at the same time You will want to use the sanitary products so much so that I've seen it described as a human right access to Sanitary products for menstruation is considered a human right everyone should have it because if you don't have access to them It can induce so many hits to your well-being like anxiety Um hits to your social life like you might stay home from work

You just you you just don't want to leave your house or interact with people You just don't feel comfortable doing that because you have no protection Between your period and the rest of the world Which is one of the big points one of the main points of sanitary products in the first place Yeah, I mean it's an evolutionary thing if you see Your body bleeding you either want to stop the bleeding or if you can't you are going to be wiping it off Your arm or your leg or wherever it's coming out Right exactly and nobody wants that and most of all the person who's menstruating. That's right

There are many different ways to deal with this. Uh, I think most people Um sort of probably experiment around until they find something they like Uh or can at least tolerate. Um, I think the word like is probably not the right word to use there I don't know. I think so. I mean there's definitely like a fit to it You know, I think that it can you can feel reassured by it. Maybe yeah, I mean absolutely In that kind of way, but I don't think any of them are any kind of picnic to deal with Okay, agreed. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, I do the one that you tolerate best and uh that you Deal with the best I think is probably what you're going to end up going with after you kind of try different things out

Um, one of them is a menstrual cloth. This is sort of the non disposable diaper of the sanitary Uh product world in that it is fabric that is washed and rewashed and reused again Um, you're probably not going to see this used very often in you know Develop nations. It's mainly in uh places that are poverty stricken Or in an emergency or if there's like a refugee crisis going on Right If you take that menstrual cloth and you add wings to it. Um, so that it stays fast into the underwear

What you have is a reusable pad basically And with both of them you can actually remove them after they become saturated wash them out Really really well and then reuse them So they're reusable and as because they're reusable reusable pads in particular starting to see an uptick in use in countries like the united states Because environmentally speaking they're way preferable to things like disposable pads and tampons You also have the disposable pad and the tampon. These are the two Um, I think the two still to the two most common used in the us Far and away a pad is gonna, you know, have some absorbent material

There's going to be some plastics in there There will be an adhesive to hold it in place in the underwear these like I said are disposable Um, along with the tampon which is a cylinder. It's also absorbent This is inserted into the vagina and it's going to soak up that menstrual blood on the inside before it actually leaves the body and again, obviously disposable And we'll talk about toxic shock syndrome in one second, but I did a little calculating Uh, or actually I went to websites that did the calculating for me because I would get it wrong

And I was just wondering about costs like we hear about the uh The pink tax isn't that what it's called? Yes, which is just sort of the amount of money that Uh, that women pay over their lifetime and for stuff like this and other things that men don't have to pay for Uh, and I think that they said For tampons, you're looking at close to $2,000 for a lifetime Uh pads about $4,700 for a lifetime Um far and away that uh, the the best deal going Is the menstrual cup. Uh, this is a sort of like a bell shaped cup that's flexible

Uh, it's usually like silicone And this is reusable. It's it's washed through and I think you're supposed to boil it like once a month. That's about Uh, you're still not going to use that one for your whole life, but they say about 80 bucks maybe Over your life. Uh, and there are also menstrual discs And the difference between a menstrual disc And I think that they're newer than menstrual cups if I'm not mistaken But a cup sits in the vagina below the cervix Uh, and extends into the canal

Um, it depends on the brand of course, but the disc Uh fits back into the vaginal fornix, which is where your cervical canal meets your cervix Thank you helfline.com for that direct quote Very nice menstrual cups. They're usually made of like silicone And yeah, you can I saw that you use them for about two years before you need to get another one They're also considered fairly green especially considered compared to pads and tampons But like you said, pads and tampons remain far and away the most popular sanitary products in the united states So much so chuck that in the same paragraph

I saw that 62 of Americans use pads while 42 use tampons Which means that there's 104 percent Americans out there, uh, who menstruate In the same paragraph this wasn't from like two different sources either. That's weird The other thing I did want to mention I found was interesting is we didn't get into too much history here, but Uh, apparently in ancient Rome they use wool Uh, in Africa they rolled up grasses Sort of like a tampon and they used to tell them about hawaii ferns Then beautiful in a way. I think so

Yeah, it sounds like I would hope it's like very pleasant And not like Not pleasant, but yeah ferns. I saw that too. I wouldn't think they'd be very absorbent, but I guess I don't know I guess it's better than nothing. Who knows sure Um, there's also hormonal birth control or the birth control pill which we did an entire episode on a while back And you can actually prevent menstruation on birth control pills Uh, if you don't do don't eat the sugar pills or placebo pills that fill up the week at the end of the

Pill pack if you just jump right into your next birth control pill immediately You want menstruate and the reason why is because those hormonal pills keep your estrogen levels nice and even So there's no spike and if there's no spike in estrogen levels There's no, um, there's no signal to trigger the follicular phase or the luteal phase Because both of those phases which are really important in dropping an egg Um, are uh, are triggered by estrogen. So if there's no estrogen spike There's no egg that's going to come out of the um, the follicles very interesting Yeah, I'm sure we talked about that in uh birth control, right?

