Periods are a nightmare in Gaza's crowded, unsanitary camps. Women are using birth control to skip them

Crouched inside her makeshift tent at a camp in Rafah, Samah El-Nazli fidgets as she recalls what her living conditions have been like since the war began. The mother of four is among millions of Gazans struggling to access food, water and sanitation in the overcrowded camp after losing their own homes in the strip.

“There’s no way to keep clean, there’s no way to be comfortable — we’re living a completely destroyed life,” she said.

Many women and girls living in the strip have opted to start taking birth control as a way to stop their periods as the conflict nears its eighth month.

El-Nazli, 34, said she tried everything to manage her cycle — from adult diapers to dirty cloth — before seeking out medication to stop her period altogether.

“None of these things are good,” she said in an interview while she reorganized the pots and pans lining the nylon walls of her tent.

JackGreenEarth,

How do birth control pills get in but not tampons? And wouldn’t women all over the world prefer to get rid of their periods entirely? From what I’ve heard, they verge from the uncomfortable to the painful.

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

We cannot take birth control pills indefinitely. Each pack of pills only has 21 days of active drugs in them (some packets have 28 days of pills, but 7 are placebos – this is for those of us who forget to take pills sometimes).

This is only a short-term solution meant to help the women for a few months at most.

JackGreenEarth,

What happens if you take birth control pills indefinitely?

Hedgehawk,

The period will eventually push through.

Tho I’d say the main reason all women of the world don’t use it is because birth control has side effects that can be very severe. Think mood swing that leave the person suicidal. A lot of the less severe side effects might still not be worth it depending how bad the period would be. It might be painful, but just for 4-7 days, whereas birth control side effects are 24/7.

JackGreenEarth,

I see, thanks for the information!

DeathsEmbrace,

Theirs a way to modify the female reproduction system to naturally have 6-8 months before a period through permanent modifications some women naturally have this disorder. This would probably the best method and more permanent but is GMO.

girlfreddy,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

With the current hormone mixtures most oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) have a woman has a period every month (during the 7 days she either takes no pills or takes placebos) to shed the uterine lining.

There are newer OCPs and devices, called continuous-use birth control, that women can take for 84 days - 1 year (or 2 yrs for an IUD or vaginal ring, or indefinitely for a Depo-Provera injection - with the caveat that a woman may never have a period again) before stopping for one week to shed the uterine lining.

Because these are fairly new to the market there is zero longitudinal data on the safety of these products. And as stated above, long-term use can result in never having a period again, ie: never being able to conceive.

Aviandelight,
@Aviandelight@mander.xyz avatar

Hey I can answer this. Was on birth control for over 10 years and did the whole skip cycles thing. Turns out I’m one of those lucky 1 in 10,000 that developed severe liver tumors! Seriously though a lot of bad shit can happen if you use birth control too long without breaks. It’s definitely not meant to be a permanent solution.

Milk_Sheikh,

The IDF ‘maintains’ a list of banned “dual use” items that while definitely helpful to civilians, if it can potentially-maybe-kinda be of any use to a militant? Banned.

The list is absurd and goes beyond understandable items like binoculars or bubble levels, and bans dumb things like scissors, tourniquets, or tampons. If some witless IDF inspector can think of a potential use, it’s banned. The whole truck gets turned around.

They rejected an aid shipment at least once because it was on the wrong size pallet.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Not even women’s sanitary products get to the refugees through Israel’s blockade apparently.

xmunk,

Hey - who knows what explosives they might be smuggling in their underwear! /s

It should be clear to everyone that the IDF just wants to starve out civilians and I am baffled by anyone who still thinks they’re working in good faith.

scutiger,

If you’re bombing civilians and blockading aid and starving the country, why would that be what you let through?

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