Introduction - The Future of Menstrual Products
- Emma
- Aug 7, 2020
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 10
I am incredibly excited for my Design 231 elective's first assignment - The Future of X. I have chosen a domain that I am passionate about de-stigmatizing as well as being sustainably active towards - menstrual products.
This project entails coming up with a crystallized insight into the future of menstrual products, an article explaining the insight and a documentary with evidence. We find this insight from curating interviews with experts, and researching precedents to back up our theories.
For the first week we were tasked with writing a reflection about why we chose this domain, a timeline of past significant events and coming up with insights about what the future could look like for this domain.
Reflection
I have chosen this domain because I and half the population are personally affected by it a lot. I am interested in finding out the possibilities of what period products could do in relation to pain relief and comfort as well as sustainable products and the accessibility of them. The future of period products really interests me and I believe that something has to change soon with the materials and ways we create these products due to the amount of waste created. The most common products women buy are not environmentally friendly, a lot of single use products which need to be switched out multiple times a day every month and are wasted. In some countries I know that talking about periods is considered taboo and the accessibility of products is low due to this or the expense of them. I think it would be interesting to look into the future and think about how period products will adapt and change to fit the needs of the future woman.
Timeline
1896 - The first commercialized disposable napkin.
1929 - Dr. Earle Haas created the tampon, Gertrude Tenderich created the company Tampax out of it. Tampons didn’t become popular until the 70s.
1937 - Leona Charles, an American actress patented the first menstrual cup, wouldn’t catch on until the 2000s.
1950s - The brand Pursettes created ‘easier’ to insert tampons making them better for unmarried women, who couldn’t have their purity in question.
1969 - The first Maxi Pad by Stayfree. An adhesive strip meant no more belts!
1980s - Around 70% of women were using tampons by now. (Vostral, S. 2008)
1980s - Using tampons is found to have correlation with the disease Toxic Shock Syndrome as tampons allow multiple ways for bacteria to grow, so switching them out often is very important. (Menstrual cups also pose risk).
1985 - Courtney Cox says the word ‘period’ in a commercial. Traditional advertising still tries to pretend that women don’t bleed. Blue liquids and terms are used to avoid the reality of the situation.
2001 - The mirena IUD was released which is a form of contraception but also brought on lighter periods and sometimes even stops periods altogether by releasing hormones in the body. It can last from 5-7 years.
2003 - A birth control pill was passed in which periods are able to be skipped.
2015 - THINX is launched. A brand which sells period underwear which are reusable and can be worn as a substitute for other disposable products.
2016 - Oi, NZ brand is launched. They sell organic tampons and pads which are biodegradable and come in biodegradable packaging! They are sold commercially in stores like supermarkets and the Warehouse. They claim to break down in 5 years, however you still dispose of them in the rubbish so I am not sure how true this claim is?
2018 - Wa Collective is launched. This is a significant event for me as this was when my sister introduced me to the company and I began using the reusable cup.
2019 - The documentary Period. End of Sentence, is released documenting the story of a pad making machine which is installed in a village in Northern India and follows women of the village. It wins an Oscar.
We still can't say "period"
While THINX was launching ad campaigns in New York, they were initially turned down as the MTA found the ads to be offensive. There is still a huge stigma around talking about periods and actually accepting and facing the fact that they exist.
"He said they were too suggestive ... as were the women in their underwear," -Veronica del Rosario. Even though there are plenty of other ‘suggestive’ ads which also objectify and sexualise women which the THINX ads do not.
Fortunately the ads did eventually get put through and they are all over the NY Subway, however it was a seemingly hard and frustrating process that should never have happened in the first place.
Insights
Periods will become less and less stigmatized. We can see this already starting to happen from the fact a documentary about menstruation won an Oscar.
Period products will become more accessible in developing countries, again there are shifts of this being seen already, however they aren’t as good as they could be.
It is becoming more well known the environmental issue period products have.
As the environment issue is more talked about, more companies which produce organic products will be sold in stores. (This is already happening with the Oi products, however I have not seen menstrual cups or period underwear at the supermarket before)
Menstrual cups, discs and period underwear will become more common and more popular as they are reusable, more convenient than other products and are better for the environment. I think this will become more popular through word of mouth as I and I believe in a lot of Westernised places learn which products are the best to use through their mothers, sisters, aunts, friends, and each year I hear more and more talk about these types of products.
If insight 5 comes to fruition, as these products last years at a time, less products will need to be brought. Companies may run out of business due to the change in demand for women needing 1-2 products every decade instead of needing multiple products every month.
This could possibly lead to government funding for these products and them being available for free (through organisations such as family planning) as there is a decrease in demand.
Advertising for period products will become more normalized and not avoid using terms like ‘period’. We can start to see this happen from the THINX ads in the NY subway.
More women will perhaps fully skip their periods. As birth control pills are quite popular among women and allow you to skip your monthly menstruation, “82 percent of sexually active women who were not trying to get pregnant used modern methods of contraception… After prioritisation, the most common contraceptive methods used by sexually active women were the pill (23 percent), the male condom (18 percent) and their partner’s vasectomy (10 percent).”
More convenient forms of female contraception will become more popular among women such as the mirena, which could lead to stopping your period altogether. I believe this will become more popular as there is no need to do anything, such as take a daily pill, it is more effective in this sense and less stressful.
New internal products will be made that are able to last longer and be safer because they hold less risk of TSS.
There will be more education around periods and menstruation for women and men. A lot of the projects I researched were around educating all people to destigmatize periods and products.
Product packaging will become more neutral and not as femmine. Traditional brand packaging loves using bright pinks and blues and feminne imagery. This is not inclusive to all menstruating people though. Modern brands that have been launched in the past decade have been a lot more gender neutral and not so outwardly feminine. I think this will continue to progress and make its way to the traditional brands and supermarket aisles.
Contacts
Later on in the project I will be conducting interviews with 'experts' of my domain. I have compiled a list of both sustainable and more traditional unsustainable brand contact details. I have also found some organisations and design projects looking to destigmatize period products. Isha Ray is a professor who has studied sanitation access especially in developing countries and Jaqueline Gaybor studied the stigmatisation of period products and using sustainable materials focussed in Argentina. Living in a university accommodation I also have access to a lot of users of period products and could possibly do an anonymous survey to get opinions and feedback.
References
Dame. Reuseable Tampon Applicators. Dame.
Figure 1. Bustle.
Figure 2 Bustle.
Figure 2. Bustle.
Flex. FlexFits. Flex
Lister's. Lister's Towels. Blood and Milk.
Pursette's. Pursette's. Blood and Milk.
Tampax. Courtney Cox 1985 Tampax Commercial. Youtube.
THINX. (2015). Underwear for Women with Periods 1. Bustle.
THINX. (2015). Underwear for Women with Periods 2. Bustle.
TOTM. Non-Applicator Tampons. TOTM.
Wā Collective. Wā Cup.
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