Blood,fecundity, and contraceptive usage

This work describes ethnographic and other evidence that lower class women in southern Brazil believe that the fertile period is simultaneous with or closely related to the menstrual period. Ethnographic reports from both rural and urban areas in southern Brazil, materials on the folklore of the area, and findings of an ongoing study of four lower class neighborhoods served by community health services indicate that nearly all lower class adults of both sexes believe that conception is possible if not most likely during the menstrual period. Menstrual blood is not viewed as actually a part of women, but as a fluid which remains in the uterus after fertilization or otherwise as something dirty that must be eliminated. The cultural model of the female body includes notions of opening to allow elimination of the menstrual fluid, closing after its departure, and states of wetness and heat. Numerous informants reported cases in which women became pregnant while using IUDs or in the interval between 21-day packets of oral contraceptive (OC) pills. The fact that OCs reduce the menstrual flow is viewed as problematic, because blood that should be eliminated is apparently retained. The IUD, which causes long menstrual periods and intermenstrual bleeding, is also viewed with suspicion since it appears impossible to prevent pregnancy when there is actually greater flow. Irregular and incorrect use of OCs and very limited acceptance of IUDs may be factors in the growing demand for female sterilization and in the very high rates of illegal abortion.