10. Period Poverty Among Adolescent Girls In Miami, Florida

Background

Inadequate access to menstrual hygiene supplies, termed “period poverty,” has been documented in low-resource settings globally. However, there is little data on period poverty among American adolescents, with no data available on immigrants or non-English speaking adolescents. The objective of this study is to quantify period poverty among a diverse population of adolescent girls in Miami, Florida. This study determines where adolescents obtain menstrual products, how they cope with inadequate supplies and the effect of period poverty on education.

Methods

Adolescent girls attending public schools served by University of Miami school-based clinics were surveyed upon presentation to the clinic. Students were given menstrual pads with an attached QR code that linked to an anonymous, online survey. Convenience sampling was used. Funding was provided by the NASPAG Young Investigators grant.

Results

73 students completed the survey. 63 surveys were in English, 7 in Spanish and 3 in Haitian-Creole. This is the first study that includes adolescents speaking Spanish and Haitian-Creole. The average age was 15. 60% were born in the United States, 29% in Haiti, 11% in Latin America. 58% of adolescents did not have enough menstrual products available at home in the past year. Every month or almost every month, girls asked family and friends (37%) and/or went to the school clinic (37%). 53% of girls soaked through their clothes with their periods. 41% missed school because of their periods and 14% of girls missed school because of period poverty. Among girls who stated that it was “easy” to manage their periods, 29% missed school because of their periods; among girls who said it was “difficult” to manage their periods, 65% of girls missed school because of their periods. 39% reported getting into trouble at school because of their periods.

Conclusions

Our study represents the most ethnically diverse study population on American adolescents and period poverty available in the literature. The majority of adolescents in our study did not have adequate access to menstrual supplies and school participation was negatively impacted as a result. This study highlights the importance of providing period products in schools and the need that school-based clinics fill by providing menstrual products to vulnerable adolescents. Increasing access to period supplies should be a priority for adolescent health care providers. Health care providers should ask adolescents if they have access to sufficient menstrual products, legislation to provide funding for free menstrual products in schools should be passed, and “banks” of menstrual supplies should be made available in low-resource areas.