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