I'm sure we had to too. Yeah, but apparently they've they've decided now once and for all that it's totally If you're not trying to get pregnant You could just stay on birth control Um, constantly and never have a period if you didn't want to and from everything of Gynecologists and biologists can tell There's not really any ill effects that come out of that. It's supposedly safe to just do Uh, well a minute ago we mentioned toxic shock syndrome

Uh, with a promise to go back to it and this is something that can happen if you leave a tampon in too long uh, it is a pretty rough bacterial infection And it can include, you know dizziness vomiting Diarrhea it can include organ failure and death And it is a very specific toxic staff bacteria That can really grow and flourish in the fibers of a tampon And this has led, you know a lot of people especially, um, you know in politics women in congress to say

Hey, you know what these tampons are all have these proprietary Uh, constructions and what goes into a tampon and we need to know like there needs to be more transparency here Of what what is in these things? I mean, it's generally thought to be like cotton and rayon And quote synthetic fibers, but like I said each one is proprietary so they don't release the ingredients And these bills just repeatedly die in uh, Uh, you know die on the floor and just spend years and years and still haven't gotten through I don't think right? No, that's absolutely the case. Um supposedly in response the um, like the pads and tampon makers Uh have started to release more information about what goes into their products on their websites

But they also still point to the FDA. Um, a lot of people don't realize this but tampons are regulated as a medical device in the united states Which means the FDA uh supposedly Tests them verifies their safety. Um and make sure that the the stuff that's being sold in the u.s. Is fully safe Again ostensibly we've done plenty of episodes about how the FDA has dropped the ball here or there Um, but there there is still kind of this like ongoing Struggle to find out exactly what is in tampons and um and pads Um, but yeah, again the FDA regulates tampons at least so um, I find that curious it is curious

Uh, but I think the reason why they got into a chuck was um from that toxic shock syndrome and realizing that that staff can grow When the fibers of the tampon and I think that's when the FDA got involved and started claiming domain over tampons in particular interesting Um, and then chuck we talked about all these different um sanitary products again, which is what they're called um And even if you use them there can be times where they just malfunction or don't work Or it wasn't in right or who however you want to put it and accidents happen And I think if you are a teenager in high school and this happens to you you probably feel that your life is over

And I just want to take a moment to assure you that as embarrassing as that probably is for you Um, your life is not over. Eventually. It's going to become something that you laugh about make fun of And you will get past so please don't let that Don't feel like that's going to frame the rest of your life even though it it does feel like it now of course, uh, and you know that kind of leads us to uh Just sort of the the culture around it period not only here in the united states, but uh worldwide because in some countries it is um

it's really awful how menstruation is treated And how people can be ostracized for menstruating or even if they might be menstruating I think ed points out that the uh k-h-o-i the koi people They eat their meals separated by gender Just in case someone might be menstruating Yeah, those are the people from the gods must be crazy right in the kalahari Um, yeah, so there's like that's a really good example of a very ingrained social taboo

Um against menstruation that you find in undeveloped or less developed cultures and you know those of us in the west tend to be like You know, that's so undeveloped. Of course, there's a weird social taboo But we should not judge so fast because it was not very long ago that um, Europe had its own well-engrained Social taboos against menstruation as well, right? Yeah, I mean, we're talking You know late 1800s, which was not that long ago uh france Which you would think is a very advanced country. They barred

Uh women who are menstruating from working at food production jobs Like if you were a winemaker you had to take off and not work and therefore not get paid When you were menstruating and as late as the 1890s in britain even Uh, there were doctors that refused to perform surgeries on women who were menstruating, right? And so, I mean, there's like reasons behind this. I think part of it is just simple, um, misogyny Um, just just a way to to keep women um Feeling ashamed, um feeling controlled by society

I think that's a big part of it and then also definitely tied into it is the idea I mean, there's blood and you know humans are just hardwired to not be comfortable at the site of blood Or want to go toward it or anything like that, you know, so I think those combine probably Uh, at least partially explain where some of these social taboos came From and how they've remained for so long. Yeah, and you know, this is uh, there are some countries that actually celebrate it We did talk about the monarchy being celebrated In certain native american cultures. There are other Um, there are other countries where they they really take care of women who are menstruating, whether it's, um

