# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
WELCOME TO THE SUSTAINABLE PERIOD PROJECT!

# data[].attributes.headline
Investigating the solubility of different sanitary product materials

# data[].attributes.subject
Investigating the solubility of different sanitary product materials

# data[].attributes.headline
Framing conversations about mensuration choices with others (e.g. peers, family, medical) 

# data[].attributes.subject
Framing conversations about mensuration choices with others (e.g. peers, family, medical) 

# data[].attributes.headline
Exploring how reversible changes can be used to recycle materials for and from sanitary product materials

# data[].attributes.subject
Exploring how reversible changes can be used to recycle materials for and from sanitary product materials

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.sharethedignity.com.au/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Every. Single. Day.

Donate to a women's charity that makes a real, on-the-ground difference to homeless women and victims of domestic violence. Share The Dignity collects thousands of pads, tampons and personal hygiene products every YEAR for women experiencing homelessness and poverty. Small dignities make a big difference. We fund funerals for victims of domestic violence and campaign for justice for women in Australia.

And we need help from KIND HEARTED PEOPLE like you because your small act of kindness gives monthly dignity to Australia's most vulnerable women.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Homeless Womens Charity - Australian Charities Share the Dignity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Every. Single. Day. Donate to a women's charity that makes a real, on-the-ground difference to homeless women and victims of domestic violence. Share The Dignity collects thousands of pads, tampons and personal hygiene products every YEAR for women experiencing homelessness and poverty. Small dignities make a big difference.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Menstruation is often called the " last great taboo " in women's sport. But periods are the media's taboo, not sportswomen's.

Our new research showed that elite athletes are not afraid to talk about their menstrual cycle and how it affects them. We also found that half of the 430 athletes we interviewed are using some kind of hormonal contraceptive, which affected their menstrual cycle.

The menstrual cycle is a repeating pattern of hormones, designed to allow pregnancy to occur. Each phase produces different concentrations of the hormones oestrogen and progesterone. On the other hand, hormonal contraceptives aim to prevent pregnancy by removing the menstrual cycle and creating a new hormonal environment, with low levels of oestrogen and progesterone almost all of the time.
UK sanitary brand BodyForm's Red.Fit campaign about women keeping fit when on their period:

These hormonal differences, between women with and without a menstrual cycle, mean that not all female athletes are the same. As oestrogen and progesterone have the potential to affect many aspects of health and sports performance, it's important to know the hormonal profile of each athlete, so that training and performance can be optimised.

Up until now, it was unknown how many elite sportswomen in the UK used hormonal contraceptives, such as the oral contraceptive pill, the contraceptive injection, a patch or implant. My colleagues and I surveyed 430 elite athletes, from 24 different sports including hockey, football and rowing, to determine how many used a hormonal contraceptive or not.

As contraceptives can have other roles outside of preventing pregnancy, we asked them about any other effects they experienced as a result of taking them - such as easing painful periods, heaving bleeding and acne. We also asked the athletes who didn't use a hormonal contraceptive to tell us about their experiences with the menstrual cycle. This meant that we could compare those athletes who had a menstrual cycle - with variable hormone concentrations - versus those who used hormonal contraceptives and had a more stable hormonal profile.

Managing periods with contraceptives

Out of 430 sportswomen, 213 (49.5%) used some type of contraceptive and 217 (50.5%) did not. The oral contraceptive pill was the most popular type of hormonal contraceptive - used by 78.4% of contraceptive users. Contraceptive users reported 19 negative side effects, with weight gain, irregular periods and poor skin being the most common.

In contrast to the negative side effects reported, 12.7% of contraceptive users told us they liked the regularity of the pill and knowing when they would experience their withdrawal bleed - not the same as a period - which happens during the seven pill-free days of an oral contraceptive pill cycle. In addition, 12.2% of the athletes using a hormonal contraceptive said they liked having a reduced number of bleeds per year, which can be achieved by skipping the pill-free days. Knowing when the withdrawal bleed would occur allows athletes to avoid bleeding during an important competition, such as the Olympics.

Athletes not using any type of hormonal contraceptive had menstrual cycles of different lengths, usually between 21 and 35 days. Just over three-quarters of these athletes reported negative side effects that usually occurred during the first day or two of the cycle, when they were having their period. The most common side effects were cramps, back pain, headaches and bloating.

