Period Poverty A Humanitarian Crisis
since the age of 10
kyla an abandoned foster care child has
been living on the streets
and every month like clockwork she is
faced with a difficult decision
will she buy the box of tampons that she
needs or will she purchase her next meal
if kyla is unable to pay for the
menstrual products she needs she’s then
forced to make her own period products
out of unhygienic items such as a sock
or a plastic bag
this method of menstrual hygiene puts
kyla at a high risk for a multitude of
diseases and
infections kyla is one of the many women
around the globe who are victims of
period poverty
period poverty is a term used to
describe the lack of
access that disadvantaged women men and
non-binary people have to proper
menstrual hygiene products up to 500
million people
across the world are surviving under
conditions when
access to menstrual hygiene products is
scarce
having a period every month can be an
untenable expense
especially if you live in a country or
state where buying the feminine hygiene
products
needed to prevent numerous health issues
is taxed
because the products are considered a
luxury item
according to the international
federation of gynecology an estimated 1
in 10 young women
have been unable to afford protection
for their period
twelve percent have been forced to
improvise with devices that may be
ineffective
unhygienic and unsafe incarcerated women
in particular have its
especially hard time gaining access to
menstrual hygiene products
genre belzeko a previous inmate at york
correctional institution in connecticut
had to plead with her correctional
officer for pads
shauna recalled an experience with the
co to women’s health magazine and stated
you’d ask a co for pads or tampons and
he would ask you questions like
how long have you been bleeding didn’t i
give you a pad yesterday
how long is this one going to last
despite it being a federal law to
provide female inmates with menstrual
products there have been
countless stories from women all across
the u.s who have had to bag
and barter for period supplies an
especially horrifying case of poverty in
prisons was coral martin’s experience in
san luis
obito county jail during one of her
monthly cycles coral had soaked through
all of the pads that she had been
provided coral had been arrested at the
young age of 19 during an episode of
psychosis
and her mental state was quickly
declining due to the fact that the jail
refused
her her prescribed medications
because there was no room in the
county’s one psychiatric facility coral
was placed in an isolation unit without
any menstrual products
eventually coral was found naked in her
own cell and covered in her own blood
the treatment coral received was
inhumane and animalistic
the county had access to menstrual
products to give to their inmates but
the cos
hardened by the systematic mistreatment
of their female inmates and own
ignorance
did not believe coral needed any
menstrual products
it is hard and painful to accept that
this type of mistreatment
surrounding menstrual hygiene is so
prevalent in the american incarceration
system but
it is necessary to begin to have a
conversation about this subject
in order to spark a change we have to
begin to see these people as human
beings
rather than cold-hearted criminals that
we have become desensitized to
additionally women are not the only ones
who experience this hardship
period poverty affects men and gender
non-conforming individuals as well
our society has been become conditioned
to believe that administration assumes
an individual’s gender
but that is inaccurate when taking into
account that transgender people
are more likely to live in poverty than
a cisgendered person
it becomes easier to realize how period
poverty affects all kinds of people
in a recent u.s transgender survey
conducted by hank leeton
it was discovered that trans individuals
are more than twice as likely to live in
poverty
and three times as likely to be
unemployed as the general population
further in the few cases that menstrual
products are provided for free in public
public restrooms menstruating
individuals who prefer to use a male
restroom
are less likely to have access to these
free menstrual items
similarly if a woman’s shelter is
capable they may
provide women with one to two individual
feminine hygiene products per cycle
but trans homeless men are unlikely to
be provided with feminine hygiene
products in a male homeless shelter
as a society we must begin to take the
steps required in order to provide
all individuals with proper access to
menstrual hygiene products
an item as essential as toilet paper
should not carry the burden of such
negative and inhumane stigmas so much so
that we are afraid or embarrassed to
address the immense amount of problems
that have been overlooked
surrounding the topic of menstrual
hygiene in my own community i have
established a club called
helping women period together my club
raised over six
hundred dollars in its first year and
collected over five thousand menstrual
hygiene products
that were donated to shalom house in
harrisburg
while my club has benefited a lot of
people i know donations are not enough
first we must begin to educate the next
generation
for centuries periods have been seen as
a shameful topic that we’ve ought to be
kept a secret
in many countries women and girls are
unallowed from touching water
cooking or attending religious
ceremonies while menstruating
because the individual is seen as
unclean
these ideas ingrain shameful thoughts
regarding menstruation into young girls
minds
especially in developing countries like
uganda girls are less likely to attend
school to receive an education while
menstruating
because they fear being teased or
ridiculed
even here in the u.s it is common for
girls to learn to hide their menstrual
products in a little bag to take to the
restroom with them
while in public spaces like school if
health curriculums in school focus
more on having open conversations about
menstruating individuals reproductive
health
menstrual hygiene and their human rights
we can redivert whatever shame a student
may have and teach them to celebrate
their bodies and further
empower the next generation to have a
sense of bodily independence and pride
purity poverty isn’t a political issue
it is a humanitarian crisis it is a
societal question whether we treat our
brothers and sisters with respect and
dignity
or whether we leave them to continue to
live in shame
and dangerous conditions thank you
you