MoonPads

How would you describe a world class athlete? ✅Confident ✅Concerned about their health ✅Will stop at nothing to achieve goals And yes... 64% of athletes at the highest levels say they have felt uncomfortable talking about their periods with their coaches, according to a recent survey by Knix and CANFund THAT is the extraordinary affect of PERIOD STIGMA! ♦️And it starts really early ♦️A study by Women in Sport found nearly eight in 10 (78%) of girls who said they used to like sports admitted they avoided taking part when on their period. ♦️Overall, seven in 10 girls said they avoided sport when menstruating, citing pain, tiredness and self-consciousness. Two-time World Cup Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist soccer player Megan Rapinoe is taking on period stigma, big time, along with Knix in the Sport Your Period campaign that is paying athletes to speak openly about their periods. Learn more at Knix and Sport Your Period. *This photo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

There is plenty of reporting available on the study that came out this week in Environment International entitled “Tampons as a source of exposure to metal(loid)s.”  Here is what I am personally taking from this so far (hint: not much good): 1.        It makes no sense to regulate tampons as medical devices but not ensure that ingredients are on the package, as dictated by the federal government, not the decisions of state legislatures. And regulation should include regular, independent testing. 2.        While there is evidence of many potentially dangerous chemicals in the tampons we all purchase, this study does not provide any insight into the absorption of them by our bodies. Nonetheless, if this were contaminated water, we wouldn’t wait before switching to bottled water. BUT, making a switch to another means of managing menstruation is not available to millions of Americans. There is good reason we all should be concerned about the complications of period management as a result of this study; but for many, this is just one more issue in a devastating list of period poverty symptoms. 3.        It is painfully clear that more research must be done, and the government’s action going forward will tell us a lot about its commitment to addressing systemic, longtime inadequacies concerning women’s health. 4.        I’m not freaking out about tampon use alone… at least not any more than I’m freaking out about exposure to a whole range of dangerous chemicals in the soil where my food grows, the water I drink, the products used to clean the public spaces I visit, the packaging that literally every “safe” thing I purchase now contacts. One possible good thing that comes of this is enlightening more people to the lack of attention on women’s health. What comes of it? (sigh) Hopefully something… https://lnkd.in/eV2UrQCb