Like in gana menstruating women have an umbrella that they they sit under and little tints that they sit under So they can at least be in the shade when they're having their period And you found another country too that uh, did something similar, right? Well, it was a native american indigenous group the Ojibwe. Oh, okay And they actually they consider women. Um, who are menstruating actually on their period in that phase of their menstrual cycle As being spiritually powerful like this is a time where They might have visions where they uh, they usually

Use it to self reflect or to learn from elders and they actually would seclude women Um, who were menstruating on their period They would put them in like these little houses that were purpose built for it But it wasn't to be like ew get away from us. It was like you're in a really Um significant place right now and you should go use this time to again reflect on yourself reflect on you know, what you're learning from your elders and just basically Making the most out of this spiritually powerful, you know, few days out of this month Yeah, and I mean, it's great hearing those stories. There are far too many places though where where it is the opposite

There's a term. We should talk about briefly called period poverty these are cultural barriers political barriers economic barriers to sanitary products to services to education and they they affect everything everything from Um hygiene to your job to your health uh to your education and going to school And it's a it's a problem in the world and there are all kinds of great

Um organizations that if you want to help provide minstrel products to people in need There's some great charities out there doing it. Um Just you know, just google that like minstrel product charity and there are all there are many many of them There's one called freedom for the number four girls Uh, but there there are lots of them and you should just check them out if that's something That you feel like is worthwhile Because it is Yeah, I mean, it's a really easy thing to overlook in you know, the united states or canada or australia or the uk

um And then it's especially easy to overlook in those countries as a man Like you just don't think about that kind of thing Yeah, but even in those countries people do experience period poverty So, I mean, it's not like you're just helping people in less developed nations Like you're helping people in your own country too Don't have access to it. And again that access to sanitary products is considered a human right or it's becoming more and more considered a human Right. Absolutely. Uh, should we close with some minstrel myths?

Yes, this is fun. It is fun. Uh, this is a myth that I heard so much in my life. I assumed it was true Which is that women if they hang out a lot together like in an office or or a small business or in a dorm Uh, or a sorority house that they will sync up Uh, it can be called minstrel synchrony Uh, or the mclintock effect, which is named after who was to blame for this Which is a 1971 study by martha mclintock about women in a college dorm that was published in nature

Uh, magazine and uh, it got a lot of attention and I think people still Think that women can sync up and that just has proved not to be the case It's been debunked over and over and they found a lot of problems with the initial study So I saw a couple of things. I saw that it was discredited and debunked and um, I also saw that it remains unproven And apparently mclintoxin initial study was you know Had left a lot to be desired. So her methodology was not really great So the whole thing couldn't be reproduced using her exact methodology, but Apparently anecdotally speaking. It's so prevalent

Um that like people just refuse to believe it just doesn't exist and say we just haven't figured out how to how to prove it yet Well, what I saw and again, maybe the jury's still out But what I saw was that the variable the variability of the menstrual cycle among people who menstruate and The days that it can change and get thrown out of sync and it can last longer or be shorter Then that overlap is what accounts for people thinking that they're syncing up. I see. I see but who knows I mean, I think maybe the jury's still out, but We can definitely say that no one proved that women sync up

That's fun. Right. Let's both say that yes What are what other myths are out there? Oh, we've got some good ones Chuck. This is one that I didn't realize either um The idea that you can't get pregnant on your period Newsflash you totally can yeah, and in like really take that to heart You can get pregnant in your period And the reason why is if you'll remember back to what we were talking about when we kind of were doing the nitty gritty of the menstrual and

Ovulation cycles they kind of overlap So that follicular cycle Starts when you start your period and if you have a short follicular cycle You might drop an egg pretty shortly after you stop your period That's fine and dandy. The problem is is sperm is viable for up to five days In the human body in a woman's body. So if you drop an egg and there's sperm that's saying hanging out on day five It can fertilize that egg even though you're still on your period. You had sex while you were on your period That's right. So again, you can get pregnant on your period

very important if you're just getting started in your uh Sexual life to understand this or at any time in your life. Yeah, I was gonna say or you don't want a big surprise You know in your midlife, right? Uh what about sharks and bears Despite what steve correll said in anchor man Which is one of the very funny scenes. It really is Uh, apparently some people think that's true and what's weird is there was a 1988 study

Uh, that was conducted that the national park service hosts on their website or mentions on their website that um said that it's entirely possible that um a period could attract bears because bears have such an amazing sense of smell Um, but that they would not be any more attracted to that odor than any other odor that might attract them So it's not like you're just guaranteed to be attacked by a bear if you go into the woods while you're menstruating Right like the bear smells. It might as well be a uneaten hot pocket to a bear

