The short film "Period, End of Sentence." [1] won an Oscar this year, depicting Indian women taking control of the production process of pads manufacturing.
In a strange sense, while that process helped women gain a bit of control over their bodies and their lives, which is a good thing; and while it probably also helped some girls stay in school, as some girls mentioned feeling ashamed of doing so during their period, I initially felt like a reusable solution would have been more liberating, while also respecting the environment.
But the initial feeling had to do with my westerner point of view, where resources like clean water (to wash the reusable product) are abundant, and where the products can be bought online in a few taps on a glass screen in my pocket. The context for these women is very different: learning how to build a pad-pressing machine and build a business out of it was definitely more empowering than deferring that power to an external entity for the manufacturing of reusable products.
I like the pun but I also like just how open it is. It really tries to illustrate that "period" isn't a dirty word and that it is a normal bodily function.
Honest question: is it disrespecting the environment to harvest cotton/paper from the earth and put it back in the earth? They're both biodegradeable and renewable. If anything, I think that it would take carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it for decades, which is a net positive.
> definitely more empowering than deferring that power to an external entity for the manufacturing of reusable products.
While it would certainly take a huge effort to create the base silicone product, creating the molds and use them to create reusable cups could be done on-demand and on-location.
If the topic is not your interest but web design is, check out the article for the cool verticle scrolling progress indicator that's displayed horizontally in the floating top menu bar.
My mother has been involved in operating and supporting a network of Kenyan orphanages for decades. She's on the board of directors for the US 501c3 that funds them. The woman who founded this organization (a US citizen) adopted several of the orphans and spent most of her time for 20 years in the country operating the homes until her health decline and dimensia prevented her direct involvement. The board became aware that a director of one of the homes (keynan born man in his mid twenties and the first adoptee of the orgs founder) had been submitting false receipts and not paying land tax, had kicked out orphans and was renting the property, etc. The 93 year old, recently widowed founder did not believe the allegation and a court case (in Kenya) between her the board ensued. Predicting resolution and subsequent board control of the home, my mother quit her job in the US and moved to Kenya (planned for a year) to act as interim director, reestablished the orphanage and transition to a new local director. They instead realized that a case between two westerners, with resources to pay attorneys and court fees, was likely to be dragged out for a long time. She instead volunteered at the nursery at Kenya Children's Home for a short time before going on to help setup and operate a new clinic, built by the Freedom from Fistula[0] foundation, in Madagascar.
In our correspondence, she expressed the vital need for both incontinence and feminine hygiene supplies and consequences of a girls life without them. She explained a tragic situation: that pubecent girls would miss unpredictable amounts of school (often falling behind to the point of withdrawal/failure) without them, and that there was a very real fear of being shunned for failing to control their natural bodily functions. Projects like the one in this article, where minimal targeted investments can result in wide spread life changing outcomes are awesome and inspiring!
Wow! If you insist on having a floating bar at the top of your web page, this sort of scrolling progress indicator should be mandatory.
(Also, I learned about menstrual cups due to your enticing reference to the progress indicator which tipped the balance in favor of clicking though to the article.)
Very often there is a difference between how far you are along the article, versus how far you are down the actual page, especially if the page has a large footer, additional advertising down there, and an unmoderated comments section. In the latter case, the actual text can end less than half way down the page. So the additional indicator, when used wisely, can actually have a valid use case.
True (though I did like it aesthetically as it isn't noisy). This custom scrollbar could've added several features though such as an indication of how long the article would last time-wise (which is an estimate). Tells me much more than a scrollbar would.
On the contrary, I find issue in some implementations because they install JavaScript scroll event listeners and can adversely affect scrolling performance. It’s definitely not something that everyone does right.
My pleasure. Wanted to keep it short, additional context:
The organizations founder quite likely believed the allegations but couldn't bear to see the child she adopted and raised from 6 y/o end up in a Kenyan prison. The Freedom from Fistula foundation opend clinics to provide free maturity care, and outpatient obstetric fistula repair surgery. Women with the condition become incontinent and are often shunned from society, it's a result of inadequate medical care during childbirth and it can be repaired with a routine, single day outpatient procedure.
It absolutely blows my mind that Menstrual cups aren't more widespread globally. I basically wouldn't even know about them if my partner didn't use them. They seem like a better option than tampons and pads 90%+ of the time.
My better half uses one, but after the birth of our first child she had to use pads for a while. This was the first time I got to buy them. They are insanely expensive, it’s truly mind blowing that more women aren’t using the cup. I mean, I know it doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s frankly as though women have some sort of “life-tax” attached that we men don’t, with pads being so expensive by comparison.
I don’t remember the prices exactly, but it’s the range of a year of cup coverage being cheaper than one pack of pads.
Notably there are also literally taxes attached to such things. Washington tried to make feminine hygiene products tax-free during this legislative cycle, but it died in committee. Hopefully it'll pass next year, but this is still crazy.
