The Homeless Period: It Doesn’t Bear Thinking About and That’s the Problem
There are a lot of things I’d rather forget about from my time spent being homeless; my menstrual periods are certainly one of them. Periods aren’t particularly pleasant to put up with anyway, but adding the complication of homelessness brings inconvenience to the level of misery.
Human beings prefer to be clean. It affects how they feel, physically and emotionally, and how people treat them. Having a period while homeless is more disturbing, upsetting, and crude than having a period while homed and possessed of all the gleaming white cotton and superabsorbent miracles modern society has to offer.
On the street, it’s also an unpleasant reminder of vulnerability. Nothing else so absolutely ordinary reminds you that you have a vagina—something other people are quite willing to viciously harm you for—quite like having a period while homeless. When you’ve suffered indignity heaped upon indignity compounded by lack of sleep and the apparent absence of all human love from your world, the only thing you can realistically hope to hang on to is a desire to handle what you can’t avoid with grace.
TOILET PAPER DOESN’T CUT IT, FOLKS
People with uteruses have been dealing with blood, fluids, and tissue coming from between their legs since before Homo sapiens were even a thing. They have used moss, feathers, leaves, wool, natural fibers, old cloth, milkweed fluff, and probably dozens of other things to soak up their monthly spills of uterine lining. So you’d think toilet paper would be the Holy Grail compared to an old handkerchief or a wad of reindeer moss. It is and it isn’t.
The toilet paper you have in your home has been gently handled since you’ve gotten it, hasn’t it? It hasn’t gotten wet and it certainly hasn’t gotten dirty. That stuff wouldn’t be too bad for swabbing below the decks and plugging any leaks. It’s still a pain in the arse to keep in place when used as a sanitary napkin and not easy to remove when used as a tampon.
But the toilet paper homeless women have access to isn’t nice toilet paper; it isn’t your toilet paper. It’s often stored open in dirty back rooms or alleys. It’s been lugged around and set down anywhere before the maintenance person gets it to the restroom.
HAVING A PERIOD WHILE HOMELESS IS MORE DISTURBING, UPSETTING, AND CRUDE THAN HAVING A PERIOD WHILE HOMED AND POSSESSED OF ALL THE GLEAMING WHITE COTTON AND SUPERABSORBENT MIRACLES MODERN SOCIETY HAS TO OFFER.
After it’s been installed, it’s been touched by strangers who’ve gotten feces, urine, or menstrual blood on their hands. It also receives a filthy baptism of vaporized dirty toilet water on it every time someone flushes.
You don’t even want to wipe with public bathroom toilet roll anymore now, do you? Imagine that definitely nonsanitary stuff making rude contact with the lady parts of someone you love. The vagina is like the perfect warm, moist petri dish for growing all the bacteria that public restroom toilet paper brings to the panty party.
IRREGULAR ACCESS TO BATHROOMS
So public bathrooms aren’t perfect, but they do tend to have running water and a small amount of privacy. Unfortunately, most homeless people lack safe, reliable access to bathrooms for many reasons. Businesses close, government buildings close, public toilets close, and homeless shelter bathrooms have lines and other restrictions, assuming one can get into a shelter in the first place and chooses to do so. Showers are even harder to get access to than toilets. When they are available, they’re often as unsanitary as the average gas station bathroom in a bad neighborhood, and may cost money to use. If you can’t get a shower but once a week, you may start to develop a less-than-fresh feeling in your nether regions when the red tide comes in.
PADS AND TAMPONS COST MONEY … AND SO DOES FOOD
We all have to make choices, but some of them are just too hard to properly prioritize when one is sleep-deprived, hungry, dirty, and blorping out bodily fluids that need hygienic disposal. Menstruating homeless people find themselves with a nasty joke of a math story problem, and it has no correct answer, only slightly less wrong ones, often when they’re in no state of mind to make good choices even if there were any. I’ll admit, I considered shoplifting tampons when I was homeless. With less than a dollar in my pocket, there was no way I could buy them. But I could also imagine all too well how upsetting it would be to be arrested for stealing tampons.
HOMELESS PEOPLE HAVE LIMITED WARDROBES
If you get a bit of red on your designated period panties, you can change into another pair and spray the dirty ones with stain remover or even toss them in the sink for a wash. But a homeless woman will quickly run out of changes of whatever item of clothing gets stained if she has to carry all her possessions around with her. Those little period accidents are also a lot less frequent when you have access to enough pads or tampons to change them as often as needed.