A healthy hormonal profile

Although some of the athletes in our study reported a small number of perceived advantages to using a hormonal contraceptive, outside of the medical benefits, my colleagues and I aren't suggesting that all athletes switch to contraceptive use. We don't believe that convenient benefits, such as reducing the number of withdrawal bleeds, outweigh the likely undesirable health consequences of chronically low hormone levels caused by hormonal contraceptive use.

Having a menstrual cycle - and not using a hormonal contraceptive - which includes phases with high oestrogen concentrations is associated with good bone health and better fertility outcomes.

The menstrual cycle is part of a much bigger health issue for female athletes. A concept called the "female athlete triad" describes the link between menstrual function, energy availability and bone health. If an athlete does not have a healthy menstrual cycle - which can be caused by low energy availability - then this can cause problems for her bone health. Another concept, known as "relative energy deficiency in sport" expands upon this by adding other aspects of health and performance. This research suggests that bone health may not be the only aspect of health or performance affected by poor menstrual function.

Taken together, these two concepts teach us that having a menstrual cycle is better than not having one. While some athletes told us that they experienced a small number of negative side effects during their period, the long-term benefits of having a period clearly beat the possible short-term issues. Athletes need to be supported with these issues, which can be achieved by athletes talking openly about their periods and menstrual cycles with their coaches and medical professionals. This way, we can ensure that their hormonal profile is the best it can be for their health and sporting performance.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Menstruation is not a taboo in women's sport, period

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Menstruation is often called the " last great taboo " in women's sport. But periods are the media's taboo, not sportswomen's. Our new research showed that elite athletes are not afraid to talk about their menstrual cycle and how it affects them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Updated November 20, 2017 14:42:42

The multimillion-dollar feminine hygiene market is dominated by two products: pads and tampons.

Most women will use one of the two - pads most commonly - for reasons including ease of purchase, convenience, comfort, discrete packaging, disposability and, of course, advertising.

Pads and tampons, however, are not the only choices.

While you can free bleed at one end of the spectrum or period suppress at the other, in this article I focus on those of us electing to manage the 40-ish millilitres of blood we lose each month.

Be it because of concerns over big femcare, landfill, cost, toxic ingredients or toxic shock syndrome, some menstruators seek solutions outside of the Kotex box. These are those choices.

Absorption approaches

Tampons and pads work by absorbing blood. These products are generally single usage and afterwards are discarded and replaced with a new product.

"Rags" hasn't always been a crude euphemism for menstruation; it references a time when cloth was used, bled on, and then washed and used again.

Wealth in the West, and the clout of the feminine hygiene industry however, has meant that today most of us won't consider reusable options.

But such products are readily available and seek to overcome many of the problems created by disposables.

In Australia, companies such as Hannahpad, Paisley Pads and Mense Sense sell cloth pads that can be reused.

Less like the rags of old, reusable pads resemble the winged and form-fitting supermarket versions - often boasting press studs to secure them to your underwear crotch - and are designed to be washed and re-worn.

Such pads are marketed to eco-conscious consumers who like not having to buy new products every month from big companies, who prefer non-bleached materials, who appreciate the comfort of natural fabrics and who are, perhaps, drawn to the whimsy.

Etsy is more than glad to offer you a range of festive designs featuring Dirty Dancing, unicorns, raspberries and pretty much anything else.

Equally, if you're keen to break out the sewing machine, you can sew your own. Ditto those who want to knit their own pads.

For those seeking non-pad absorption methods, welcome to the world of menstrual lingerie.

Brands like Thinx and Modibodi sell absorbent underwear that can be worn without any additional protection: Thinx, for example, claims that some of their knickers can hold up to two tampons' worth of blood.

Reviews caution that you don't want to be a heavy bleeder in such garments, but then if you are, they can serve as a back-up if you're prone to bleeding through your other protection.

If internal products are your preference, perhaps reusable tampons should be on your radar.

Less common than washable pads, nonetheless, flannel ones - and crocheted ones for those who don't harbour the same internal-wool squeamishness that I do - abound on Etsy.

For the crafty you too can make your own.

Sea sponges are also a product in this category, but their use for blood absorption is emerging as a niche, albeit not uncontroversial method (think concerns about grit and disintegration inside the vagina).

