Period poverty is an issue that affects millions of people across the globe, according to UN Women.
In the United States, "1 in 4 teens and 1 in 3 adults struggle to afford period products, especially teens of color and lower-income households," according to the website.
Period poverty occurs when a menstruating person lacks access to period products, sanitation or hygiene facilities, education and awareness to properly manage their menstrual health.
Yet, it is one of those things that remains a low priority in public policy and discourse, said the Executive Director of Go With The Flow, Demetra Presley.
Go With The Flow is a nonprofit founded in 2017 after Presley learned about a teacher who kept bags filled of menstrual products due to the frequent requests from students.
Presley learned the school did not have an adequate supply of products for its students. Ever since, Go With The Flow has donated over 50,000 period pack-bags that contain a variety of products to schools in Tucson, Phoenix and neighboring areas, according to the Go With The Flow website.
Presley said even in 2025, periods are a very stigmatized topic. This makes it difficult to talk about menstruation in public forums in order to bring attention, resources and policy around it.
"It's one of those things that we know exists, but we don't really talk about its existence because we have been conditioned not to," Presley said.
Two common groups of people that are regularly affected by period poverty are students and those experiencing homelessness, Presley said. Not having access to products during menstruation can impact a person's ability to participate in everyday life, including employment and school.
It is common for students facing period poverty to miss school. If they are home they do not need to worry about not being able to use a bathroom or worry about staining their clothes and having peers tease them, Presley said.
Even when these students do attend school, the lack of access to products disrupts their ability to focus on their education. Whether it is not being able to pay attention in class or the amount of time they spend out of class searching for products from nurses or friends, Presley said.
Those experiencing period poverty also turn to the limited resources they have to act as menstruation products which can have negative impacts on their physical and mental health, Presley said.
Some makeshift resources people turn to include paper towels, toilet paper, newspaper, cardboard, clothes and even sponges, Presley added. Using these items as period products is unsafe and unhygienic.
Others may even extend the use of pads or tampons longer than the recommended amount which increases the risk of infections, according to the National Library of Medicine.
"Infection risks are very high when you're menstruating, which is why it's so important to keep that area and yourself sterile, hygienic and clean," said Cassie Burtis, a junior studying tourism development and management, who hosted a menstrual product drive for the Keys to Change Campus.
Period poverty is more than a lack of a product, it can also be a lack of knowledge, which is one of the largest barriers, Presley said.
Something many people are unaware of is toxic shock syndrome, which is an important thing to be conscious of, Burtis said.
Toxic shock syndrome is a rare, life-threatening complication that originates from toxins produced by Staphylococcus aureus (staph) bacteria or toxins produced by group A streptococcus (strep) bacteria, according to Mayo Clinic.
Presley said some fear the idea of students having unrestricted access to menstrual products in public bathrooms because it's going to be abused or taken advantage of.
"We don't think this way about toilet paper. We don't think that way about soap, paper towels — those things in public bathrooms that everyone has access to," Presley said.
"There are students that are choosing between affording food and affording to take care of their basic hygiene needs every month, and that's a really terrible thing," said Devils in the Bedroom liaison Emma Wymore.
Devils in the Bedroom is an organization that provides students with resources about sexual health and wellness education. Their mission is to break the stigma surrounding sexual health and pleasure at ASU.
READ MORE: Devils in the Bedroom destigmatizes sexual education, focuses on creating safe space
"At our core, we don't think that sexual health should be the reason that any student is unable to give their best shot at their education," Wymore said.
Devils in the Bedroom has a peer-to-peer distribution system that gives out and even delivers a variety of products including pads and tampons at no cost to students, Wymore said.
The No.1 request of products they receive is for Plan Bs while the second most requested item is pads, Wymore said.
Since last spring, Devils in the Bedroom has given out "125 tampons, 130 liners and 135 pads across all four ASU's campuses," not including resources given out at meetings and tabling events, said Devils in the Bedroom liaison Ems Yepiz.
"There's a huge demand for those things, especially with how expensive they're getting," Yepiz said.
Arizona is among the states that have what is known as a tampon tax or pink tax. This is a 5.6% sales tax placed on period products as they are seen as luxury items and not basic necessities, according to Alliance for Period Supplies.
This makes these products more expensive and even less accessible, Burtis said.
Devils in the Bedroom tries to ease students' anxieties from not knowing how they will afford period products or having unprotected sex that could lead to a pregnancy, Wymore said.
Health and wellness products are not something students should need to worry about in a first world country, Wymore added.
"Our university does a great job at some things, but at the end of the day, we still don't have period products in every bathroom," Wymore said.
Edited by Senna James, Abigail Beck, Tiya Talwar and Natalia Jarrett.
Reach the reporter at nrodri74@asu.edu.
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Natalia is a sophomore studying journalism and mass communication with a minor in creative writing. This is her second semester at The State Press.
