Comments | batshua: The mysteries of Artemis

batshua

The mysteries of Artemis

May 05, 2011 18:25

( In which I talk about girly things again… )

Comments 2

drhoz May 7 2011, 02:30:08 UTC

"in cultures where folks don't use electric lighting at night, women tend to menstruate on the new moon. "

Um... citation needed?

batshua May 8 2011, 05:47:51 UTC

I'm not going to be able to pull up all the sources I found back when I was a-googling, however, the sources ranged from a large number of historic and/or ethnographic works (interviews, and references to cultural practices and the like) to some studies done in the US. The theory is that exposure to the light of full moon stimulates ovulation, and that some women are more sensitive to it than others in an industrialized society. If you google "nightlighting", you may find references to various studies, some of which are more rigorous than others. One of the key issues is what time bedtime is and another is if there is ANY light to which one is exposed on non-full moon nights. If you want me to try to link you to stuff, I will, but the upshot was, they did a study in the US when they didn't even TRY to regulate nightlighting, and the largest percentage of volunteers, nearly 30%, were STILL menstruating on the new moon. So, no, I didn't pull this entirely out of bizarro world.

… Sorry if that sounds a bit defensive.