While there are price and planet reasons for considering reusables, there are also some notable downsides.

To reuse any kind of feminine hygiene product you have to wash it. If you've ever stained your sheets, clothes, or the carpet, you'll be well aware that the scarlet stuff is hard to remove.

You'll also need to think about transporting your blood-soaked pads or tampons home, before soaking, washing and drying them.

Advertising's heavy-handed messages about hygiene and discretion help explain our disproportionate reliance on brand-name pads and tampons, but convenience is just as potent a factor.

Collection choices

Menstrual cups - an option increasingly available in bricks and mortar stores and also one carving out a market beyond earth mothers - are a menstruation management premised on the collection of blood.

Brands like Mooncup, Juju, Lunette and DivaCup offer cups made from silicone, rubber or latex which get inserted into the vagina using fingers and your favoured folding technique.

Once inside, they unfurl to collect blood and then later get removed, emptied and then washed (or, at least wiped) and reinserted.

While there's no soaking or pegging products out on the washing line, menstrual cups have some of the same cons as tampons: some users report difficultly inserting them; others are reluctant to have so much contact.

Equally, while you may not have to soak your cup, you're certainly going to have to sterilise it at the end of each cycle. (For those wanting to skip this step, Softcups and Flex offer disposable versions).

And if you're choosing cups because of the real but often exaggerated fears of toxic shock syndrome, you'll want to make sure that your hands are pristine before fiddling about with insertion.

Some menstruators will spend 30-ish years using the same products they were introduced to at menarche; commonly whatever their mother, sister or friend handed them at that moment of crotch calamity.

We're also, apparently, a brand loyal lot, sticking with the names we're familiar with.

The leakage and odour fears drilled into us from youth have meant that we commonly need a very good reason to deviate from the methods we've successfully used to stem the crimson tide.

That said, for some women, economics, the environment and the eschewing of ever-enlarging enterprises might prove such a reason.
Lauren Rosewarne is a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne. Originally published in The Conversation
Topics: menstruation, reproduction-and-contraception, womens-health, health, australia

First posted November 13, 2017 17:24:31

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What are the reusable options for managing your period?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Updated November 20, 2017 14:42:42 The multimillion-dollar feminine hygiene market is dominated by two products: pads and tampons. Most women will use one of the two - pads most commonly - for reasons including ease of purchase, convenience, comfort, discrete packaging, disposability and, of course, advertising.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'We hide this thing that everybody knows is happening'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Who hasn't hidden a tampon up their sleeve or made an excuse about 'being sick' when they're not?

# data[].attributes.headline
Why don't fictional characters don't get their periods?

# data[].attributes.subject
Why don't fictional characters don't get their periods?

# data[].attributes.headline
Menstruation leave - will it harm business?

# data[].attributes.subject
Menstruation leave - will it harm business?

# data[].attributes.headline
Menstruation in the arts - historical and contemporary 

# data[].attributes.subject
Menstruation in the arts - historical and contemporary 

# data[].attributes.body
Do the brands live up to their claims?   Can there be an assessment of the scientific and technological claims made?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
CANBERRA -- The federal Senate has voted down a proposal to remove the GST from female sanitary products, a tax which does not apply to condoms or lubricant.

The Liberals and Labor just voted down a Greens amendment to axe the tampon tax. What a bloody disgrace. pic.twitter.com/FZRVo6Uy8X
- Larissa Waters (@larissawaters) June 19, 2017

The Greens had put up an amendment to the government's Treasury Laws Amendment (GST Low Value Goods) Bill 2017, which set out to add the 10 percent Goods and Services Tax to imported items below $1000 in value. Currently, if a consumer purchases goods from overseas -- for instance, clothing from an online retailed like Asos -- GST does not apply, with the government's bill looking to close that loophole.

Greens senator Larissa Waters proposed an amendment to the bill, which would have also removed the GST from items like tampons, sanitary pads and panty liners. While the GST currently applies to those items, it does not apply to male products like condoms or lubricant, which has been the cause of a long-running campaign to remove the tax from female products -- including a famous appearance on ABC program Q&A in 2015, when campaigners asked then-treasurer Joe Hockey to "stop taxing my period".

