Somehow this stuck with me, and while you are correct, in any conversation about menses I’d probably want to include the people who eg. use contraceptive methods that temporarily stop them, and people whose periods are so irregular they simply don’t know if the next one is coming or not (my group). Personally I’d also want to include and hear from people who used to menstruate but no longer do, or who are likely to start soon.
In statistics afaik they tend to use “women of fertile age”, which makes sense for those purposes, to limit it to one clear-cut group for clarity. In gynecology for individual patients I don’t think any term is used, just a list of properties (“G0P0 menarche 12 cycle 28 duration 5 normal flow, last period 1.1.2025”) and then you move on to the issue.
And that’s for periods, a relatively clear-cut thing. Then you get to “people who had the female/male experience when growing up”, or “people who perform the traditionally female/male role in a relationship” or the like.
Somehow this stuck with me, and while you are correct, in any conversation about menses I’d probably want to include the people who eg. use contraceptive methods that temporarily stop them, and people whose periods are so irregular they simply don’t know if the next one is coming or not (my group). Personally I’d also want to include and hear from people who used to menstruate but no longer do, or who are likely to start soon.
In statistics afaik they tend to use “women of fertile age”, which makes sense for those purposes, to limit it to one clear-cut group for clarity. In gynecology for individual patients I don’t think any term is used, just a list of properties (“G0P0 menarche 12 cycle 28 duration 5 normal flow, last period 1.1.2025”) and then you move on to the issue.
And that’s for periods, a relatively clear-cut thing. Then you get to “people who had the female/male experience when growing up”, or “people who perform the traditionally female/male role in a relationship” or the like.