Margaret L. Stubbs

Menopausal Women's Perceived Causes of Hot Flash

This descriptive study examined the perceptions of a group of breast cancer survivors about the causes of their hot flashes. Thirty-nine participants readily offered 1,008 individual responses. A content analysis revealed four prominent categories (stress, pain, medication related, and lack of sleep) as well as others (e.g., food related, heat related). In the context of concerns about biomedical approaches to hot flash treatment (specifically hormone therapy [HT]), inconsistent data regarding nonhormonal treatment options, and the many psychosocial factors identified as related to the hot flash experience, the benefits of identifying and addressing womens perceptions in developing effective treatment plans are discussed.

A Developmental Perspective on Adolescents’ Reproductive Self-Care

This article is a comment on Priors (2016) article “Adolescents’ Use of Combined Hormonal Contraceptives for Menstrual Cycle–Related Problem Treatment and Contraception: Evidence of Potential Lifelong Negative Reproductive and Bone Effects.” In this article I place the medicalization of menstrual cycle–related issues in the context of negative social and cultural messages about menstruation and argue that more positive attitudes toward menstruation and better menstrual education might alleviate the need for some “treatments.” I argue that good education about puberty in general, and menstruation in particular, must be designed with adolescents’ psychosocial and cognitive development, as well as their physical development, in mind. Issues related to developmental maturity must also be considered in any discussion of which contraceptive methods an adolescent girl should use.

Editorial: Contemporary Research on the Menstrual Cycle

The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research (SMCR) was formed in 1977 by a group of multidisciplinary scholars who understood the centrality of the menstrual cycle in women’s health and more broadly in women’s lives. Founding members were committed to promoting feminist, woman-centered research on the menstrual cycle to redress the narrow and mostly negative focus on the role of the menstrual cycle in reproduction to that date. Since 1977, the society has held biennial conferences yielding more than a dozen published volumes on menstruation, menopause, and other cycle-related topics. The articles in this special issue were presented at the 17th conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in June 2007. They cover a range of topics, including stereotypes about the cycle, menstrual activism, menstrual suppression, and menopausal experience. The research presents a variety of methodologies that demonstrate the interdisciplinary scope of SMCR. And each includes information from or implications for an international audience. Within this variety, one theme resonates: context is important to women’s menstrual-related health. Marvan and colleagues explore contemporary stereotypes in the United States and Mexico, while Rose and her colleagues offer insight about how priming can impact attitudes toward menstrual suppression. Similarly, Hitchcock, who focuses on the menstrual suppression debate, and Derry, who analyzes responses to the Women’s Health Initiative studies, encourage readers to think critically about how and what women “learn” about the menstrual cycle from public dialogue. Bobel’s discussion of menstrual activism in the context of the work of the Boston Women’s Health Collective highlights the importance of historical context to menstrual experience, while the lived experience of menopause is the focus of articles by Stubbs and Dillaway and their colleagues. Taken together, theses articles provide a dynamic snapshot of how SMCR scholars are building a more accurate database about menstrual experience with practical relevance for women and their health care