However, Waters' amendment was opposed by both the Coalition government and the Labor opposition, eventually being defeated 33-15. She said the government's plans to add GST to 'low value goods' would raise an extra $300 million a year, and that Parliamentary Budget Office costings commissioned by the Greens showed that axing the GST on sanitary products would only cost $115 million.

At the weekend Labor held its National Labor Women's Conference.
Today it's voting against an amendment to remove GST from tampons etc.
- Stephanie Peatling (@srpeatling) June 19, 2017

"Labor and the Coalition voted today to keep taxing women's biology. Periods are not a luxury, and sanitary items are not luxury items -- they are necessities," Waters said after the vote.

"The Government's plan to introduce GST on items bought online for under $1000, will raise an extra $300 million over three years.

"New costings commissioned by the Greens show that States could axe the tampon tax and still be $185 million better off after the government's proposed changes to the GST."

Finance minister Mathias Cormann disputed the claim that tampons were included in the GST because they were considered 'luxury' items, saying GST applied to all products until they were exempted. Cormann said the usual process to exempt health goods from the GST would be for the Minister for Health to make a determination, rather than passing an amendment to a bill.

Labor senator Katy Gallagher said her party supported removing the GST from sanitary products, but that "we don't believe an amendment to this bill is the way to fix it".

"Considering how important the GST is for states and territories, and indeed the agreement that exists between the Commonwealth and states and territories around GST arrangements, that these discussions about how this should be done and when it should be done, needs to happen with all those parties," she said.

"Whilst we won't support this amendment this morning, we do acknowledge the intent behind it, and from the Labor party's view, this is something we need to look at further and examine and discuss with all relevant parties on how the removal of GST from sanitary products could be progressed with the agreement of all parties."

Waters said she would continue pushing for the GST to be removed from these goods.

"I have written to the WA, NSW, NT and Tasmanian governments asking them to join Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory to support the removal of this tax," she said.

"Revenue loss is no longer a credible excuse for refusing to axe the sexist tampon tax."
Click below to follow HuffPost Australia Politics on Facebook! ALSO ON HUFFPOST AUSTRALIA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Senate Votes To Keep The GST On Tampons And Sanitary Pads

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
CANBERRA -- The federal Senate has voted down a proposal to remove the GST from female sanitary products, a tax which does not apply to condoms or lubricant. The Liberals and Labor just voted down a Greens amendment to axe the tampon tax. What a bloody disgrace.

# data[].attributes.headline
Proposing ways to support others who are going through a challenging time (e.g., amenorrhea)

# data[].attributes.subject
Proposing ways to support others who are going through a challenging time (e.g., amenorrhea)

# data[].attributes.headline
Environmental and monetary savings - is it correct?

# data[].attributes.subject
Environmental and monetary savings - is it correct?

# data[].attributes.headline
Cultural and historical discourses of menstruation 

# data[].attributes.subject
Cultural and historical discourses of menstruation 

# data[].attributes.headline
History of the evolution of change of language around menstruation.

# data[].attributes.subject
History of the evolution of change of language around menstruation.

# data[].attributes.body
Does this align with the sustainability aim though?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ask any young woman whether she feels embarrassed by her periods and she'll likely deny it. Her grandmother might have hidden all evidence of "the curse" but not today's liberated women. Right?

Sex education classes explain the biology of menstruation in interminable detail. Pad and tampon ads screen on prime-time television. And no girl in modern Australia suffers the terror of discovering blood between her legs before she's had "the talk" with her parents.

But delve a little deeper and you'll find that we are not as frank about menstruation as we like to think. How many girls proudly announce that they've reached menarche (first menstruation)? How many women openly carry a tampon to the toilet?

Why do we use quaint euphemisms such as "sanitary products" and "feminine hygiene products" in supermarket aisles? We are still profoundly uncomfortable about the fact that females bleed once a month for half of their lives. It's messy, it's unsettling and no one wants to talk about it.

This ancient taboo has stubbornly persisted across cultures and time periods. The idea that menstruating women are contaminated has inspired countless bizarre myths: that their touch can turn wine into vinegar, make flowers wilt, and even drive dogs mad.

Clearly, menstruation has tremendous cultural power. Why, then, has so little been written on the history of menstruation in Australia? Perhaps it's because Australians have spent most of our past trying very hard not to mention it.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, menstruation was seen as similar to a monthly disability. The Ladies Handbook of Home Treatment (1905) listed activities that should be avoided at "that time of the month", including running, dancing, bicycle riding, sewing and novel-reading.

