Interviews - The Future of Menstrual Products

#futureofworkandplay

Throughout weeks 2-4 I organised and interviewed 6 people. These interviews helped me learn a lot more about the menstrual product and health industry.

Eco-Brands

I interviewed 3 women from different sustainable menstrual product brands, Lunette, Wā Collective and Oi.

Susan Johns, Operations Manager for Lunette NZ

Lunette sells reusable silicone menstrual cups. Johns gave a great view on sustainability and the push that sustainably action has promoted sustainable brands. She believes that the future of menstrual products is reusable.

A few quotes;

"I think the future of period products is sustainable, I think we’ll see all the plastic options go, I would like to see some production taxes on ones that are thrown away single use, similarly to the way that its pushed to tax things that are single use, disposable and making a lot of rubbish, it’d be good to see that. I mean we don’t want period products to increase in price, but at the same time we want companies to take responsibility for the way that they’re disposed of. "

"Since having sustainably built into the New Zealand and Australian curriculum, I think it's just that push, they’ve got eco-educators at every school now that will say, yes you can recycle but recycling just downgrades the product again, what we wanna see is reusable products, and now we’ve got the sustainable period project education kits, the teachers actually have hands on resources that can be used over and over again, so they can use that same resource kit every year and say look this is a pair of period underwear, these are menstrual cups, these are the sustainable reusable options. When I went through school, probably when you went through school, the only thing that was talked about was disposable pads and tampons, and you got given a purse pack of disposables and research shows that most people will stick to the same product that they start on."

Meg Rea, Wellington Manager for Wā Collective

Wā Collective sells reusable silicone menstrual cups. Rea gave an insightful look into how social change and recent pushes for sustainability are making people more willing to talk about periods and menstrual cups. She also highlighted that a lot more research is needed to be done. She believes the future will involve technology and research using reusable products.

A few quotes;

"It’s funny because, in order to do the work we want to do to sort of deconstruct capitalism and the linear cycle of having to buy tampon after tampon, we get into this funny place that our goal is to not exist. "

"I think we all need to be talking about periods, we need allies too."

We've definitely seen a social shift, people are a lot more willing to talk about periods and people are learning a lot about menstrual cups... I think it’s sadly happening a bit slowly and we wish it was definitely a lot faster, but people are way more willing to talk about it. And also the environmental conversation as well, people are a lot more willing to make environmental steps, look at all aspects of their routine, and what they can replace and do better...I think it is the environmental shift, and a lot of stuff like ‘school strike for climate’ and a lot of environmental debates that have been happening recently, and the current state of climate change. It’s in the back of people's minds all the time now... I think it’s cultural shifts within the media and within the world in the global context, that are really undercurrenting these movements."

"I don’t think there’s enough research on plastic cups being used internally and I think there’s a lot of research that needs to happen. "

"I think it looks like a lot more tech and a lot of research being done. Within… the endometriosis space and the menstrual healthcare area, there’s not a lot of research being done for the amount of people that suffer from endometriosis, it’s like equal to the amount of people that have diabetes, yet there’s no research being funded in New Zealand for that at all. So while there’s so many different intersections and issues within period healthcare, I think cups are gonna be a really good factor towards researching what’s needed from that and being able to have cups that can tell you what your menstrual health is actually like. Connect to your phone and being able to do it that way or turning a different colour for if you’ve got like your pH is off or something like that. I think it’s gonna be really interlinked with period healthcare which is really exciting."

Amber Hassett, Marketing Executive for Oi (between America and NZ)

Oi sells 100% organic cotton decomposable pads and tampons as well as plastic reusable menstrual cup. Hassett also provided great insight into the social shift where more people are willing to talk about periods, which she believes is from the 'generational gap'. She too thinks that more research is needed to be done especially on the ingredients in synthetic products and the effects of these ingredients. She believes the future is going to be more reusable than sustainable, but that the decompsable materials are still important.

A few quotes;

“Women in general, we’ve kind of been taught to apologise for our existence and taking up space and speaking about things that affect us, and I think it’s really important that we open that space up not just for women but all people who menstruate. Say look it’s a normal thing it happens to 50% of the population and it shouldn’t be an issue... It’s not just talking to the people who menstruate, but everybody… that’s part of period poverty, is the education piece and that really needs to be far reaching to everybody.”

“I’ve just become more and more aware of the generational gap and how wonderfully open the younger generation is about speaking about these things”

"Hey look there’s this need and this gap and we had no idea, we used this products for 40 years and had no idea what they could and couldn’t do. That’s the problem with a lot of it, is there’s not a lot of studies, and there’s not a lot of information on the long term effects of these things. You know there’s safe levels of pesticides and that sort of thing. But if I had the option to not do that, probably gonna go with not."

