Monitoring Periods

[Phoebe]

I keep seeing online these tales of creepy school or sports league officials asking parents to fill out participation forms that list the last date of their daughter's menstrual period, or other information about their menstrual cycle. I am wondering if this is a rare event that simply got a lot of attention online recently or if this is a growing trend now. Either way, it upsets me that I have to counsel the young women in my environs not to provide this information when it is requested. It is requested far more often than necessary, and should it become necessary for a medical reason, it's the kind of thing that doesn't need to be written down on a regular basis. I wonder if there is any legitimate basis to think this is happening more often now, and if it is happening, what kind of dystopian unpleasantness is causing this?!

It upsets me that one of the considerations for birth control options now is the likelihood that you won't be able to receive an abortion even in a crisis situation or after a sexual assault, etc. Where people might have assumed in the past these things are always possible, somehow, now we have to assume it is impossible, just in case. I had a tubal ligation and it is pathetic and sickening that if I had not been permanently sterilized, I would have to be doing something serious and extra-normal to prevent conception because for some reason my body wants to keep the door open to more kids, and there is no way it would be safe for me to have another pregnancy under any circumstances. All of this is just SO WILD to me. It saddens me that I have contingency plans for so many things that could go wrong, given that they can't go wrong here.

[Mike]

The particular issue you mention is not yet on my radar, but I do worry specifically about what all this can mean for my children and for any current or future partners capable of bearing children as well as what it means for the treatment of women in general. There are many many dystopian nightmare scenarios from books and movies that seem all too possible and have proponents not shy about actively advocating for dystopia.