Bears Can Smell the Menstruation: Or Can They?

by Dr. Margaret Aranda

The question arises as to whether bears attack women who are on their periods, due to the attraction of the menstrual blood.  In 1983, Cushing presented his findings at the International Conference on Bear Research and Management, documenting the responses of polar bears to menstrual odors.  This spearheaded the future work in this area, which continues to this day.  Stay with me as we explore the fascinating issues surrounding this issue. 

The Grizzly Bear.

Yellowstone National Park (YNP) has been tabulating interactions between bears and humans in their district, which includes parks in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.  Data analyzed in 2012 by Kerry A. Gunther, bear biologist and expert at YNP’s Bear Management Program. He showed that the overall risk of human injury (for any reason) by a bear in YNP, men and women inclusive, is 1 in 2.1 million.  But the interest and fascination with this subject continues.

Kerry A. Gunther.

Perhaps the biggest outburst public scrutiny on bears attacking menstruating occurred after the night of August 13, 1967 in Glacier National Park.  The Park is located in northwestern Montana, along the Rocky Mountains.  In a situation that was later determined to be unrelated and coincidental, two women on their periods were killed by Grizzly bears on this night.  The National Park Service (NPS) subsequently put out a bulletin that menstruating women could be attacked by the Black Grizzly bear, perhaps spurring that speculation had turned into a scientific notion that the two were actually scientifically related.  The official statement was, “..women should stay out of bear country during their menstrual period.”  Years of belief ensued, wherein it was thought that camping or hiking women on their periods were attractants to killings by bears.

In his 1983 study on captive Polar Bears and the odor of menstrual blood, Cushing studied a series of different odors and their effect on bears.   Scents included seal scent, food, used tampons, and non-menstrual human blood.  There was a strong response to seal scent and used tampons.  Cushing also studied wild Polar Bears, who were attracted to and ate food and used tampons, perpetuating the observation that bears are attracted to menstrual blood.

In 1985, Herrero studied Grizzly bears and human attacks, including the two women attacked in 1967.  He concluded that there was no relationship.

In 1988, Byrd revisited the unsettled issue, trying to answer this question on his Thesis for his Master’s in Science.  He found that there was no evidence that the Black Grizzly bear preferred menstrual odors over other odors, and there was no scientific evidence that hundreds of bear attacks were related to women on their periods (Byrd 1988).

In 1991, Rogers et al studied how 26 wild Black Bears reacted to used tampons from 26 women.   In a novel design, he also studied 20 wild Black Bears’ response to 4 women’s menstrual blood at different times of their menstrual cycle.  The bears ignored the menstrual odors.

From 1980 through 2002, YNP had over 62,000,000 visitors spending over 15,400,000 nights at the main campgrounds and 956,000 nights in the backcountry.  No one kept track of statistics on the proportion of menstruating women.  There were 32 people injured by bears, coming to 1.2 injuries per year. Gunther and Hoekstra evaluated 1970 - 1994 statistics, citing that no bear injuries to humans were caused by menstruating women.  

Official word came out on August 9, 2012 from Kerry A. Gunther, who categorically stated that bears are not attracted to menstruating women. We can rest assured that if we keep the safety measures cited above, the risk would be so small as to be unproven.  So hat's away to camping, and be careful in the backwoods. 

References:

Byrd, C.P.  Of bears and women: Investigating the hypothesis that menstruation attracts bears.  M.S. Thesis, Univ. Montana, Missoula.  129 pp, 1988.

Cushing, B. 1983. Responses of polar bears to human menstrual odors. International Conference on Bear Research and Management 5:270-274.

Gunther K.A. and H.L. Hoekstra.  Bear-inflicted human injuries in Yellowstone, 1970 – 1994, a cautionary and instructive guide to who gets hurt and why.   Yellowstone Science 4(1):2-9. 1997.

Herrero, S.M.  Bear attacks – their causes and avoidance.  Winchester Press, New Century Publishers, Inc.  Piscataway, New Jersey, 287 pp, 1985.

Nelson, Brian. Mother Nature Network.  Mentruating women do not attract bear attacks.  August 9, 2012.  http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/menstruating-women-do-not-attract-bear-attacks

_____.  Yellowstone National Park website.  National Park Service. Bears and Menstruating Women. http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/bears_women.htm

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Other Articles by Dr. Margaret Aranda

Menopause and Painful Intercourse

The Cochran Report

What Aristotle Thought of Menstruation

From Menarche through Menopause

The History of Menopause

The Different Types of Hysterectomies

Low Sexual Desire: Is It HSDD?

Surgical Menopause and Testosterone Therapy

Bears Can Smell the Menstruation: Or Can They?