As the Kotex booklet Preparing for Womanhood (1920s) announced:

there is less muscular strength, less steadiness - and even less mental efficiency. So you must not try to be as active, or do as much work during these few days as you can perform during the rest of the month.

Towe My

Women and girls wore cumbersome pads at this time, contributing to the view that physical activities were ill-advised. Although commercially-produced menstrual products became available in the western world from the mid to late 19th century, most women still used rags which were washed after use. Some women wore a kind of fabric nappy, others constructed pads which were pinned to clothes or belts.

By the late 1920s several disposable pads had entered the Australian market, but only wealthier women could afford them. The advent of the second world war changed the way that many Australian women menstruated, with some introduced to disposable pads through their army or Red Cross service.

Other women on the home front were unable to buy pads due to war-time shortages. But overall, the role of Australian women in the war effort demonstrated their capacity to participate in public life. The female paid workforce continued to rise in the 1950s and 1960s, fuelling demand for the convenience of disposable menstrual products.

Sex education booklets of the 1940s and 50s such as Life and Growth: Hygiene for Girls (1941) argued that "menstruation is [...] not in any sense an illness".

Nevertheless, they emphasised that menstruation should be carefully disguised. In As One Girl to Another, Kotex explained that their pads would:

never make tell-tale outlines [...] [and] never give your secret away.

The middle of the 20th century was a turning point in the methods used to manage menstruation. In one 1948 New Zealand survey, less than a quarter of high school girls purchased disposable pads while nearly three-quarters used home-made pads (7% used both).

Leonie

Australian oral history interviews reveal that the use of reusable pads dwindled over the 1950s, with most girls using disposable pads by the 1960s.

By the 1960s, booklets such as The Guide to Womanhood (1961) were completely dismissive of any "disagreeable features" of menstruation, proclaiming that:

a girl who finds herself getting downhearted, moody or cross during her menstrual periods should take careful stock of herself, so that she does not get into a regular habit of having menstrual disturbances and getting out-of-sorts.

In Growing Up (circa 1960), Johnson & Johnson assured girls that prudent choice of menstrual products was crucial because:

physical comfort and peace of mind [...] can make the difference between the girl who is awkward and self-conscious, and the girl who goes right ahead and has a swell time.

Australian attitudes towards menstruation and the practical ways women manage bleeding have changed immensely over the past century. Whereas once menstruation was described as an illness, today we insist that girls and women behave the same every day of the month.

阮芊菡 JUAN CHIEN-HAN

While, previously, Australian females used rags to staunch their menstrual flow, we now choose from an assortment of slickly-marketed products.

But what have these changes meant?

Some historians argue that girls and women have been liberated by more effective menstrual products and the belief that menstruation doesn't impair female capacity. This is certainly true on some levels. Yet in other ways changes in attitudes and behaviours have also entrenched the menstrual taboo.

Rather than embracing menstruation and talking openly about it, girls and women use modern products to hide their bleeding more effectively than ever.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The ongoing taboo of menstruation in Australia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ask any young woman whether she feels embarrassed by her periods and she'll likely deny it. Her grandmother might have hidden all evidence of "the curse" but not today's liberated women. Right? Sex education classes explain the biology of menstruation in interminable detail. Pad and tampon ads screen on prime-time television.

# data[].attributes.headline
Analysis of the user expeirence/ social media/advertising of menstrual products vs sustainable products

# data[].attributes.subject
Analysis of the user expeirence/ social media/advertising of menstrual products vs sustainable products

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.lovelibra.com.au/
https://lunette.com.au/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We know the world of girls is a mad jungle, so we're working on a building a section of the website just for you! We want to arm you with all the info you need to deal with hormones, periods, pimples, friends and boys.

# data[].attributes.body
Hollywood misrepresentation of periods?

# data[].attributes.headline
Storyboard of historical and contemporary images of menstruation

# data[].attributes.subject
Storyboard of historical and contemporary images of menstruation

# data[].attributes.headline
Compare the purposes, text structures and language features of traditional and contemporary texts around periods. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Compare the purposes, text structures and language features of traditional and contemporary texts around periods. 