Menstrual education! It’s more important than you think.

The most powerful tool that people have is education. Education unlocks endless opportunities, introduces new perspectives, and creates more knowledgeable learners. Arguably most importantly, it creates empowered individuals.

Now, think about your favorite class. Perhaps your favorite teacher. Think about all of the knowledge that you took away from that class, what you still remember 5, 10, or 20 years later. This education has impacted you and continues to impact you in your day to day life, which is quite remarkable. Whether it be calculus, chemistry, or literature, this knowledge has proven its importance to you outside of the classroom and has inspired you to take a certain career path, become a more curious student, or feel excited about learning. This impact is profound and completely unique to education.

We have many classes in school: math, history, science, and cool electives if you’re lucky. There is such a strong emphasis on becoming more knowledgeable about the world around us that sometimes we overlook becoming more knowledgeable about ourselves. In my school, we have 4 years of literature required but only one semester of health class. I’m not trying to undermine the importance of core subjects (literature class, for example, is extremely important in the real world), but I’m trying to illuminate just how much we overlook learning about our bodies.

For starters, health class isn’t even mandatory in some states! As a country, we have given the message that our bodies are not worth learning about, and this has had drastic effects on the way that our culture views topics such as reproductive and menstrual health. Topics that are now considered taboo are the topics that are the most important to learn about for basic personal health. We may have a choice over whether we will use calculus in our everyday lives, but we have no choice over whether we will menstruate or not. And yet, menstrual education isn’t even REQUIRED to be taught!

According to a study by Thinx, Inc., 79% of students aged 13–19 believe that we need more in-depth education about menstrual health. Along with this, 67% believe that education around menstrual health should be part of their core curriculum. Even more notably, 79% of students said that they were taught more about the biology of frogs than they were about the biology of the human female body. What does this mean?

Students are lacking menstrual education in schools and they are BEGGING for it.

Furthermore, if we look at the society that we live in, the importance of menstrual education is amplified. The study showed that 64% of students believe that society teaches people to be ashamed of their periods and 80% believe that there is a negative association with periods. Society is teaching young menstruators that they are dirty and gross, and our public school system is complacent with these efforts.

The impacts of this lack of education are real, almost too real. In a video created by Bodyform UK (a menstrual product company) both menstruators and non-menstruators talk about their knowledge of periods and the stigma surrounding menstruation. One girl states, “I don’t really think I’ve met boys who’ve understood [menstruation]” while another boy (age 15) says, “Some kids my age don’t know what [menstruation] is.” When asked about the impacts of this, one girl states: “[When you’re on your period,] you feel very alone,” while a boy adds, “Boys don’t know as well as girls so I think they just make a bit of a joke out of it.” A lack of education has a clear link in the creation of a taboo topic, and the effects are extremely clear when looking at the conversation surrounding periods. The process is quite simple.

Lack of knowledge → Discomfort discussing the topic → Taboo

Think back to that knowledge that has stuck with you 5, 10, 20 years after learning it. Was it about safe sex practices? Was it about reusable menstrual products? Was it about the follicular phase of your menstrual cycle? Do you even know what the follicular phase of your menstrual cycle is? I definitely didn’t learn that from school.

So, if schools aren’t teaching this, are parents the answer?

Putting the pressure on parents or family members to teach menstrual and reproductive health (who, more often than not, aren’t medical professionals) is unacceptable and unreasonable. In 2016, among married-couple families with children, 96.8 percent had at least one employed parent, and 61.1 percent had both parents employed. We have working parents and uneducated kids with a public school system that is failing them.

So, what IS the answer?

Well, I see several different options.

1. Make menstrual health education mandatory in middle and high schools. This is an extremely lofty goal, but this is the only goal that will ensure that every student in America will have access to medically correct reproductive and menstrual education in their public school. Start working with your local districts or go straight for the top and pressure our national legislators. This is definitely not a short route and will contain a lot of pushback but it’s the only one that will grant us long-term change.
2. Work with your school administration to implement a comprehensive and medically accurate menstrual (and reproductive) health program. Changing America is quite difficult, but changing your school can be a goal that is much more reasonable to tackle. Work with your administrators, existing health teachers, and students to gain support behind your ideas. Use neighboring schools with menstrual health programs as examples to follow or use the pre-existing resources in your school to create a program that will educate everyone.
3. Do it yourself! Teaching others is one of the most fulfilling practices an individual can do. Either become certified to teach a workshop or connect with a local health professional to hold a workshop in your school or local community. Become an engaged and educated individual, make change by teaching your friends, peers, and siblings. Small change is still change.

The most important tool we have is education. So let’s make that education accurate, applicable, and accessible for all. We need to know about our bodies to be able to make informed decisions to take care of our bodies. Menstrual health education needs to be available to all, menstruators and non-menstruators alike, to break down period stigma barriers and eliminate misinformation. We have a responsibility to change the system that is letting so many young students down and empower the next generation of young menstruators.