Monday, August 12th 2019
Season 3 Premiere of Period Podcast – Are We Defined by Our Cycles?
Show notes: Join Kate as she talks to Dr. Annaliese Beery, professor and member of the Psychology, Biology, and Neuroscience programs at Smith College. I wanted to talk to Dr. Beery because of her work on sex, gender, and estrus cycles in animal research. People often avoid studying females because they believe we are all too variable because of the effects of the menstrual cycle on physiology and behavior. Dr. Beery tells us how that isn’t at all true! She also tells us about the research that shows that males are often the ones who are more variable.
It turns out that menstrual/estrus cycles don’t mean you are suddenly at the whim of your hormones any more than any other gender. So one of the main reasons for gender inequity in research – that when studying females you have to control for menstrual cycle phase, and that is just so hard – is rendered moot. I have been chewing on this interview for months, because it turns upside down so many ways that menstruators are taught to think about themselves. I loved this episode, and I hope you do too!
Guest Bio: Dr. Beery is a professor at Smith College, where she integrates ecological, evolutionary, and neuroscience perspectives in her work. One branch of her research is focused on the neurobiological mechanisms supporting life in social groups. She also studies sex bias in the use of female and male research subjects—both from literature based surveys of prior research, and through empirical studies of sources of variability in males and females. She is the recipient of grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and other organizations.
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