Fellowship Story Showcase
Community Conversation: What Is Period Poverty? — Recap And Resource Guide
This story is part of a series on period poverty in Illinois supported by the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism's 2022 National Fellowship.
Other stories in this series include:
Period Poverty In Illinois: Community-Driven Solutions
What Is The State Of Menstrual Equity In Illinois?
Period Poverty Transcending Gender: The Call For An Inclusive Approach Towards Menstrual Equity
IL LATINO NEWS
Thursday, February 2, 2023
An estimated 300 million people menstruate around the world on any given day. Still, the stigma surrounding this normal bodily function contributes to the cycle of period poverty that leads many without the products and/or knowledge they need to maintain a healthy period.
Illinois Latino News and WBEZ Chicago collaborated on the January 31 virtual event Community Conversation: What is Period Poverty? to explore this issue. Beyond defining period poverty, the event strived to illustrate its effects with video interviews featuring first-hand accounts and expert panelists at both the local and national level. Responses from the Addressing Period Poverty survey shaped the content of this conversation, by catering to the information respondents said they wanted to know.
Panelists included:
Abigail Suleman, Co-founder of Blood Buds and MPH student at UIC
Ida Melbye, Executive director of the Period Collective
Damaris Pereda, National programs director, PERIOD.
Dr. Sameena Rahman, Obstetrics and gynecology specialist at the Center for Gynecology and Cosmetics
Yesenia Raithel Vargas, Certified Nurse Midwife at Esperanza Health Centers
An estimated 300 million people menstruate around the world on any given day. Still, the stigma surrounding this normal bodily function contributes to the cycle of period poverty that leads many without the products and/or knowledge they need to maintain a healthy period.
Illinois Latino News and WBEZ Chicago collaborated on the January 31 virtual event Community Conversation: What is Period Poverty? to explore this issue. Beyond defining period poverty, the event strived to illustrate its effects with video interviews featuring first-hand accounts and expert panelists at both the local and national level. Responses from the Addressing Period Poverty survey shaped the content of this conversation, by catering to the information respondents said they wanted to know.
Panelists included:
Abigail Suleman, Co-founder of Blood Buds and MPH student at UIC
Ida Melbye, Executive director of the Period Collective
Damaris Pereda, National programs director, PERIOD.
Dr. Sameena Rahman, Obstetrics and gynecology specialist at the Center for Gynecology and Cosmetics
Yesenia Raithel Vargas, Certified Nurse Midwife at Esperanza Health Centers
One key finding of the survey highlighted the misconception of what period poverty is. Of 204 responses, 48 percent of people said that they have struggled to pay for period products, but only 39 percent said that they have experienced poverty. If someone has struggled to pay for period products, then they have in fact experienced period poverty.
“Period poverty for those who live on the street looks very different from period poverty for somebody who has most of the things that they need but, maybe there’s a month here and there where they can’t afford product that they need…” said Ida Melbye, co-founder of The Period Collective.