"The generational changes, we’re seeing people who care more about what’s in their food, what’s in their products. How it affects not just themselves, but the planet... The standards aren’t universal, I think that’s the big thing now. New York just passed a law requiring packaging to have ingredients including tampons and pads and that sort of thing. So hopefully, moves like that will start to educate people a little bit more... It’ll get people to start asking the questions.”

“I think we’re gonna get to a point where reusable is most important, and biodegradable is probably gonna be second… But I think they go hand in hand. While period underwear are great, they’re still gonna have a shelf life right? Just like the cup, it’s only gonna be a few years that you can use them. So we need to make sure that when that’s done, they either can break down or be recycled. Because we don’t wanna move from 11,000 synthetic pads every year for a woman to even a 100 pairs of period underwear in her life. Yes it’s significantly less, but we just wanna make sure that whatever we’re doing is the best solution long term as well.”

Medical Perspective

I thought that gaining a medical perspective on menstrual and sexual health would be important to have a well rounded scope of perspectives. I interviewed Dr. Cathy Dowle, a GP interested specially in sexual health and Dr. Lisa Meyer, a gynecologist.

Dr. Cathy Dowle, GP at Wadestown Medical Practice

GPs see a wide variety of people in relation to menstrual and sexual health. Dr. Dowle gave me a great perspective on sexual health and the use of contraceptives in the menstrual health area. She spoke a bit about the changes within a social and medical context. She highlighted the fact that many people go a long time with symptoms of something and don't realise they have symptoms or don't think anything can be done. She believes that more education is important.

A few quotes;

"I think there’s probably more of a move towards seeing it as it’s absolutely okay for your body if you don’t have a period, if we engineer it so you don’t have a period, that’s fine, it’s not harmful to you and it might have some advantages for you. I think that’s probably a little bit different to ten or fifteen years ago."

(Why do you think that is?)

"I don’t know whether it’s just in terms of recent guidelines of around how we prescribe the pill have sort of emphasised how that’s okay and for us to put that across to women. "

"I think I would say the younger generation is probably more comfortable with talking about that aspect of their life than people who are say in their 40s or 50s. I think it’s perhaps been more widely discussed in school, or it’s more in the media, people are more exposed to it through tv shows, it’s become less kind of a taboo or hidden thing I guess."

"I think just being matter of fact and straight forward, the fact that it is a good idea to get an STI check if you have recently had a new partner and that that’s a normal thing to do and particularly perhaps amongst the young male population. It would be good if that message was really out there and I’m not sure that it is so much. Also I think most people put up with symptoms for a long time thinking there isn’t anything to be done or are embarrassed and that includes things like heavy periods as well, or people don’t realise that they’re outside of the norm. "

(On the future of sexual health)

"I think education and knowledge about things would be something that would be nice to see for in the future that people really know what, things like they’ve heard of chlamydia and know what it is, have heard of herpes and know what it is, and how to protect themselves and I guess seeing the public better educated about those things, better able to take control of things themselves. At the moment you would see a doctor to get your pill prescription, but I think you can also get it from a pharmacist. So whether contraceptive options will be more widely available without having to see a doctor, that could be an interesting, possibly very useful thing. So for example you can get the morning after pill through a pharmacist and I think you can get the basic pill prescription from a pharmacist as well, so really extending those services could be an interesting way to go."

(On school's responsibility for educating people about menstrual and sexual health)

"Yeah, I would say so, I think they’re probably best placed with a captive audience to do that really. Doesn’t necessarily have to be the school itself to provide that information, but school’s enabling for that information to be conveyed to their pupils whether getting somebody in to do that who works in a family planning clinic or sexual health clinic."

Dr. Lisa Meyer, Gynecologist at Omnicare and Sonelle

Gynecologists see a very specific population of women coming in related to menstrual health. They will be people who have problems with their periods such as heavy bleeding or a lot of pain. Dr. Meyer gave some great perspective of these women, that wherever you go, the problems are the same, they're universal. She also gave perspective to the use of contraceptives, such as the pill which can be used to manipulate and skip your period. She believes that the future looks like more education and that the changes we see happening such as in more open advertising will continue to change.

A few quotes;

"It depends more on what’s available in the country but basically if you talk to women with period problems despite whether you’re in Canada, here or South Africa they all have the same problem. They all struggle with having to buy so much sanitary wear or not having sanitary wear or how to carry on with their lives when they’re bleeding so heavily so that is very much the same wherever you go."

"I think a lot has changed already and it will continue to do so, I mean advertising sanitary wear for instance 30 years ago you’d never see and now certainly in women’s magazines that it is very commonly advertised or even things like IUD that can help with your periods are actually being advertised on social media and on women’s blogs. I think we are getting there and the newer generation of doctors coming through have a much more open approach and would more easily ask about periods than just ‘oh your blood count is low, you’re not eating enough iron’ but will look for the cause because bleeding too heavily is a cause. So rather than shy away from that, the younger generation does not, they are very open. I think this will continue to evolve in schools, in biology classes and reproductive classes and so it’s part of our normal education."