The Ovaries: Reproduction and Endocrine Function

The Virgin and The Maiden Tribute

by Dr Margaret Aranda

The traditional definition of a virgin is a girl or woman who has not had sexual intercourse.  Many times, the hymen is still intact.  The hymen is a band of membranous tissue inside the vulvar entrance to the vagina.  It has to be ‘broken’ for example, during the first session of intercourse, and this can be painful.  On her wedding night, display of the white bed sheets’ stained with nuptial blood has been used as ‘proof’ of both virginity and the consummation of marriage, as the hymen was broken (Kelly 2000).  Virginity is associated with the color white as a symbol of innocence and purity. 

The term ‘virgin’ has been applied to nonsexual concepts as in the ‘virgin’ Margarita, as well as ethical and modern concepts.   Some include the definition of virginity to not just mean heterosexual intercourse with penile-vagina penetration, but also to include rape, mutual masturbation, anal sex, and oral sex (Carpenter 2001).   In Carpenter’s work, the concept of virginity requires consensual sex, therefore does not ‘count’ rape as a loss of virginity. 

In many cultures, loss of virginity before marriage has been viewed as a terrible thing.  So much so that in one 2012 interview of a Persian woman I met, she related how her big sister would look “between my legs every time I fell” as a child playing outside.  She remembers wondering why the worry about her private parts if she fell down while playing outside.  She would fall down and then her sister would check between the legs.  “Open your legs!”  In the course of time, she would fall again, and her sister would check between her legs again, “Open your legs!”  This happened over and over again during her childhood.  Only much later, as a young adult, did she realize that the older sister was checking the fallen girl to ensure that she did not lose her virginity.  

The concept of virginity bestows social status, judgment, and consequences for interpersonal relationships.  It involves moral, cultural, and religious attitudes as well as community acceptance versus rejection and isolation.  In extreme cases, family shame vs family honor revolve around sham societies that place a family in a hierarchy of social worth, and ostracism for unacceptable loss of virginity can even result in an honor killing.  Virginity can affect whether or not a woman can get married, as in many cultures and tribes, the woman must be a virgin.  If the woman lost her hymen due to tampon use or other cause, a surgical repair by hymenoplasty or hymenorrhaphy replaces the hymen with the intent that upon intercourse, the woman will bleed.  In this way, she can prove her virginity.

Social norms of expectations lead to legal implications of the age of consent, and at the end of the 18^th Century, age of consent laws were beginning to be enacted. Child prostitution had made headlines and sensation, earmarking this as a cause of the times (Stead 1885).

In 1885, The Pall Mall Gazette published The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon I, II, III, and IV.   In this expose, W.T. Stead and Antony E. Simpson, Editor, described in lurid detail a shocking depiction of a criminal underground child sex trade that thrived in London.  

William Thomas Stead; 1849 - 1912.

The Maiden Tribute began with scheming abductresses and greedy flesh merchants who cajoled unwary young girls to age 13 into prostitution by manipulation and coercion.  After entrapping them, they were abducted and “sold” to stinking brothels in London.  In at least one case, they purchased them from their mothers for a mere and meager £5.   Stead described rooms in London that were designed to withhold the child’s screams from the outer rooms, as they had special padding on the walls.  Drugs, sex, and money were traded and used.  Reprints were published in London’s Gazette, which underwent torrids of reproductions of these Tributes as they hit international sensation. 

Moral panic hit when Stead entitled his works with such gripping titles as “The Violation of Virgins”, “Strapping Girls Down”, and “The Maiden Tribute”.  William T. Stead took journalism to an extreme and perhaps hapless level when he took, a reformed prostitute, and simulated what happened with children bought for prostitution.  

Government by Journalism was birthed again by Stead, as moral outcry turned to legislative reform.  The controversy of The Maiden Tribute, this milestone in modern journalism, caused public outcry.  The Maiden was a victim.  Literally within a month, The Maiden Tribute led to reformation in the age of consent for girls, pushing it from the age of 13 to 16 years in the United Kingdom.   The Criminal Law Amendment Act was implemented.  In America, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union then instigated reform, pushing for similar legislation such that by 1920, American lawmakers increased the age of consent to 16 years.  In some states, it increased to as high as 18 years of age.

Stead had an agent, Rebecca Jarrett, who was a reformed prostitute.  She went into the poor town of Marylebone in order to purchase a child.  The goal was to prove the ease with which this could be performed.  It was Eliza Armstrong, at 13 years old, who was procured for L5.  Subsequently, Eliza passed through the different ‘Stages’ that a child prostitute would have had to go through: “certification” of being a virgin, visitation of a brothel, and drugging by chloroform.  After that, Eliza was taken by the Salvation Army to France and Stead used her true story at the end of The Maiden Tribute, as the character of Lily. 

