How The UNB Menstrual Health Society is Destigmatizing Menstruation, Period.
Written for The Aquinian
Published in The NB Media Co-op*
(Artwork by Incé Husain)
Fifth-year UNB mechanical engineering student Caroline Stephen was in the Harriet Irving Library when her period unexpectedly started. She searched the library washrooms for menstrual product dispensers to no avail, compelling a trek to the campus pharmacy for an expensive full-pack tampon purchase. Startled by the unforeseen hassle, she was instilled with the belief that free menstrual products should accompany buildings regularly frequented by menstruating students.
“That situation got me thinking ‘what the heck, why are period products so inaccessible in such a commonly-used student building?’” says Stephen. “I started reaching out to stakeholders within the university to get a sense of what could be done.”
She shared her vision with the UNB Student Union and second-year UNB psychology student Kate Palmer, who ran for the position of Student Union Women’s Councilor to adopt the initiative as her official project. Financial support began to flow from those in leadership positions.
“We got to the right people in the university and had a meeting with them. They felt it was a great pilot project, (and) saw potential in it being successful,” says Stephen.
Stephen and Palmer quickly found themselves with a pool of resources - 15 menstrual product dispensers to be installed in campus buildings and sanitary products from the UNB Health Center. They amassed a group of 54 volunteers to manage the donations, culminating in the establishment of the UNB Menstrual Health Society.
Stephen emphasizes that the Society serves ‘all menstruating populations’ and that the majority of the menstrual product dispensers are in gender neutral washrooms. The Society hopes to track menstrual product usage - stats that will make the case for populating other local campuses with dispensers, like STU and UNB-SJ. They are also planning donation drives, partnerships with local menstrual health organizations, increases in the variety of period products offered, and workshops on menstrual product sustainability for campuses that have shown interest in the Society’s vision, like STU.
“It started with that one initiative, but … now that we have established a Society there’s a lot more menstrual health related initiatives we can pursue,” Stephen says.
Stephen and Palmer discuss the ways in which periods are stigmatized, sharing that the topic is avoided so consistently or approached with such awkwardness that it is scarcely acknowledged as a valid social reality.
Palmer shared that most Society volunteers said that dismissive social experiences surrounding menstruation occurred in classroom settings, citing a student who had once asked to use the bathroom during an exam with a sanitary pad in hand; her male professor had abruptly asked her ‘what was in her hand’ and quickly shooed her away upon recognizing it as a menstrual product.
“Especially with males - they avoid any discussion and that’s the biggest thing, people trying to keep it on the down-low. Which doesn’t really make sense. (Menstruation) happens to (half the population), it’s such a universal thing. There’s no reason to hide it.” Palmer says.
Palmer and Stephen both marvel, however, at the number of men who signed up for Society membership. They are eager to see what unique tangents they might bring to reinventing the societal interpretation of menstruation.
“They have a whole different audience that they can influence by being involved, so hopefully it will only bring more men into the initiative. (The destigmatization) is not just a female initiative, absolutely not,” says Palmer.
The Society aims to introduce menstruation into casual conversation so it might cease to cause alienating frenzy.
The Society’s Facebook hosted a friendly period-related social media contest that garnered over thirty submissions of student stories recounting their first period. Palmer accompanied social media shares of the stories with facts about menstruation. She also made Facebook posts conveying the extent of ‘period poverty’ - the practical and financial inaccessibility of period products.
Palmer said she was shocked to learn that one in seven students in Canada report missing school because of period poverty, and thirty-four percent make budgetary sacrifices to afford menstrual products. These features compound badly with university pursuits sustained by near-constant studying and high tuition fees.
“Having missed school (because of menstruation) blows my mind because it’s just a natural thing that happens to us. It should never affect your studies,” says Palmer. “That’s something we really want to fix.”
Stephen believes that merely associating events with the UNB Menstrual Health Society can spark dialogue too. Other Society initiatives include social media fundraisers, posters, and giveaways that are unrelated to menstrual health but might expose people to the Society’s mission and subtly reintroduce periods into the social fabric.
Future initiatives for promoting menstrual health education may involve discussing cultural contexts that lead to different societal interpretations of periods.
“If we had people of different cultures who would like to speak out about their interpretation of periods and how they’ve grown up with it… (those ideas are) not something I’ve ever been exposed to. I’ve grown up here my whole life and have thought the same way about periods. That would be a really neat project,” says Stephen.
The co-founders envision a society without period stigma as one where menstruation is socially accepted as a life routine.
“I picture it as normalized… the removal of the awkwardness and embarrassment around it, hiding it and letting it negatively impact parts of your life. The conversation around it should never feel awkward as it does right now,” says Stephen. “It shouldn’t feel weird to talk with somebody about your period in public and have other people hear.” ♦
*This article was amalgamated with the piece “Catching up with the UNB Menstrual Health Society: Prestigious awards and feats in fighting stigma” for publication in the NB Media Co-op on April 3rd, 2023:
A modified version of this article appeared in The Aquinian on March 20th, 2022:
https://theaquinian.net/how-the-unb-menstrual-health-society-is-destigmatizing-menstruation-period/