For context: many places around the US will separate food, drugs, and medical appliances (considered essential for life) from all other goods, taxing the former at 2% and the latter at something like 8-10% - Chicago, for example [1]. This 2% category often includes candy, soda, Viagra... in 15 states there are no restrictions, as long as it is consumable as food. Goods in the latter category are considered "luxury," so what's mentioned here is the battle against the luxury tax for products that are essential to a female's life.
Chicago, a small handful of cities and ten states have already eliminated this unfair burden on top of the average $18,000 spent on feminine hygiene over a lifetime [2].
But the most tragically comical story I've found about this is what happened in Utah - the all-male panel rejected eliminating the tax, citing that they would need to recoup those tax funds from other sales, and that it was "unfair to tax the whole population for something that only affects half of it." The representative sponsoring the bill keeps trying every year, and every year the all-male committee continues to say No to her...
> the all-male panel rejected eliminating the tax, citing that they would need to recoup those tax funds from other sales, and that it was "unfair to tax the whole population for something that only affects half of it."
It's inconsistent tax rates which are crazy. Isn't toilet tissue 'essential' in the same way? Should that be exempt from sales tax? In many EU countries foodstuffs (difficult to 'make do' in its absence) and pharmaceutical products attract VAT albeit at a reduced rate.
Perhaps I'm missing the point, but I think the concern is more that Women have to pay money for essential hygiene products than Men due to their gender - which can be seen as inequitable.
I agree with your main point - it's the inequity that's the point.
In the UK tampons and pads have VAT charged on them (as they count as a luxury); there is a campaign to remove this and it has been reduced to 5%, but it's still there (due to EU regulations I believe).
As a side point, in many parts of the world, toilet paper is not an essential; it's regarded as a dirty and unclean western practice.
Razor blades are also substantially cheaper than feminine hygiene products. One number I saw was that the average woman spends $150 - $300 per year on pads.
In contrast, I can spend an order of magnitude less on razor blades, as a pack of Harry's blades end up being something like $2/each, and that's basically about a dollar or two a month (or less).
Well, they don't need to. Maybe pads should be taxed more so that more women would use menstrual caps? Pads seem to be quite environmentally harmful as well, they produce a lot of non-recyclable waste (unlike toilet paper).
> They are insanely expensive, it’s truly mind blowing that more women aren’t using the cup. I mean, I know it doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s frankly as though women have some sort of “life-tax” attached that we men don’t, with pads being so expensive by comparison.
My partner introduced me to them, and when I saw how expensive they were I immediately wondered how much it would cost to 3D print moulds for them so that entrepreneurial Kenyans could mass produce them as a cottage industry. I only got as far as a first print of a positive before someone pointed me to (I think) an Alibaba listing where they cost 5¢ each if you bought 1,000 at a time. I can’t find them quite so cheap any more, but I have just found them at €0.18 each. Perhaps a “buy one for yourself, get a hundred more for Kenya” marketing strategy could help? I have no idea how to do that without the annoying and condescending out-of-touch white-male saviour stereotype though.
You're still breaking the guidelines way too much by posting flamewar-style, so we've banned the account. If you'd like to start using the site as intended and be unbanned please email hn@ycombinator.com.
No, just the ones amongst us who talk more than we listen and presume we know better without having lived someone else’s life or bothering to ask people what their needs or wants are.
I’m a guy. I’ve met guys like that. I’ve been on the receiving end of such presumption from both men and women. Heck, my current landlord is like that. I don’t want to be a guy like that, especially not in the context of “shove this into a part of your anatomy that I don’t have myself”.
I don't think white males built civilization and technology. The western numeric system is arabic, for one. Gunpowder is Chinese (along with many other intellectual advancements, philosophy, religion, art...). Much of american cultural music is black. The first novels are arguably from either Japan or the Mayan period. Great architectural works and civilizations spanning centuries exist in most continents.
> I have no idea how to do that without the annoying and condescending out-of-touch white-male saviour stereotype though.
How would those pesky old white males bother you with your project?
The product will mostly be bought by women, so they are the customers that you need to convince of the good cause. If you need to start a business and set up some webshop and organize marketing campains you can perfectly do that as a woman, with or without the help of other women if you prefer them.
> How would those pesky old white males bother you with your project?
By being me. I have enough self awareness and pay enough attention to know my own efforts, as well-meant as they are, can easily end up like xkcd.com/793
There are also menstrual sponges. They’re more comfortable than a cup, are made for reuse, but they’re a bit more work to clean than the menstrual cup.
I can't imagine anything being more comfortable than the cup. If inserted correctly I can't feel it at all and the added comfort of no leaks or string like when I use to use tampons.
It seems my "life-tax" is needing to eat about twice as much as my wife. The extra food I eat costs more than pads. However, my wife prefers a cup, so that cost is gone. I'm still left with my dietary needs. Our weights are not that different and neither of us is overweight.
It's amazing how the moment a post about women comes up on hacker news all logic goes out the window. Perfectly sensible comments based on simple, real-life experience like this one get flagged and downvoted. I think it's due to a very high proportion of male virgins combined with feminist moderators.
> but it’s frankly as though women have some sort of “life-tax” attached that we men don’t
Men require more calories throughout their lives, meaning higher food bills, and usually die sooner as a result of that. Men also contribute far more tax revenue on average than women anyway. It's silly to try to boil down something that's incredibly nuanced just based on one experience you've had.
Doesn't sound like a defense as much as balancing. I think it's this over sympathizing/feeling sorry for women that I can get exhausted with. The op was feeling bad for women because they menstruate and cleanup isn't somehow free. Well duh, and why shouldn't it be? We all responsible for our hygiene and have to pay it with our own money.
And if it shouldn't be free then why don't men get an extra check for consuming extra calories? The question is to demonstrate how ridiculous the idea is. The levels that people go to in order to sympathize with women are quite high and seem to be for the purpose of giving men a sense that they should feel bad or sorry for the condition of being a woman when really, if you want equality, you treat women like you treat men. You assume they are strong and they can handle the problem. Yes $7 a box by 9 boxes a year is definitely extra cost of living. But are we really going to make this one thing free or tax free just because it only affects women? It's such an oversensitivity to women and it should be considered offensive to them that anybody even considers that kind of special treatment.
This "life tax" is hardly a surprise when most governments and boards of directors are made of mostly men, who have been taught not to ever speak about these issues (a taboo due to religious or social beliefs).
Now if there's a way to make money, suddenly it becomes an attractive subject for some, but the liberation of women with reusable products (menstrual cup, washable pads and period pants) will always come second to potential wealth increase with single-use solutions, especially for someone who does now experience the "problem" in the first place.
Worse than all that, the people in charge of pushing single-use products genuinely believe they are helping out women, when in reality we see cases of toxic shock syndrome due to chemicals in tampons, and the ecological impact of such single-use products.
My wife has been using reusable solutions for a few years now, the cup and period pants being the most liberating according to her.
I will add that the high cost of feminine hygiene products is a problem for a lot of poor American women. It isn't covered by Food Stamps. Homeless services have limited quantities of such things. Etc.
Admittedly, the majority of women around me sticks to non-reusable solutions not because they don't know, but because they feel more comfortable with things they can just throw away when dirty.
That being said, I'm on the fence about believing this is more than a question of habit vs an actual thing that will bug you. After all, the average US woman seems to be completely thrown about how you can use a tampon without an applicator. In Europe if you ask for them, most people won't even know what you mean and I don't see what their appeal is, but if that is what you grew up with....
(edit) Just to clarify, I also use a cup and it has upsides and downsides, but overall to me it is a net win.
I know right, my deodorant life tax is really weighing on me these days, can't wait till we unshake the bonds of oppression put on us young males by lynx.
> Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say face-to-face. Don't be snarky. Comments should get more civil and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.
Edit: I see we've asked you many times not to post like this, and saying that we'd ban you if you did it again, so we have. If you'd like to be unbanned you can email hn@ycombinator.com.
The issue of advertising and marketing pressure towards a conforming image of what "young males" should be/look/smell like is a similar one to that of females. Not conforming to this image is often seen as a rebellious act, and depicted with shame for not following the holy rule of capitalism. Yet when such products are partly responsible for the destruction of our ecosystem (single-use products, greenhouse gas emissions from aerosol deodorants), it becomes a moral duty to rebel.
Here’s one: since men are larger and headboard than women, we need more food just to stay alive! A few hundred extra calories a day over a lifetime, the cost must be substantial — almost certainly greater than the cost of tampons.
Between tampons/pads, bras, thinner/less quality clothing for as much or more $$$, and socially pressured skincare/makeup/hair product, the overall cost I would guess would be equivalent or more than the nutrition for a few hundred calories per day. There are a lot of factors forcing or pressuring women to spend more money or recieve social reprimand, lowered job prospects, etc. (As in the article! Keeping girls in school!)
Men also get pressured in other ways, but very rarely are they directly monetary/consumptive the way women are in my opinion.
If you've grown up with the pressure you don't notice it because it's there all the time. It's just normal. It's really easy to say "look how much the other gender caves to societal pressure" because you don't notice it when you do it.
How much more is a man making in salary compared to a woman doing the same job? In any country? You can't compare the small ammount of less food needed in calories compared to the large difference in salary for a man, the extra food does not warrant the difference.
You as a man can choose not to east as much as you need. You grow a bit less and need less food. A woman can't choose not to leave the house 5 days per month if she want's to keep a job. Yes, we can keep arguing over this but I though we were done with this already 50 years ago. I'm a bit surpriced to see it to be honest. We talked about this in school when I was 12, 30+ years ago. (Sweden)
Last year one county here started with free menstruation protection for 12-23 year olds [0] (swedish...) Apparently Scotland was first in the world 2017 [1]
I've introduced 3-4 women to them. They all have ended up loving the cups.
I now live in Vietnam and know the owner of one of the leading brands here. She said that her biggest challenge is the fact that a lot of women don't even use tampons because of the whole fear of losing their virginity cultural stigmas.
IME (east asian) this fear is really common and I've heard among other east asian female peers of mothers shaming them or shouting at them for daring to use tampons.
I use it and it’s definitely a better option. I think one of the reasons it’s not more widespread is because we’ve created this stigma that menstrual blood is gross and should not be touched.
I've worn it camping. It helps to have a little water to rinse it out, but I think it's significantly better than having to carry tampons and figure out what to do with them after use. In fact I originally got it for a camping trip, as I didn't want to carry a lot of tampons (too much weight in my bag) and the thought of not having enough tampons was a nightmare.
This is a promising venture. Low-tech solutions that truly improve quality of life. I applaud the improvements and those who've worked or donated towards this outcome. I have so many questions, though. Some that come to mind:
1. The number of donated cups is very low. Several thousand people are living better, but millions more are still struggling. Is this an effort that can scale up to provide a more universally accessible benefit? Or are there unstated assumptions, like that publicizing the magnitude of the issue will trigger outrage and bring about reform, or genuine ongoing efforts to follow through with that reform?
2. Personal hygiene products costing such a high proportion of average earnings points to a serious failure of society, government, markets, or perhaps all of the above. The government can't seem to provide, the markets can't seem to adapt, and society doesn't seem to care enough to force the issue. This isn't an exotic reason: we're talking basics for half the population here. There are people in poverty in advanced economies who have trouble with access to menstrual hygiene products, but the scale of the problem highlighted in the article is astounding. It points to an ever-present serious divide between those who greatly benefit from a connected world, and those who are having to reconcile absurd economic realities of the transition.
3. With a little help, one could bootstrap change. There is will among those most affected to ensure the continuity of ventures that make this issue better, but an injection of capital seems necessary to bring such a venture to fruition. The donation of finished products helps people immediately, but it's worth considering whether donating to bootstap local production of similar (or even inferior) products would work better such that the effort can eventually evolve to sustain itself without outside help. Sometimes, when this kind of bootstrapping is attempted, the effort falters quickly once the outside help leaves, because there's a lack of well-developed local institutions and capital necessary to sustain it. But this seems different, the institutions exist. It's the capital that's lacking.
Menstrual cups rock. It takes a bit of getting used to to figure out proper insertion/removal/cleaning. It can also take a few attempts to find exactly the right kind of cup for each person since they all vary in length, diameter, material firmness, etc. But once you have those things down it is really so much more convenient and feels so much less wasteful than pads or tampons.
I've heard women with an IUD might have problems wearing them, which is tragic given that IUDs are the safest, most reliable, most effective birth control method (yet another essential life-tax to being female...) Do you know any women personally who both have an IUD and are comfortable using the cup?
One of the great things about an IUD (the hormonal ones at least) is that it often makes your period stop. I used a cup with mine for a few months without a problem, but then stopped needing a cup at all.
Well, you know one now! I have a copper IUD and I cannot recommend it enough. My body reacts poorly to hormones, so the pill wasn't an option, but a condom-only based approach to birth control wasn't going to work in a monogamous, multi-year relationship - over a ten year period, 86 in 100 women who only use condoms become pregnant [1]. This probabilistically makes sense, given that 10 years includes hundreds or thousands of chances for intercourse. Do check out the NYT article below - it is terrifying!
We must have saved thousands of dollars on condoms at this point, and intercourse is much more enjoyable for both parties (with no unexpected risk for my career).
For some unknown reason (cultural?), while the UID is very popular and obviously the best choice in parts of Europe, there remains some taboo around it in the US... anyway, I wish I could save all this money on disposable products with the cup, but I do not want to risk pulling it out or entangling it.
Thanks for sharing! I've never been on the pill due to the hormonal aspect as well, but I've also heard some things that put me off of copper IUD. I'll have to do more reading about it, but it's condoms for me for now. I'm also going to try out Natural Cycles, considering it's been shown effective and approved as a birth control method and I think I'm diligent enough to maintain the proper usage it requires. Birth control method aside though, even with condoms, if I get pregnant once in ten years I have no moral qualms about abortion. It's something I take seriously of course, but once incident in the span of ten years is an acceptable rate of failure for me.
The most common cause of pregnancy when using condoms is improper use, either due to lack of education or for other reasons. When used properly, condoms are rather effective.