Eliza’s mother recognized her daughter’s character in the Gazette, and then claimed that there were false pretenses that Stead used to get her daughter away from her.  She also filed charges of indecent assault and child abduction against the accomplices and Stead. On August 21, 1885, Stead gave a speech on the “Maiden Tribute”.   In it, he states, “…I am solely responsible for taking Lizzie Armstrong away from her mother’s house.”  

Two trials later, Stead was convicted and incarcerated for three months.  He had already served time during the judgment, so that he spent two months and a week in prison.  He writes of his judgment, and referred to imprisonment as “…it is a feel of stone and iron, hard and cold…” (Stead 1886).  At the time of imprisonment, Stead was a father to a five year old girl.  

References:

Carpenter, LM.  The Ambiguity of Having Sex:  The Subjective Experience of Virginity Loss in the United States – Statistical Data Included.  United States: The Journal of Sex Research.  United States:  The Journal of Sex Research.  2001.  Retrieved June 5, 2012.

Kelly, Kathleen Coyne.  Performing virginity and testing chastity in the Middle Ages.  Volume 2 of Routledge research in medieval studies.  Psychology Press.  P197. 2000.

Stead WT and Simpson AE.   The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon: The Report of the Secret Commission.  Pall MallGazette, July 1885.  http://www.attackingthedevil.co.uk/pmg/tribute/

Stead WT.  Speech.  Extracted from the Eliza Armstrong Case: Being a Verbatim Report of the Proceedings at Bow Street.  Pall Mall Gazette Supplement, October 3, 1885.  http://www.attackingthedevil.co.uk/pmg/tribute/speech.php

Stead WT.  My First Imprisonment:  Coldbath-in-the-Fields.  E Marlborough & Co, 1886.  http://www.attackingthedevil.co.uk/steadworks/imprisonment.php

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See Additional Articles by Dr. Aranda:

Menopause and Painful Intercourse

The Cochran Report

What Aristotle Thought of Menstruation

From Menarche through Menopause

The History of Menopause

The Different Types of Hysterectomies

Low Sexual Desire: Is It HSDD?

Surgical Menopause and Testosterone Therapy

Bears Can Smell the Menstruation: Or Can They?

The Ovaries: Reproduction and Endocrine Function

Menopause and Pain on Intercourse

Menopause causes the ovaries to decline in function.  Hormones diminish, and this includes estrogen, progestin, and testosterone.  Since a woman's body is complex, there are a multitude of symptoms that can result.

I have noticed, for example, that a postmenopausal woman can be talking to me at night, and indeed let's make that a ~ cool ~ night with a breeze.  Her upper lip and forehead are covered with sweat.  In fact, her upper eyebrows and neck glisten in the moonlight.  I ask (during our conversation on menopause), "Do you get hot flashes?"

She says, "No, I never get hot flashes."

So I ask, "Do you have pain with intercourse?"  Well, no big response there.  I persist, "Do you enjoy sex?"  She scoffs, "I could take it or leave it.  I just have sex to make my husband happy, but if it was up to me, I wouldn't even have sex.  And I would not miss it."  She smiles ever so gently.  

So I back up again, "Well, why don't you enjoy it?"  She thinks.  She hesitates.  I wait, patiently.  "Well, I guess that it just doesn't feel good."  

Results are in from Menopause, The Blog, which you can Click Here to Read.  While millions of women in the USA may have vaginal atrophy from a decrease of estrogen production after menopause, only about an estimated 7% are getting treatment.  This is simply astounding to me!  

It could be that a woman does not realize that she has vaginal dryness.  The change could have happened so gradually that she does not realize that she actually has pain on intercourse, or dyspareunia.  Other women say without hesitation that "It feels like a knife blade", to have sex with their husbands.  So let's just step back a moment and realize that vaginal dryness, vaginal atrophy, and pain on intercourse ~ all these things can happen.  It's ok.  

We just need to realize, like the perspiring woman who says she does not get hot flashes, that our bodies are changing. We need to continue to be attuned to our bodies, as we can spend fully one-third of our lives in menopause.  So we'd better get 'good' at being IN menopause, yes?  Let's do!

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Other Articles by Dr. Margaret Aranda

Menopause and Painful Intercourse

The Cochran Report

What Aristotle Thought of Menstruation

From Menarche through Menopause

The History of Menopause

The Different Types of Hysterectomies

Low Sexual Desire: Is It HSDD?

Surgical Menopause and Testosterone Therapy

Bears Can Smell the Menstruation: Or Can They?

The Ovaries: Reproduction and Endocrine Function

January 4, 2013: I'll be a Guest with Stephanie Riggs Talk Radio!

Stephanie Riggs has a talk radio station, Divine Calling, out of Denver, CO.  She has interviewed so many Authors that I just have to send you to her FaceBook page: Click Here.

What a blessing!

I will be discussing my book, No More Tears:  A Physician Turned Patient Inspires Recovery.