That's the equivalent of menstruating as far as bears are concerned. Uh, did you see the part about polar bears though? No, huh? They did this was on the same nps uh site. They did an actual study and it seems that Or at least in the study polar bears actually were specifically attracted To menstrual blood. Oh my god. So we not only didn't bust a myth. We actually supported a myth Well, it's it's they said grizzlies and black bears. They did tests where they had like, you know tampons and stuff out with other things And the grizzly bears and black bears didn't really care

but um The polar bears did and I don't know like how foolproof that study is But they they basically said the jury's still out on polar bears and polar bears are just Super aggressive. Anyway, they're one of the only animals that like will stalk a human Uh, I think polar bears lions and I think there's one more but um, so that it may be due to that, but uh Jury's still out on that. I think sharks is a definite no, right? Yeah, from what I saw from what our friends at you by Kotex say it's definitely no Is that where it all comes from? That's where that one came from. Yeah. Oh goodness

Um, just a couple more things to button up before we go. Uh, we definitely didn't want to scare you about toxic shock syndrome It's actually exceedingly rare. I think there's something about like 50 to 80 cases a year And you can stay on top of it by staying on top of changing your tampon regularly Uh, I think no longer than eight hours and then also don't use one that's more absorbent than you need Because again, they proliferate on the fibers So more fibers means more chance for that bacteria to proliferate and create those toxins That's one and then also one other thing Even, uh, if you're not worried about getting pregnant on your period you can still catch sexually transmitted diseases on your period

So you should be wearing a condom in that case anyway. That's right Good job, buddy. Thank you. Good job to you. There's also a tampon shortage going on right now. Chuck. Did you see that? I did, uh, there's a lot of things that there's a shortage of right now. So that's um, obviously worrisome especially Uh, with these organizations that try to send these to places where they really really need them Yeah, for sure. But there's few shortages that can be attributed to amy schumer Uh, and this one has been at least in part. There was a big, um, tampax ag campaign featuring amy schumer that tampax said was so colossally, um

Impactful and sales went up so high that they blamed part of the tampon shortage on that ag campaign I'd buy anything amy schumer told me to buy I love her Sure. She's america's greatest national treasure. She's one of them. She's better than the declaration of independence and abe lincoln's hat rolled together Which is what some people used as tampons during the civil war. That's right Nice, uh, you got anything else? I got nothing else. All right, chuck way to go, buddy Um, we did it and since I just said that It's time for listener mail

Uh, we had our drowning episode run on our saturday selects recently and got a lot of people writing in again about that and this is a water safety psa from Um, someone who worked as a lifeguard Uh, her name is ella feinberg and ella says a couple of things one of which is Water wings are not safe Uh parents and these are the things that the parents put their little kids in That goes around their chest and then their arms. They're called floaties. You know, they put their little tiny arms through there Sure, uh

Many parents think they're legit floatation devices. I don't blame them Um, but they don't secure under their arms very well And there's a very real risk that if a kid goes under the water wings will float up to their wrists And not do anything to keep their actual head above water That's not good and newsflash. You can't breathe if your hands are above the water That's the second newsflash of this episode if only your hands are above water, but I should say right, uh, and here's another newsflash, um, Ella says

Something you didn't mention is If you are not a strong swimmer and you don't have a floatation device with you Do not help someone who is drowning Uh, and it fights Probably most people's instinct But you see stories all the time about two people drowning instead of one person drowning Um, or you know, maybe causing that person to even drown quicker because you're not a good swimmer Uh, but Ella says, uh, just reiterates a few different times

Just do not attempt to rescue a drowning victim if you can't swim very well yourself Uh, call your local emergency number Wait for someone go screaming for help Uh, and fight that instinct and that Is from, uh, Ella Feinberg, former lifeguard Nice, thanks a lot Ella. I think you really did some good work here and we appreciate you And hello to your husband because they listen together Nice, um, well if you want to be like Ella and share some really great important information

We would love to share it with everybody else You can share it with us via email at stuffpodcastatihartradio.com Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio For more podcasts my heart radio visit the iHeartRadio app apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows Hey, i'm lance bass host of the new iHeart podcast frosted tips with lance bass Do you ever think to yourself? What advice would lance bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do you've come to the right place because i'm here to help and a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week

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Listen to skyline drive on the iHeart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts Hey, it's chuck wicks from love country talk to chuck where we bring you what's really happening in the country music family We also if you love country here's the deal you love country music you can be on the podcast So if you're a fan country music what you can call in anytime you're like, oh i wouldn't talk about this Paul kogan called in he's like chuck volkster. I love your podcast jason al dean jimmy allen carlie pierce lorna lana Listen to new episodes of love country talk to chuck every monday and thursday on the nashville podcast network available on the iHeart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcast