Period Poverty Was a Health Crisis Before the Pandemic. Now it’s Worse

When COVID-19 first hit the United States in early 2020, items like toilet paper quickly became a hot commodity. It made Marni Sommer, a Doctor of Public Health and researcher on menstruation, curious if the same was happening with period supplies.

“I saw the run on toilet paper and thought, ‘well what about menstrual products?’ and noticed people were grabbing those, as well,” she said. “Most of us were staying home at the time and I wondered what that meant for people with perhaps less privacy living in constrained environments to be able to manage their period with dignity.”