Another method whose safety approaches that of oral contraceptives is cervical mucus tracking. But this also requires education. The method is also not suitable for all women and lifestyles. In one study[1], around 5% of prospective participants had to be excluded due to irregular menstrual cycle. Dropout rate due to dissatisfaction or for other reasons was 9.2%.
Also note that with IUDs there can be spontaneous expulsion, and there are health risks associated with it. So while very good compared to other methods, they are not best in all categories.
I've personally done similar calculations before, but I stopped because I'm not sure the assumption of independence is correct. If the pregnancy rate is 18% per year, and you have not had a pregnancy the first year, I'm not sure your pregnancy rate for the next year is really 18%.
This needs to come to some far villages in Nepal. In many villages, women are banished to small, cold huts at the outskirts of villages to remain - alone, shut in, and forbidden to go outside - until the end of the period.
Y'know, I thought so too until I saw the system in Suriname.
Women are expected to work around the clock there, carry heavy things and do all the cooking. This system means that you actually don't have to work while possibly in pain and probably unwell, and you don't have to explain yourself to anyone. Yes, it is a bad taboo system that assigns women a 'dirty' status, but there are some positive effects as well (in a patriarchal society).
I hope you read the article I linked to - this is all info you would find there.
I really don't agree this is "better." Given these two horrible choices, I would rather be afforded freedom to roam (even with heavy things), get food and go on a walk than this. There's no kitchen, so the women have to wait for someone to bring them food or water. They're not safe in these huts - many are exposed to the elements, and these "sinful" women are apparently free taking for raping (which is why they try to coordinate and not go alone). Many die from heat stroke or poisonous snakes. There aren't even beds or mattresses... these are prison cells.
This is inclusive of commute time. My young ones who are still in preschool leave the house at around 6:00 to be at school by 7:00. They usually arrive back between 3:30 and 4. And, we are talking about preschool. At least my young ones can afford a commute in a private car. The older they get, the more the homework. While this is not normal, this is ordinary life in Kenya.
Pretty much. Schools market themselves by showing how many of their students performed well in National exams. It drives their perceived value up so they can charge a lot more school fees.
And the common misconception is that the more time a student spends studying, the better they'll perform. Which results in their teachers overloading them with school work
When you are a young woman just getting your period, it's confusing and messy. Society doesn't help in that it's also taboo. There is a lot of fear and worry involved with having your period that lasts for many women through their lives. I have friends who won't use a tampon that doesn't include the applicator [1] (it helps insertion without needing to get your hands dirty). So using a cup means, you are 100% going to get blood on your hands and you are going to be very intimate with the inside of your body. For many women who were brought up conservatively, and for those who remain conservative, this will never be an option. I try and promote the cup among my friends and encourage young girls to experiment in safety. Long-term, it will become more popular.
There is also the issue of needing clean running water or wet wipes. Hygiene is crucial in cleaning the cup between changes and of course, you need to be able to clean your hands and have running water to deposit the menstrual liquid [2]. I'm not sure how this would work with a non-flushing / compost toilet actually, I found this article [3] which concludes that of course, blood is good for compost. I don't know what the sanitary conditions are in the kind of home these girls live in, in Kenya.
A compost toilet is an aerobic environment composed largely of sawdust, human waste and sometimes earth that is decomposed by bacteria and fungi. Properly managed, it's perfectly safe.
You still don't necessarily want to/can't use composted human waste for growing food for human consumption, because many jurisdictions regulate their application in different areas of agriculture.
e.g.:
Virginia: "All materials removed from a composting privy shall be buried," and "compost material shall not be placed in vegetable gardens or on the ground surface.[0]
Rhode Island: "Solids produced by alternative toilets may be buried on site," while, "residuals shall not be applied to food crops.[1]
I'm all for doing it regardless, as it seems more sustainable than traditional sewage treatment!
They are becoming more popular. In Sweden almost every pharmacy stocks at least one brand of menstrual cup, and now even some grocery stores in the feminine hygiene section. They're still not as popular as tampons, but there's definitely a higher level of recognition of them now.
One obstacle here (Germany) is, that young girls learn, how to handle their period during sex ed. And often even young sex ed teachers just don't know about cups. They teach what they were taught which is tampons and pads. And menstrual cups come with a lot more questions than those. Applying them requires some experimentation and you actually have to kind of explore what your vagina looks like. Best case in sex ed: You are not actively prepared that you might have to do that. Usual case: You see a plastic model of a vagina that is shaped nothing like yours and get the vague feeling that it's bad/dirty to touch a real one.
In urban areas where you have younger teachers and more conversation about these taboo topics, cups are popular enough that you can buy them in every bigger drug store by now, but in rural areas it's as simple as nobody knows that this is an option.
Do men in poor countries still shave with a cutthroat razor? Reusable and repairable products take time but give certainty. I hope a happy medium will be reached between Chinese room products and simple skill based ones.
