About a quarter of the world’s population menstruates, but innovation in menstrual products has been limited, says a McMaster researcher.
“This is a field ripe for innovation. There is a lot that can be done. And then there are very, very simple needs that are not being met,” said Zeinab Hosseinidous, a professor at McMaster University.
Hosseinidoustot works in the chemical engineering department at the University of Hamilton.
She worked alongside Associate Professor Tohid Didar to create smart tablets that work with menstrual cups to make them more accessible and reduce the “clutter” they can bring.
Shaghayegh Moghimi, PhD candidate at McMaster University, explains how absorbent tablets are made and how to use them.
According UN Women, the United Nations agency charged with working for gender equality and the empowerment of womenMore than two billion people in the world menstruate. In Canada, one in six people who menstruate have experienced period poverty, with the average person spending about $6,000 on menstrual products in their lifetime, and one in four Canadians “agree that periods are dirty and unclean,” according to federal government investigation.
Menstrual cups have become increasingly popular in recent years for being eco-friendly and cost-effective because they can be reused for years.
Hosseinidoustost said she wondered why people weren’t using menstrual cups and decided to look at the comments on social media posts.
“A lot of them ask, ‘What’s with the mess?’ So there is that concern, whether it is real or not,” he said.
It was a simple solution to a simple problem, Hosseinidoust said.
“It was just a matter of opening the doors and looking at the problem, rather than ignoring it, which you can argue that when it comes to menstrual health and women’s health, that has been the attitude,” she said.
Menstrual products impact the way some people function
Dior David, a student at McMaster University, told CBC Hamilton that while the process isn’t complicated for her, the tablets are a “great idea.”
David said using a tablet like that would allow him to change a cup or disc in a public bathroom without having to walk to a sink to rinse, and he said if it were available he would use it.
“Honestly, it would make everything more convenient. I think one of the reasons I decided to empty my cup in the shower is because I want avoid clutter and [a tablet] “It would be very easy to deal with,” David said.
Jennifer Abraham, who also attends McMaster University, told CBC Hamilton that it’s “great to hear about the innovations in the menstrual industry.”
“I think it’s important that we have more products, more education about it, so that people can choose the option that works best for them,” he said.
Abraham said it’s important that research like this exists to promote conversation and reduce stigma around menstruation.
“Things like this affect a woman’s ability to function and that can affect her role in society,” she said.
The tablet has the potential to detect and prevent infections
The tablets are single-use, which defeats two of the purposes of menstrual cups: environmental impact and cost-effectiveness.
However, they are also biodegradable, disposable, cheap to manufacture, and made from a renewable resource: seaweed.
Hosseinidoust said that if the product can help people who menstruate be more willing to try a menstrual cup, it would be helping to reduce the billions of disposable menstrual products used daily around the world, essentially “hitting several birds with one stone.”
In addition to that, the tablets also have the potential to detect urinary tract infections, bacterial vaginosis, and staph infections.
Bacteriophages, which have been the focus of Hosseinidousto’s research, are viruses that infect bacteria. He said they can kill bad bacteria without killing good bacteria.
“One of the things we’re researching and actively working on is integrating these bacteriophages with some of these menstrual products to detect and eliminate infections,” she said.
That research is already underway and has the potential to reach all types of products, not just these tablets.
Hosseinidoust said, as a researcher, finding such a big gap in the work toward innovation in menstrual products was like discovering a gold mine.
“But at the same time, as a woman, as a person who menstruates, you think, ‘Really?’” she said.
