All things periods! A Q+A session with local girls

A gynecologist, an anthropologist, and a historian walk into a bar… well, not a bar, but we make for an interesting group no matter where we go!

Paper slips with questions about periods on them. — Questions from the session.

Earlier this month, CBSS members Dr Karissa Patton (an historian) and Dr Andrea Ford (an anthropologist), along with Dr Marianne Watters, a gynaecologist with the Centre for Reproductive Health and the HOPE (Healthy Optimal Periods for Everyone) team, hosted a ‘Periods Q+A’ session with the Niddrie Girls’ Group. The Girls Group usually meet at the Jack Kane Centre in Niddrie, near the University of Edinburgh’s BioQuarter buildings, but they were excited about taking a field trip to the Nucleus Centre in Kings’ Buildings where they were met with snacks and three researchers ready to chat all things periods. There were seven girls around age 11 - 14, along with two mentors. We, the researchers, broke the ice by sharing a favourite fact about periods.

Marianne brought jars with red liquid to indicate normal, heavy, and super heavy amounts of blood lost during a period – no one in the room, including the other researchers, had seen the amount so clearly. It was less than we all thought! Which led nicely into Andrea’s fact, that period ‘blood’ is only about half blood; the other half is other really interesting substances like stem cells, which could be super useful to study problems with periods and also issues like wound healing and tissue growth. This is what Marianne studies, infact.

Period research

But as an anthropologist, Andrea explained that she doesn’t do lab science but instead is concerned with the cultural issues like stigma that have made period research lag so far behind other areas. And in this vein, Karissa shared that historically, many women were excluded from doing research or intellectual activity because of their periods, which were thought to drain their energy. She tied this into the persecution of independent, wise women who were accused of being witches; their memory was recently honoured by the Scottish Witches’ Tartan, which features a prominent stripe of red.

Workshop exercises

To warm up, we asked the girls to do a few silly exercises drawing the answers to questions like,“what about periods is bigger than a house?” and “what about periods is smaller than a toaster”?and “if periods were an animal, what would they be?” After a lively chat came the questions bag, in which everyone put at least one slip of paper – we thought some might be shy and want to put in blank slips, but this never happened over the two rounds! The energy was high and we were so impressed by the thoughtful questions.

Feedback

Feedback from the group shared that the young people and staff also left the session with a great dose of energy and ideas for positive change in the topic of periods and the stigma surrounding them.Some of the key things they felt they learned were about the pink tax (which taxes menstrual products as “luxury items”), that there is an area of science dedicated to periods, and that there is no need to be awkward about talking about periods! They suggested that a follow on activity could be making a game all about periods that others could use, too.

We really enjoyed ourselves and felt it was great to get out of the centre to explore such an important topic.

Background and reflections

Karissa and Andrea organized the event as part of the WISH* (Women* in Scotland and Health)project they are establishing. As researchers exploring the history and contemporary contexts of women’s health in Scotland, we welcomed the opportunity to work with the Niddrie Girls Group.Often women’s health research focuses on the experience of women of ‘reproductive age.’ Connecting with and getting feedback from younger and older people is essential to ensuring that diverse health needs are met. Meeting the Girls Group members, and fielding their excellent questions, helped us think about what kind of information younger people have, and what some of their period health priorities are. It was a great first step in bringing young peoples’ perspective intothis work!