Double Edge razors are also a thing. I use one myself because I don't like the cartridges clogging, and it's a lot cheaper. Like 20$ for the razor and 10$ for a "lifetime" of blades.
In a strange sense, while that process helped women gain a bit of control over their bodies and their lives, which is a good thing; and while it probably also helped some girls stay in school, as some girls mentioned feeling ashamed of doing so during their period, I initially felt like a reusable solution would have been more liberating, while also respecting the environment.
But the initial feeling had to do with my westerner point of view, where resources like clean water (to wash the reusable product) are abundant, and where the products can be bought online in a few taps on a glass screen in my pocket. The context for these women is very different: learning how to build a pad-pressing machine and build a business out of it was definitely more empowering than deferring that power to an external entity for the manufacturing of reusable products.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6939026/ (available on Netflix)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pad_Man_(film)
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachalam_Muruganantham
That's quite a remarkable title.
Honest question: is it disrespecting the environment to harvest cotton/paper from the earth and put it back in the earth? They're both biodegradeable and renewable. If anything, I think that it would take carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it for decades, which is a net positive.
Plus, you need many of those cotton balls in the day, and only one cup you can reuse the whole day.
While it would certainly take a huge effort to create the base silicone product, creating the molds and use them to create reusable cups could be done on-demand and on-location.
My mother has been involved in operating and supporting a network of Kenyan orphanages for decades. She's on the board of directors for the US 501c3 that funds them. The woman who founded this organization (a US citizen) adopted several of the orphans and spent most of her time for 20 years in the country operating the homes until her health decline and dimensia prevented her direct involvement. The board became aware that a director of one of the homes (keynan born man in his mid twenties and the first adoptee of the orgs founder) had been submitting false receipts and not paying land tax, had kicked out orphans and was renting the property, etc. The 93 year old, recently widowed founder did not believe the allegation and a court case (in Kenya) between her the board ensued. Predicting resolution and subsequent board control of the home, my mother quit her job in the US and moved to Kenya (planned for a year) to act as interim director, reestablished the orphanage and transition to a new local director. They instead realized that a case between two westerners, with resources to pay attorneys and court fees, was likely to be dragged out for a long time. She instead volunteered at the nursery at Kenya Children's Home for a short time before going on to help setup and operate a new clinic, built by the Freedom from Fistula[0] foundation, in Madagascar.
In our correspondence, she expressed the vital need for both incontinence and feminine hygiene supplies and consequences of a girls life without them. She explained a tragic situation: that pubecent girls would miss unpredictable amounts of school (often falling behind to the point of withdrawal/failure) without them, and that there was a very real fear of being shunned for failing to control their natural bodily functions. Projects like the one in this article, where minimal targeted investments can result in wide spread life changing outcomes are awesome and inspiring!
(Also, I learned about menstrual cups due to your enticing reference to the progress indicator which tipped the balance in favor of clicking though to the article.)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o2gj5e44n5tryrt/no-scroll-bars-waa...
I don’t remember the prices exactly, but it’s the range of a year of cup coverage being cheaper than one pack of pads.
https://crosscut.com/2019/02/wa-lawmakers-want-make-tampons-...
Chicago, a small handful of cities and ten states have already eliminated this unfair burden on top of the average $18,000 spent on feminine hygiene over a lifetime [2].
But the most tragically comical story I've found about this is what happened in Utah - the all-male panel rejected eliminating the tax, citing that they would need to recoup those tax funds from other sales, and that it was "unfair to tax the whole population for something that only affects half of it." The representative sponsoring the bill keeps trying every year, and every year the all-male committee continues to say No to her...
[1] https://accountingsolutionsltd.com/faqs/sales-tax-rate-chica... [2] https://www.sapling.com/3308/the-amount-youve-probably-spend...
They should go have a chat with their moms.
Toilet paper is an essential for both genders.
In the UK tampons and pads have VAT charged on them (as they count as a luxury); there is a campaign to remove this and it has been reduced to 5%, but it's still there (due to EU regulations I believe).
As a side point, in many parts of the world, toilet paper is not an essential; it's regarded as a dirty and unclean western practice.
In contrast, I can spend an order of magnitude less on razor blades, as a pack of Harry's blades end up being something like $2/each, and that's basically about a dollar or two a month (or less).
For menstruation, you can do free bleeding.
For defecation, you can use a bidet, or go old-style with corn cobs. You can use an odd number of stones, as specified by Muhammad.
The same goes for shampoo (don't need it), deodorant (don't need it), and many other things.
What this all boils down to is a fear of having other people think you are weird, defective, dirty, gross, etc.
In walked the bidet.
