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Author ORCID Identifier

0009-0008-5965-1824

Abstract

Period poverty is a persistent international public health struggle affecting millions of people who menstruate. Most academic studies on how mensuration effects university students have been completed in low-to-middle income countries and, specifically, there is a lack of studies conducted in high-income countries (Ross, 2021). The current study was conducted with students in a multi-campus university in the south and southwest of Ireland during 2024. The study had two main aims, first, to explore the students’ attitudes and experiences of period poverty, and second, to investigate their attitudes towards reusable period products.

A mixed methods study was used to collect the data, first an online questionnaire was distributed to all students, and second, semi-structured interviews were conducted with students across all campuses. The qualitative data was analysed thematically, using the grounded theory method, and the quantitative data was analysed using IBM SPSS.

The results of the study show that while most students were aware of period poverty, they had limited knowledge of the topic. While there were several students who used reusable period products, over half the students who do not use reusable period products were willing to try them. The biggest barriers identified to using reusable period products were lack of information, stigma, and cost, however, it can be suggested that reusable period products are a possible sustainable solution to combat period poverty

Finally, we highlight that period poverty is a multifaceted issue, including not only the basic need for period products, but also issues relating to stigma, and menstrual health education.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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