If It Ain't Scottish, It's Crap (or at least not free)

I spent the holiday weekend binging the fourth season of The Crown (while eating leftover pecan pie) and got very sad for Princess Diana. If the show—which is a heavily fictionalized account of real people and true events—is to be believed, she barely knew her much-older husband when she agreed to marry him at just 19 and he barely gave her the time of day preferring to carry on an affair with his also-married ex-girlfriend. The portrayal puts most of the blame on the future King of England who comes across as an unbearable ass and his family who wouldn’t just let him marry Camilla in the first place (did they learn nothing from Margaret’s miserable existence!). The image of Diana—as immature, desperately lonely, emotionally troubled, and annoyingly petulant—can’t exactly be called flattering, but the show does touch on some of her charitable work and portrays a moment in which she hugs a young boy with AIDS at a New York City hospital. I followed Diana somewhat religiously at the time—I bought the fairytale version People Magazine tried to sell me—and remember pictures of her hugging people with HIV and AIDS. Though it might seem like nothing now, it was remarkable at the time because AIDS was still deadly and misinformation abounded—people wouldn’t even get near those who had the virus for fear of contracting it. Yesterday was the 32nd World AIDS Day and Diana’s friend Elton John carried on her legacy through a partnership with TikTok where he hosted a virtual concert and educated young people about HIV prevention. She lived a sad and short—but fascinating–life and she did make a difference.

Scotland Becomes First Country to Cover All Period Products for Those Who Need

Does anyone else remember reading Judy Blume’s classic, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret, and being totally confused by the description of the main character trying to use a pad with a belt? Thankfully, by the time many of us needed to use pads, the sticky-backed ones that attach directly to your underwear were available, and then some genius invented wings to save the edges of countless pairs of underpants from once-inevitable stains.

Today, whole aisles of drug stores are filled with choices of pads and tampons with different materials, thicknesses, lengths, applicators, and packaging. This is great for some, but, as the growing period poverty movement points out, period supplies are expensive and many people who menstruate simply can’t afford them which can lead to missed days of school and work.

Advocates around the world are pressuring governments to address the inequities caused by period poverty by eliminating taxes on these products, making them readily available in schools, and changing rules around health insurance to help people pay for them. But Scotland one-upped all of us last week when its Parliament voted unanimously to pass the Period Products bill. The law requires pads and tampons be made available for free in public buildings across the country to anyone who needs them.

It is estimated that the measure could cost around £8.7 million (almost $12 million) by 2022 depending on how many people take advantage of the offerings. Monica Lennon, the lawmaker who introduced the bill, says that it would be reasonable to expect about 20% uptake because about 20% of women in Scotland currently live in poverty. Lennon was proud that the bill passed, calling this: “a signal to the world that free universal access to period products can be achieved."

Scotland has been building to this decision for a number of years after a 2017 study by Plan International found that 15% of girls in the UK had struggled to afford periods products, 10% had been unable to afford them, 12% had to improvise period products, and 19% changed to a less suitable product because of affordability issues. The country first tried to address this inequity with a 2018 law that allocated £5.2 million for products to be provided for free in schools and a 2019 law that gave another £4 million for products in libraries and recreation centers.

Other countries are also making progress toward ending period poverty. England and New Zealand launched initiatives to make period products available in schools. Britain voted in 2016 to remove its 5% sales tax on sanitary products but was hindered by European Union rules (this was pre-break up) and has instead given the money collected to “various women’s charities.” The EU has since said it would remove all taxes on sanitary products by 2022, though it will then be up to those countries that are still part of the EU to decide if and how much they will tax these products.    

Here in the United States, a number of states—including California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, New York, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Utah—have removed their taxes on period products over the last few years. Chicago, Denver, and DC did so as well. And, on the federal level, Congress voted to classify menstrual products as medical necessities which means people with FSAs or HSAs can purchase them with pre-tax dollars. Still, we are a long way from making pads and tampons universally available.

The Pill May Help Women with Asthma Have Fewer Severe Attacks

We know that the pill has a number of benefits other than preventing pregnancy—it can relieve PMS symptoms, reduce acne, and protect users against both uterine and ovarian cancers. Research released last week shows a promising (though preliminary) connection between pill use and reduced asthma flare-ups.

Researchers examined 17 years of medical records for over 83,000 women with asthma and compared flare-ups (using histories of prescriptions or ER visits) between those who were or had taken the birth control pill and those who were not/had not. (Note: the study simply uses the term women even though we know that not all oral contraceptive users identify this way.)

In a nutshell, the research found that those on combined birth control pills (the ones that contain estrogen and progestin) were slightly less likely to have an asthma attack that required a prescription for oral steroids, an ER visit, or a hospital admission. Long-term pill users—those on it for three years or more—appeared to be 6% to 9% less likely to have one of these severe attacks than those who were not pill users.

This protective effect is small and a study like this can prove correlation but not causation. That said, experts have long believed that hormones play a role in asthma. Hormone fluctuations are known to affect mast cells, a part of the immune system that is involved in allergic reactions. And, while asthma is more common among boys before puberty, after puberty it’s more common in women.

No one is yet suggesting that the birth control pill be used as treatment for asthma, but this study can help scientists gain a better understanding of how hormones—both those that occur naturally and those in birth control methods—can impact biological processes that cause (or protect against) asthma.

Please Don’t Crush Up Your Birth Control Pills and Put Them in Your Shampoo

A couple of weeks ago, I extolled the virtues of TikTok as it has encouraged kids and adults to create, advocate, and educate. As I mentioned in my note above, the app’s World AIDS Day partnership with Elton John kept that education going. But, like all social media, TikTok certainly has the potential to spread misinformation.

Earlier this year, the soy sauce challenge had TikTokers with testicles dipping their scrotums in Kikkoman and swearing that they could taste it. Why? Because one user had posted an old study in which scientists had found cells with receptors similar to taste buds deep in the testicles. That part is true, but the idea that you can taste soy sauce through your balls definitely elicits a gasp of That’s Not How it F**king Works from me.

First of all, the researchers said that just because receptors exist doesn’t mean they’re wired to your sense of taste (there’s no science to suggest that). But second—and this is the part I would have hoped all TikTokers already knew—your testicles, the reproductive organs that produce testosterone, sperm, and semen, are not available for direct dipping in soy sauce or any other condiment. They are protected by the scrotum (or ball sac if you must) and no one is saying that the skin on your scrotum has tastebuds. If you want to dip your scrotum in soy sauce, honey, ketchup, or garlic aioli, go for it; you won’t taste it but maybe your partner can.

Now that I’ve gotten that rant off my mind, we can move on to the latest odd bit of information circulating on the app after one TikToker taught followers a trick she learned from her mother—crushing up birth control pills and putting them in her shampoo to make her hair grow faster and stronger. The video has been viewed almost 9 million times since this summer, and the creator posted a follow-up video of her longer hair as proof that the enhanced-shampoo works wonders. Followers have said they would or have tried this.  

This isn’t exactly a TNHiFW moment—she’s not suggesting that anyone take the pill by hair instead of by mouth—though it’s worth noting that the scalp is impermeable and the hormones in the crushed up pills won’t actually get into your body this way. The big problem with this suggestion is that if your birth control pills are in your shampoo, they can’t be in your body stopping ovulation, thickening cervical mucus, and slowing down sperms’ progress through uterus, which leaves you unprotected from pregnancy. And, one month of the birth control pill can cost up to $50, which is a heck of a lot more than a good shampoo and conditioner set. I use a lovely argon-oil infused type that smells like coconut.