My partner introduced me to them, and when I saw how expensive they were I immediately wondered how much it would cost to 3D print moulds for them so that entrepreneurial Kenyans could mass produce them as a cottage industry. I only got as far as a first print of a positive before someone pointed me to (I think) an Alibaba listing where they cost 5¢ each if you bought 1,000 at a time. I can’t find them quite so cheap any more, but I have just found them at €0.18 each. Perhaps a “buy one for yourself, get a hundred more for Kenya” marketing strategy could help? I have no idea how to do that without the annoying and condescending out-of-touch white-male saviour stereotype though.
Maybe Bernie can give you all that for free and you won't feel that 'life tax'.
Also, since media at large wants you to believe you make more than a woman, you're getting a higher 'life tax' each pay period.
I mean, cool effort and all, but you don't need to pin a martyr banner on your back, hero.
I’m a guy. I’ve met guys like that. I’ve been on the receiving end of such presumption from both men and women. Heck, my current landlord is like that. I don’t want to be a guy like that, especially not in the context of “shove this into a part of your anatomy that I don’t have myself”.
How would those pesky old white males bother you with your project?
The product will mostly be bought by women, so they are the customers that you need to convince of the good cause. If you need to start a business and set up some webshop and organize marketing campains you can perfectly do that as a woman, with or without the help of other women if you prefer them.
Stop blaming men for you own insecurities!
By being me. I have enough self awareness and pay enough attention to know my own efforts, as well-meant as they are, can easily end up like xkcd.com/793
Men require more calories throughout their lives, meaning higher food bills, and usually die sooner as a result of that. Men also contribute far more tax revenue on average than women anyway. It's silly to try to boil down something that's incredibly nuanced just based on one experience you've had.
And if it shouldn't be free then why don't men get an extra check for consuming extra calories? The question is to demonstrate how ridiculous the idea is. The levels that people go to in order to sympathize with women are quite high and seem to be for the purpose of giving men a sense that they should feel bad or sorry for the condition of being a woman when really, if you want equality, you treat women like you treat men. You assume they are strong and they can handle the problem. Yes $7 a box by 9 boxes a year is definitely extra cost of living. But are we really going to make this one thing free or tax free just because it only affects women? It's such an oversensitivity to women and it should be considered offensive to them that anybody even considers that kind of special treatment.
I'm not "defending men", I'm pointing out how absurd the comment above is. Care to actually tell me why I'm wrong?
Now if there's a way to make money, suddenly it becomes an attractive subject for some, but the liberation of women with reusable products (menstrual cup, washable pads and period pants) will always come second to potential wealth increase with single-use solutions, especially for someone who does now experience the "problem" in the first place.
Worse than all that, the people in charge of pushing single-use products genuinely believe they are helping out women, when in reality we see cases of toxic shock syndrome due to chemicals in tampons, and the ecological impact of such single-use products.
My wife has been using reusable solutions for a few years now, the cup and period pants being the most liberating according to her.
More basically, men simply won't know or the importance won't cross their mind, even if they do kind of know.
I do my best to leave informative comments on HN with details men are unlikely to know, such as this comment:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19594977
I will add that the high cost of feminine hygiene products is a problem for a lot of poor American women. It isn't covered by Food Stamps. Homeless services have limited quantities of such things. Etc.
That being said, I'm on the fence about believing this is more than a question of habit vs an actual thing that will bug you. After all, the average US woman seems to be completely thrown about how you can use a tampon without an applicator. In Europe if you ask for them, most people won't even know what you mean and I don't see what their appeal is, but if that is what you grew up with....
(edit) Just to clarify, I also use a cup and it has upsides and downsides, but overall to me it is a net win.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Edit: I see we've asked you many times not to post like this, and saying that we'd ban you if you did it again, so we have. If you'd like to be unbanned you can email hn@ycombinator.com.
Here’s one: since men are larger and headboard than women, we need more food just to stay alive! A few hundred extra calories a day over a lifetime, the cost must be substantial — almost certainly greater than the cost of tampons.
Life is unfair to all of us, both sexes.
Men also get pressured in other ways, but very rarely are they directly monetary/consumptive the way women are in my opinion.
You as a man can choose not to east as much as you need. You grow a bit less and need less food. A woman can't choose not to leave the house 5 days per month if she want's to keep a job. Yes, we can keep arguing over this but I though we were done with this already 50 years ago. I'm a bit surpriced to see it to be honest. We talked about this in school when I was 12, 30+ years ago. (Sweden)
Last year one county here started with free menstruation protection for 12-23 year olds [0] (swedish...) Apparently Scotland was first in the world 2017 [1]
[0] https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/stockholm/gratis-mensskydd...
[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/scotland-fir...
I now live in Vietnam and know the owner of one of the leading brands here. She said that her biggest challenge is the fact that a lot of women don't even use tampons because of the whole fear of losing their virginity cultural stigmas.
1. The number of donated cups is very low. Several thousand people are living better, but millions more are still struggling. Is this an effort that can scale up to provide a more universally accessible benefit? Or are there unstated assumptions, like that publicizing the magnitude of the issue will trigger outrage and bring about reform, or genuine ongoing efforts to follow through with that reform?