"I think more and more women realise the old myths around contraceptives and hormones manipulating cycles and manipulating and stopping periods that the old myths are becoming replaced with education and that’s why I try to do is to educate women about the fact that you don’t have to have a period nowadays and you can manipulate your cycle so you do not have a period. So that would be great from my point of view to get young girls particularly into the state where they will accept that they can use a pill and there’s no stigma involved in using a pill. But their mothers are a problem, because they are still of the generation that don’t want to put their daughters on contraceptive pills even though we explain to them it’s not the contraceptive part we want to use, it’s the hormone."

(On men being educated on menstrual health)

"Yep, very important because it’s taught in schools and in the general public that it’s part of natural life, that women bleeds and there’s no stigma on it, it’s not that time of the month and everyone walk on eggshells, it’s normal, that will be beneficial, yes definitely. "

Scholarly Perspective

I also interviewed Dr. Jacqueline Gaybor, a professor at EUR who did her PhD on menstrual health and menstrual products, titled; Empowerment, destigmatization and sustainability: the co-construction of reusable menstrual technologies in the context of menstrual activism in Argentina. She gave me great insight into the lack of research and why this is, how it reflects upon people in positions of power and government.

A few quotes;

“There are many issues that need to be tackled, and once you start touching one, it will bring you directly to the other. I don’t see a way in which we can focus on just one.”

“These technologies need to be explored and understood and analysed within a particular context… I think that’s something that unfortunately I see it’s being forgotten now that there are so many projects and interventions going round the world especially in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. These products are being donated and being given for very low prices in contexts that are the same as Europe or in developed countries.”

“From an academic perspective I would say that we need to have more research in the first place, we really need to have more research that is context specific that is coming from empirical evidence from the ground. What we have so far is abundant studies coming from academic but also international organisations as well, and international non-government organisations which are surveys or studies that are not connected with empirical data or just observation and really short time observation, say 1-3 month is the average. So I would say the evidence we have, is not a solid evidence in this context. The first thing we should do is gather information on what’s actually happening over there.

“We are in a different moment now, where we need to talk about empowerment, where we need to talk about sometimes sexaulity… that’s what millennials do, we talk about things.”

“The use of social media and it’s a bit easier to place this topic without censorship. And also to circulate information… I think of course being in a connected world makes a difference.”

(On school's educating menstruation)

“This is of course a huge responsibility, and this should be taken as a structural response from the state in general, to give culturally appropriate education on sexual reproductive health and rights… there should be a response from the governmental level from this… once it’s integrated into curriculum of the school, it’s gets a different understanding, something that has to be spoken about, we have to talk about, this deserves formal attention.”

(On the 'tampon tax')

“They have not been considered first necessity product, they have considered as luxurious products and that comes from the lack of understanding of what we’re talking about. It’s not a luxury, toilet paper is not a luxury, you need, water you also need it... Reflects on the gender bias in law making. Policy makers as well.”

“Discussion has not been brought up by policy makers or by law makers, it’s been brought up by social movement, that also explains a bit about what’s going on and who is in a position of power...We need solid evidence, we need empirical research, you can only have a serious study about anything when you have enough funding… we need solid evidence, we don’t need studies that are being conducted in two or three months we need empirical and sustained research.”

“There’s very little research, and of course I think having funds come from the state is really necessary...There can be a bias if your first donor is pharmaceutical company and if you develop a result that is against the product you will lose it, you will lose your funding, and your PhD, and your post docs, and probably all the benefits that your research is having. You can cut that bias if you have direct funding from the government, because I would say there is not a set agenda behind it.”

“Historically there’s not been much interest in funding research related to women in health, most of the research I think 70% have been focussed on men. This has to do of course with who is in the power position, but related to this topic I think there’s a lot of taboo about it, stigma.”

“What’s on the agenda. If you look on the history of what sort of diseases for instance have started been researched because there’s a vaccine, or there’s a medication, there’s something being developed at the side that will be used that disease. It’s pretty much driven by the market, also If we can make some profit out of this, we can do something.”

Conclusion

From these interviews, I noticed similarities between them. A lot of the people I talked to spoke about the lack of research being done. They also spoke about the importance of opening up conversations about menstrual health to bring awareness to it. There were also similarities in the need for education, and for education to bring formal awareness to people. Everyone I interviewed also agreed that a social change has been taking place recently, the younger generation is typically more open to talk about menstrual and sexual health and there is also a push for sustainability. I took these findings to come up with some final insights to look at and then finally choose one to focus on which you can read about in my next post.