Surgical Menopause and Testosterone for Women

There is a common misconception that only men need testosterone.  The idea that women naturally produce testosterone, that they need testosterone, and that they can take testosterone supplementation to correct a testosterone hormone deficiency needs to be defended.

In women before menopause, about 300 mcg, or 1040 nmol of testosterone are produced each day.  Half of the testosterone production comes from the ovaries.  The other half comes from the adrenal glands.   If you are having a hysterectomy, this is one huge thing to think about before removing the ovaries, too.  Especially if your ovaries are normal.

Some women undergoing a hysterectomy are still being told:

"You don't need your ovaries any way."

Studies show that if you have not gone through natural menopause, and you have a hysterectomy and the ovaries are taken out, too, you could experience a 50% decrease in testosterone production and an 80% decrease in estrogen production.  The ovaries can continue to produce hormones for up to 10 years after the onset of menopause. 

When checking testosterone hormone levels in the blood, it is important to know that there are three possibilities:  

Free Testosterone (pg/ml) 

Bioavailable Testosterone (ng/dl)

Total Testosterone (ng/dl)

Also, an increased sex-hormone binding globulin level leads to a decrease in free testosterone. Related testosterone-pathway hormones that may also be checked include dihydrotestosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), estrone, and estradiol.  So how much of these does a normal pre-menopausal women have in her body?  Here are the normal levels:

DRUG                                                                  NORMAL VALUE*                UNITS

Free Testosterone                                                       1.3 - 6.8                                 pg/ml

Bioavailable Testosterone                                          1.6 - 12.7                               ng/dl

Total Testosterone                                                       14 - 54                                  ng/dl

Sex-hormone binding globulin                                   36 - 185                                 nmol/l

Dihydrotestosterone                                                  4.4 - 20.4                                ng/dl

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)                             60 - 255                                 mcg/dl

Estrone                                                                       32 - 159                                 pg/ml

Estradiol                                                                     34 - 225                                 pg/ml

There are many variables that go into deciding whether to remove the ovaries at the time of hysterectomy.  If your ovaries are normal, their estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone production may serve to protect you from heart disease, bad moods, insomnia, vaginal dryness, fatigue, losses in bone density, and hot flashes, to name a few.  

If you are at increased risk of ovarian cancer, most doctors would recommend that you do get your ovaries removed.  How do you know if you are at an increased risk?  Family history of ovarian or breast cancer may put you at risk.  If your ovaries have been popping eggs out every month all your life and you have never had a baby or breastfed, this may put you at increased risk but that also depends on your age.  It's more complicated than that, but those are the basics.  If you are at increased risk and you are getting your ovaries out, you may be considered for estrogen and testosterone replacement; many doctors also check the thyroid gland at this time.

Keep your ovaries unless you are at increased risk of ovarian cancer: 

It may be that this is the general word.

Talk to your doctor about what is right for you.

Every woman is different, and you should get a Second Opinion from a different surgeon on the matter of a hysterectomy.

Oh.  And treatment with higher doses of testosterone in women after hysterectomy and oopherectomy have shown marked improvement in both psychological well-being and sexual function.  So don't enter your operation for a hysterectomy wondering whether or not to get your ovaries removed, as the general sentiment today has to do with "ovarian conservation".   

Your ovaries could be your future quality of life.

Medical Disclaimer:  Nothing in this blog is meant to give an individual specific medical advice, treatment,  or recommendation.  Each medical decision must be made between a women and her doctor.  

* = Endocrine Sciences, Calabasas, CA

Full Disclosure:  Dr. Margaret Ferrante is an Institute Physician with Cenegenics Medical Institute, which practices Age Management Medicine components of diet, exercise, hormones, and a balanced lifestyle. She may be contacted at mferrante@cenegenics.com for a Free Consultation.

References:  

Abraham GE.  Ovarian and adrenal contribution to peripheral androgens during the menstrual cycle.  J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1974;39;340-6.

Davis S., et al.  Testosterone enhances estradiol's effects on postmenopausal bone density and sexuality.  Maturitas 1996;21:227-36.

Shefrin, J.L., et al.  Transdermal testosterone treatment in women with impaired sexual function after oophorectomy.  N Engl J Med; Sept 7, 2000;  Vol. 343 (10); 682-8.

Shefrin, J.L., et al.  Incidence of sexual dysfunction in surgically menopausal women.  Menopause 1988;5:189-90.

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Other Articles by Dr. Margaret Aranda

Menopause and Painful Intercourse

The Cochran Report

What Aristotle Thought of Menstruation

From Menarche through Menopause

The History of Menopause

The Different Types of Hysterectomies

Low Sexual Desire: Is It HSDD?

Surgical Menopause and Testosterone Therapy

Bears Can Smell the Menstruation: Or Can They?

The Ovaries: Reproduction and Endocrine Function