2. Personal hygiene products costing such a high proportion of average earnings points to a serious failure of society, government, markets, or perhaps all of the above. The government can't seem to provide, the markets can't seem to adapt, and society doesn't seem to care enough to force the issue. This isn't an exotic reason: we're talking basics for half the population here. There are people in poverty in advanced economies who have trouble with access to menstrual hygiene products, but the scale of the problem highlighted in the article is astounding. It points to an ever-present serious divide between those who greatly benefit from a connected world, and those who are having to reconcile absurd economic realities of the transition.
3. With a little help, one could bootstrap change. There is will among those most affected to ensure the continuity of ventures that make this issue better, but an injection of capital seems necessary to bring such a venture to fruition. The donation of finished products helps people immediately, but it's worth considering whether donating to bootstap local production of similar (or even inferior) products would work better such that the effort can eventually evolve to sustain itself without outside help. Sometimes, when this kind of bootstrapping is attempted, the effort falters quickly once the outside help leaves, because there's a lack of well-developed local institutions and capital necessary to sustain it. But this seems different, the institutions exist. It's the capital that's lacking.
We must have saved thousands of dollars on condoms at this point, and intercourse is much more enjoyable for both parties (with no unexpected risk for my career). For some unknown reason (cultural?), while the UID is very popular and obviously the best choice in parts of Europe, there remains some taboo around it in the US... anyway, I wish I could save all this money on disposable products with the cup, but I do not want to risk pulling it out or entangling it.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/09/14/sunday-review...
Another method whose safety approaches that of oral contraceptives is cervical mucus tracking. But this also requires education. The method is also not suitable for all women and lifestyles. In one study[1], around 5% of prospective participants had to be excluded due to irregular menstrual cycle. Dropout rate due to dissatisfaction or for other reasons was 9.2%.
Also note that with IUDs there can be spontaneous expulsion, and there are health risks associated with it. So while very good compared to other methods, they are not best in all categories.
[1] https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dem003
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/03...
Women are expected to work around the clock there, carry heavy things and do all the cooking. This system means that you actually don't have to work while possibly in pain and probably unwell, and you don't have to explain yourself to anyone. Yes, it is a bad taboo system that assigns women a 'dirty' status, but there are some positive effects as well (in a patriarchal society).
I really don't agree this is "better." Given these two horrible choices, I would rather be afforded freedom to roam (even with heavy things), get food and go on a walk than this. There's no kitchen, so the women have to wait for someone to bring them food or water. They're not safe in these huts - many are exposed to the elements, and these "sinful" women are apparently free taking for raping (which is why they try to coordinate and not go alone). Many die from heat stroke or poisonous snakes. There aren't even beds or mattresses... these are prison cells.
Menstruation, Sanitary Products, and School Attendance: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation (AEJ: Applied 2011)
https://4d30f248-a-383b438b-s-sites.googlegroups.com/a/illin...
When you are a young woman just getting your period, it's confusing and messy. Society doesn't help in that it's also taboo. There is a lot of fear and worry involved with having your period that lasts for many women through their lives. I have friends who won't use a tampon that doesn't include the applicator [1] (it helps insertion without needing to get your hands dirty). So using a cup means, you are 100% going to get blood on your hands and you are going to be very intimate with the inside of your body. For many women who were brought up conservatively, and for those who remain conservative, this will never be an option. I try and promote the cup among my friends and encourage young girls to experiment in safety. Long-term, it will become more popular.
There is also the issue of needing clean running water or wet wipes. Hygiene is crucial in cleaning the cup between changes and of course, you need to be able to clean your hands and have running water to deposit the menstrual liquid [2]. I'm not sure how this would work with a non-flushing / compost toilet actually, I found this article [3] which concludes that of course, blood is good for compost. I don't know what the sanitary conditions are in the kind of home these girls live in, in Kenya.
[1] http://becomingagirl.weebly.com/applicator-tampons.html
[2] https://store.lunette.com/blogs/news/how-to-clean-menstrual-...
[3] http://minimotives.com/2016/11/10/periods-composting-toilet/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composting_toilet
e.g.:
Virginia: "All materials removed from a composting privy shall be buried," and "compost material shall not be placed in vegetable gardens or on the ground surface.[0]
Rhode Island: "Solids produced by alternative toilets may be buried on site," while, "residuals shall not be applied to food crops.[1]
I'm all for doing it regardless, as it seems more sustainable than traditional sewage treatment!
[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composting_toilet#cite_note-26
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composting_toilet#cite_note-25
I also wear reusable cloth pads on light/spotting days. I wash my pads in the wash machine.
In urban areas where you have younger teachers and more conversation about these taboo topics, cups are popular enough that you can buy them in every bigger drug store by now, but in rural areas it's as simple as nobody knows that this is an option.