How to Get Your Period: A Guide to Performing Menstrual Extraction

In 1971, as part of their work with their feminist reproductive collective, Lorraine Rothman and Carol Downer invented menstrual extraction (ME), a suction process to pass the entire period all at once and abort an unwanted early pregnancy. An underground network of providers has kept ME alive ever since, and in a post-Roe era the demand is now surging. Written by an anonymous medical professional, this zine provides a short history of ME and detailed instructions and diagrams about how to safely and effectively perform a manual exam, use a speculum, assemble a Del-Em kit, and complete a menstrual extraction procedure. You'll also learn when not to perform ME and find an overview of other safe and effective options for bringing about menstruation or ending a pregnancy in the first trimester. In addition to heralding the incredible discovery of those historical heroes and affirming the need for abortion rights, this zine offers menstrual extraction as a method to understand and protect our own bodies, choices, and reproductive rights even as they are under attack.