The ‘period of poverty’ affects millions of women and girls around the world

Globally, 3.5 billion women have monthly periods. According to a charity Days for girls, more than 500 million women and girls, nearly 25% of all periods, experience “menstrual poverty”. More than 500 million women do not have access to feminine hygiene products.

According to Thinx and PERIOD, one in five adolescents in the United States has difficulty affording menstrual products. According to Girls’ Days website, menstrual poverty is a term used to describe the lack of access to adequate menstrual health management supplies and education for women and girls.

According to Girls’ Days website, many women cannot afford feminine hygiene products because of their price. This lack of menstrual health resources and supplies can negatively impact women.

High prices for feminine hygiene products

According to Pandia Health, if a woman used a tampon every six hours and four tampons were used each day, that would equate to 20 tampons for each five-day menstrual cycle, for a total of 9,120 tampons in her lifetime. If a box of tampons costs $ 7 and there are 36 tampons in a box, the lifetime cost would be $ 1,733.33

With panty liners, an estimated average would be $ 433.33 per life.

If a woman used three to five sanitary napkins per day for a period of five days, she would probably spend about $ 4,752 over their lifetime on towels.

If a woman leaked during her period and a ruined panty cost $ 5, it would cost $ 2,280 for 456 periods.

In addition to the high prices of period products, there is a “pink tax” on feminine hygiene products. According to Investopedia, the “pink tax” is a price gap in which the services and products marketed to women cost more than identical products or services marketed to men. Of the 50 US states, 30 states still have this pink tax.

“In Utah, vintage items are taxed as luxury items, but condoms are not,” said Diana Nelson, BYU alumnus and global director of advocacy for Days For Girls. “It’s under a pink tax because feminine hygiene products are not considered a medical necessity, but a luxury.”

According to Equity for the period, many people, including women, believe that feminine hygiene products should not only be tax-free, but also free in general. The website continues to say that menstrual products should be freely available in schools, shelters and correctional facilities.

“It’s gender inequality and people don’t even think about it because we don’t even talk about it,” Nelson said.

College students affected by menstrual poverty

Women who attend college campuses across the United States have been affected by menstrual poverty and have been unable to purchase feminine hygiene products due to the high price of these products.

According to private surveys from the Penn State Days for Girls Club, 49% of respondents started their period on campus and couldn’t find any period products. About 13% of respondents also missed school or work due to lack of access to period products.

Nelson shared a memory she had with her roommate when she attended BYU. Her roommate often took toilet paper and made napkins. At the time, Nelson did not realize that his roommate could not afford to buy sanitary napkins and therefore had to use makeshift sanitary napkins which were uncomfortable and difficult to use.

“I look back and put it all together. I realized I had all these towels that I could have shared with her, but I didn’t know it at the time, ”said Nelson.

Services and resources for women BYU Principal Dixie Sevison said the office has a drawer full of different feminine hygiene products available to students, and that they don’t limit how much each student can take. Any student who needs feminine hygiene products can go to the Women’s Services and Resources office and pick up as many as they need.

Sevison said other college campuses have started offering free feminine hygiene products to students on campus. Women’s Services & Resources also began work on a proposal to BYU that would provide free feminine hygiene products to women on the BYU campus.

Presenteeism and absenteeism

Menstruating women may also struggle with presenteeism, a loss of productivity when employees are unable to function fully due to period cramps or pain, according to Health Reuters.

Nelson said women struggling with periods and menstrual poverty may be physically present at school or work, but absent from their minds for fear of leakage and pain from period cramps.

Nelson said there have been instances where women have been called in to share a presentation or to show off their work, and they have not been able to do so for fear of leaks.

According to Days for girlsabsenteeism is another implication of not having access to feminine hygiene products or having extreme menstrual pain. Absenteeism is the failure to show up or stay at work or school as scheduled.

In March 2018, a rules tracking app called Clue said 18% of women in the United States missed school, work, or some event because of their period.

Nelson said pain and fear can have a negative impact on women, including their academic and professional performance. This could cause women to lose their jobs or perform poorly on performance reviews. This would affect women’s sources of income and put them at additional risk of losing their jobs and / or creating a risk of poverty.

Raise awareness about menstrual poverty

According to The Pad project Talking about periods can be uncomfortable at first, but as women and people talk more about menstrual health, it will help society deal with the issues around it.

Nelson said creating a safe space where all people, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, can feel comfortable talking about periods would be an important step in the fight against menstrual poverty. “We cannot change something until we are aware of it. “

Nelson said Americans are more comfortable talking about sexually transmitted diseases than menstruation. “People would rather talk about gonorrhea than menstruation. Because we don’t talk about it, we don’t know it’s a problem.

Jessica Blotter, a Days for Girls volunteer and BYU kinesiology and exercise science student, said it’s not a choice for women to have their period. It’s natural and normal and shouldn’t shame them.

Blotter said that even when she was open about periods and cramps, some of her friends, especially her male friends, were embarrassed to talk about it.

She said her roommate would stay home when she had her period and refrain from spending time with other people due to a lack of understanding of the rules and the culture she was from. People from her culture told her that she should stay home and refrain from interacting with other people, especially other men.

“Rules should be standardized, especially at BYU – you shouldn’t have to feel any different because you’re going through your period,” Blotter said.

She hopes to raise awareness and normalize about periods and menstrual poverty. She also hopes to start a Days for Girls club or a menstrual health awareness club on the BYU campus.

Nelson said it must be embarrassing for her friend to be in an environment where she should have had the supplies but could not afford them due to the high prices of the products. Her roommate couldn’t ask others for the help she needed because no one was talking about it.