How do women handle their periods in space?

The first woman ventured into space more than fifty years ago -- Valentina Tereshkova in 1963. Since then, nearly 60 other women have followed in her footsteps. But when they prepare for these journeys, one added challenge faces them: how should they handle their period? "When women first went into space, it wasn't known what the effects would be," says Varsha Jain, gynecologist and researcher at Kings College London, and among the authors of a recent paper on menstruation in spaceflight. It turns out that while most systems in the human body are heavily affected during spaceflight, the female menstrual cycle doesn't seem to change at all. More

(Source: CNN - May 12)