Shedding the Stigma of Period Poverty
Written by Isabella Fang | Edited by Julianna Tejada
Over 800 million people menstruate every single day. Shockingly, the phenomena of period poverty, often overlooked in medical and social contexts, affects an estimated 500 million people with over one in four people globally having experienced it. As an emerging term in the medical dictionary, “period poverty” is a pressing public health crisis. For decades, however, the concept in and of itself has been informally applied to discussions over the educational gender gap for youth in low and middle-income-earning countries. In short, period poverty is defined as inadequate access to menstrual products, sanitation, and education, including waste management and hygienic facilities. Due to financial circumstances along with inimical political and societal ideologies shadowing the menstruating population, handling periods with dignity and safety is an intense struggle for many. Not all women menstruate, and not all people who menstruate are women. To normalize conversations surrounding menstruation, we must rectify the misconceptions, shame, and taboos of those living in period poverty.
The scope of period poverty encompasses more than just low-income countries in the developing world. For one in five people living in the US, affording period products is a major inconvenience, yet a mere 4% of Americans are aware of local services in which period supplies are free or available at reduced costs. A study from 2017 revealed that one in five girls missed school due to a lack of access to period supplies while 38% of low-income women reported missing work or similar events for the same reason. Reinforcing this inequity, youth with housing instability, the disabled community, Black, Hispanic, and trans individuals disproportionately go without proper menstrual hygiene resources.
Heightening economic strains, the tampon tax, also known as the “pink tax,” frequently advertises and sells goods stereotypically marketed toward women at inflated costs. Taxed as luxury items, mark-ups on the price of period products are outrageously expensive despite being a basic necessity. Over 20 states in the United States have implemented this form of gender-based discrimination, only forcing more individuals into period poverty.
Additionally, government benefits and subsidiaries do not provide coverage for the price of period supplies. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill passed by the 116th US Congress on March 25, 2020, addressed financing for the treatment and prevention of COVID. It also allocated an aggregate of $130 billion toward the healthcare system, addressing emergency care and boosting pay for healthcare suppliers and providers by $100 billion. While the CARES Act has expanded eligibility to medical expenses through flexible spending and health savings accounts, the uninsured are unable to access this financial aid and are deprived of essential menstrual products.
Although students frequently depend on free, disposable sanitary pads, liners, and tampons received from schools, period products aren’t universally accessible or readily available. In a 2021 study conducted by U by Kotex, 27 percent of all respondents said the COVID-19 pandemic had made accessing period products difficult, with two-thirds of that group stating affordability as an issue. In certain cases, only insertion-based products are offered while disposal receptacles remain missing from school bathrooms. State and local jurisdictions have proposed legislation to distribute corresponding supplies, but the allocation of funding for these bills places the burden on schools to purchase menstrual products. With extensive closures of educational facilities since the pandemic, efforts to disperse menstrual supplies were put on the back burner.
Torn between securing food or period products, people who menstruate resort to unsafe alternatives such as paper, towels, diapers, cardboard, old clothes, leaves, cotton, or even sawdust in lieu of traditional items. Insufficient toilets and privacy measures, water quality, and sanitation infrastructure interfere with the ability of students to manage their menstrual cycles.
The perceived cultural shame attached to period poverty can be frustrating and embarrassing. Excluded from everyday activities, people who menstruate are teased, prevented from comfortably engaging in everyday activities, or even banished to isolation in particular regions of the world. Discomfort and fear of the stigma associated with period poverty have hindered educational and occupational attainment. Simultaneously, it has averted dialogues surrounding the availability of menstrual products, the extortionate sales tax rate on said products, and the ingredients composing them. By labeling periods as impure or unclean instead of a biologically healthy and natural process, menstruators are disempowered and inhibited from bleeding with a sense of self-respect.
Along with social ramifications, poor menstrual hygiene can present physical and emotional health complications. Rationing products, wearing them for longer than intended, and substituting materials in place of menstrual supplies has been linked to reproductive and urogenital tract infections. In addition, higher rates of symptoms for moderate to severe depression have been witnessed in populations experiencing period poverty.
The stunning and hidden lack of access to menstrual products is becoming a growing reality for millions. Still, research remains scarce in the realm of period poverty. Undermining and invalidating the lived experiences surrounding insufficient period hygiene is one of the primary driving forces of period poverty and its stigma. Inclusive menstrual education is key to eradicating myths, promoting healthy habits, and dismantling taboos around the normal bodily function.
To ensure the accessibility of period products, public and private institutions should promote legislation that invests in policies extending free menstrual products, sanitation, and hygiene to underprivileged communities. Mandating schools to provide period products to students with consistent funding would increase widespread access to menstrual products, reduce absenteeism, and facilitate the success and development of those who menstruate. Intersectoral collaboration, knowledge sharing between organizations spreading period positivity, and governmental participation to drop value-added taxes on menstrual products, thereby, making them more affordable, are critical to combating period poverty. Adequate infrastructure and expanded access to clean sanitation will enhance the quality of menstrual health for all, preserving inclusive and sustainable hygiene practices. Achieving menstrual equity will not only advance the overall well-being of our global population, but it will also foster the health of our society, allowing menstruators to feel confident and capable during their periods.
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