LACK OF SLEEP AND ROUGH SLEEPING INCREASES CRAMPING, PAIN, FATIGUE, AND HEADACHES
A homed woman can go to bed at night with a heating pad or hot-water bottle and an overnight pad with wings stuck in her most comfy granny panties. She can take a Midol, maybe have a cup of hot tea and a nibble of dark chocolate, and go off to sleep in comfort in her favorite jammies.
A homeless woman may not be able to sleep at night at all because she’s on constant alert for predators. She may already be sore from sleeping on the ground, and she has no hot-water bottle and no cupboard with a bottle of Midol and a selection of teas in it. Homelessness almost guarantees sleep deprivation, which is proven to harm pain processing.
HOW ABOUT HELPING OUT?
It would have been a kind thing if anyone had helped me out with period products when I was homeless. No one did, but you can do it for someone else.
You can help the homeless people in your area deal with periods by donating pads, tampons, hand sanitizer, and cleansing wipes to your local homeless charities and food banks. You can also make and distribute hygiene kits yourself.
WHAT TO PUT IN A PERIOD KIT
There are a number of options when it comes to making period care kits for people with insufficient access to running water. All kits should contain hand sanitizer and cleansing wipes. There are a few choices to make after that.
I’ve given examples of a few different kinds of kits to give you some ideas of how to make up a few yourself, if you so choose. Please keep in mind that these are just ideas and however you use them is good.
These kits can be assembled in quart- or gallon-sized Ziploc bags to keep their contents safe and dry.
#1 Super Basic Street Period Kit
hand sanitizer
cleansing wipes
a package of pads or a package of tampons
#2 Kit Idea
hand sanitizer
cleansing wipes
a package of pads
a package of tampons
#3 Kit Idea
hand sanitizer
cleansing wipes
a package of pads
a package of tampons
a pack of panty liners
a bottle of pain reliever
#4 More Eco-Conscious Kit Idea
hand sanitizer
cleansing wipes
a menstrual cup
printed instructions for use
THE TYPES OF PADS, TAMPONS, AND OTHER HEALTH AND HYGIENE ITEMS I THINK ARE BEST FOR THESE KITS AND WHY
PADS:
The thin, individually wrapped pads with wings are the best all-around choice for pads to include in a care package for homeless people. They are less likely to chafe when a person is doing a lot of walking, and the wings help them stay stuck to panties through a lot of moving about. They also work for light or heavy days, and the individual wrappers help protect the pads and keep them clean until they’re ready to be used. Overnight pads that are longer may also be advantageous because they provide more coverage, reducing the possibility of leaks.
TAMPONS:
While tampons without applicators may be better for the environment, they are a bit dicey to insert with fingers that may not be sparkling clean and minty fresh. So I’d highly recommend tampons with applicators that are individually wrapped in plastic to keep them clean and pristine as new-fallen snow until needed.
PANTY LINERS:
Any individually wrapped, unscented panty liner with decent adhesive that covers most of the bottom of the liner is a good thing. Liners with very little adhesive coverage have a tendency to come loose, so they should be avoided. Scented liners can irritate and may not smell good to the person who gets them. Scented liners also may serve as a reminder that another choice has been made for you in an already out-of-control world.
MENSTRUAL CUPS:
Any menstrual cup that’s made of silicone and has an easy-to-grip removal stem would be a good choice. Silicone is good because the cup can be heat-sterilized if necessary; it’s pliable and long-lasting, too. Cups that come with sturdy storage containers are always a plus.
HAND SANITIZER:
I recommend getting the clear, unscented hand sanitizer that comes in pocket-sized bottles without any colored plastic beads in it. Those plastic beads aren’t doing the environment any favors and nobody wants to find little sparkly bits on their sanitary napkin.
WIPES:
Forget the branded feminine wipes; get flushable wet toilet wipes instead. Those little feminine wipe packets seldom have enough cleansing liquid in them, and the wipes inside are often tiny, folded things textured like hand wipes. The wipes intended to help people wipe their bottoms cleaner in the bathroom are bigger and softer and much better at cleaning things up. The unscented kind of whatever wipe you get is best, as some people are sensitive or even allergic to scents, especially when used near delicate skin areas.
PERIOD PAIN RELIEVER:
Pamprin, Midol, Tylenol, Advil, and their generics are all pretty good for relieving menstrual pain. While one of the formulas intended for menstrual pain relief, like Midol or Pamprin, would probably be the most welcome, any pain reliever would be a blessing.