Love Your Menses is a non-profit social impact organization founded with the goal of empowering girls and young women of color regarding menstruation. With chapters in Boston, Houston, New Orleans, and Detroit – Love Your Menses is poised to lead the charge against period poverty. We recently caught up with Love Your Menses Co-Founders Dr. Ebere Azumah and Bria Gadsen to highlight their incredible work in the menstrual movement, and to bring awareness to their mission of making the world better for people with periods.
Menstrual products are not covered by food stamps or WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children), which further exacerbates the prevalence of period poverty in the US. One in five women reported being unable to purchase menstrual products on a monthly basis in the United States. The average menstruator uses around 240 menstrual products per year – or around $50 worth of supplies. This average cost for menstrual products is on the low-end; pain relief medications, heating pads, and dietary supplements are not factored into this estimate.
Love Your Menses has teamed up with Aunt Flow to help address the impact that period poverty and menstrual stigma have had on communities of color. One program that Love Your Menses has implemented is the Period Product Dispenser Project where local schools, shelters, and community organizations are supplied with Aunt Flow products and dispensers. Gadsen, when asked why Love Your Menses chose Aunt Flow, stated,
“We chose Aunt Flow because we operate with a spirit of excellence. We strongly believe in providing our community with high quality menstruated education and period products that are safe for the body and the environment so people who menstruate can flow through life, unapologetically!”
Love Your Menses has also been distributing period care packages – which include Aunt Flow pads and tampons – and facilitating menstrual health education workshops for menstruators in Boston, Houston, New Orleans, and Detroit.
Together, Aunt Flow and Love Your Menses are making the world a better place for people with periods.
