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March is International Women’s Month, a time to recognise the challenges faced by women. One particular struggle that many women and people with uteruses experience is periods, and if regular bleeding isn’t enough to deal with, there is also the social stigma and medical conditions such as endometriosis to combat too. Feminist Society recently ran a discussion group to bring together current views and ideas from the student community as to period-related issues at university. Read on to find out what points were raised and how to get involved in improving period-related welfare in student life!
Period stigma and social support
While periods are most notably associated with bleeding from the uterus as part of the monthly menstrual cycle, they come with a whole host of side effects and symptoms that are often unrecognised socially. These include tiredness and fatigue, headaches (including migraines), and brain fog and reduced ability to focus – all symptoms that make both social and academic commitments difficult to engage with. Despite this, it is still not common practice to disclose to peers or lecturers that you are struggling due to being on your period, which can lead to uncomfortable and draining coursework meetings and seminars. In this way, the university would benefit from having away to excuse absences from academic commitments due to period-related illness, and raising awareness about the effects that menstruating can have on people beyond just bleeding. The existing policies of recording lectures and providing lecture slides are incredibly beneficial to enable people to prioritise health while not missing academic content, and this policy should continue to be applied across departments.
Having periods can also be an incredible strain on budgets, and the freely available period products in bathrooms across campuses are a great start to supporting people who menstruate. This could be taken further to support the symptoms that come with bleeding, such as abdominal cramps, with making products available on campus like hot water bottles and migraine strips, to make living with symptoms more comfortable and affordable.
Endometriosis
While menstruating can be tough enough already to manage, having a uterus comes with other medical conditions that can be severely detrimental to quality of life and yet are completely under-recognised. One such condition is endometriosis, which affects 1 in 10 women and people assigned female at birth (AFAB); over 1.5 million people suffer with endometriosis across the UK. This illness occurs when cells similar to those in the uterus grow in different places in the body, such as the ovaries or pelvis, leading to inflammation and scar tissue and ultimately causing pain and discomfort. Despite the often severe consequences of having endometriosis, average diagnosis time was 7.5 years in the UK in 2017, and people can be dismissed when symptoms are raised with medical professionals. This represents a deep failure of the medical system to recognise and treat all diseases and shows how feminism is still so relevant today as women and people AFAB are persistently ignored and belittled for their medical issues. Raising awareness about the significance of this disease would greatly contribute to change in attitudes and would be a great subject for the University to focus on to improve student quality of life.
Check out the resources below to find out more about endometriosis:
“The missed disease? Endometriosis as an example of ‘undone science’”
Managing periods at university
As explained so far, living with periods can be a regular struggle that is often overlooked when it comes to academic work, and the symptoms associated with menstruation can severely reduce one’s ability to complete assignments and exams. At the moment, there is little provision for period-related illness when it comes to deadlines and exams, so there is definite room for improvement here. Although periods generally come around once every 4 weeks, they can be very irregular and unpredictable, making it hard to stick to revision schedules or coursework deadlines. Additionally, conditions like premenstrual syndrome (PMS) mean that even before the bleeding starts,symptoms including fatigue and mental and emotional distress can take up even more time. This combines to make time-based mitigation systems inconvenient and unhelpful in many cases. While systems like individual learning plans (ILPs)would be a useful support for many struggling with period symptoms, the extreme underdiagnosis of period-related conditions like endometriosis mean that these provisions are unavailable.
Conclusions
Overall, living with periods is a very real struggle for many people, and current systems at university are not meeting appropriate support for many. With so much still to be done, your Communities and Equality Officer Rose is working to improve menstrual awareness within universities and to create policies and systems that support students who menstruate, particularly during high-pressure periods such as exam season, when the impact is most severe.
This blog was written by Matilda, the Student Community Librarian for the Guild, based on the Period Stigma Discussion Group run by Exeter’s Feminist Society.