The Bleeding Homeless
Location
Guzman 111, Dominican University of California
Start Date
4-17-2019 4:20 PM
Student Type
Undergraduate
Faculty Mentor(s)
Patti Culross, MD, MPH
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
There are currently around 553,742 homeless people living in the United States (The U.S. department of housing and urban development. 2017). Women make up 39% of the homeless population and within the sheltered population, 55% are females (The U.S. department of housing and urban development.2017).
As it is known, young women begin menstruating between the ages of 8 to 16 and stop at around the age of 50-55 years of age (Colin Sumpter & Belen Torondel, 2013). Women will on average menstruate for 1400 days throughout their life (Colin Sumpter & Belen Torondel, 2013).
A study of female refugees and displaced women in the Middle East found that they did not have access to tampons or sanitary pads and lacked the basic needs to manage their monthly blood flow (Schmitt et al., 2017). Many used reusable cloths when they didn’t have access to disposable pads. When they had access to disposable pads because they were provided by camps or shelters, they felt it was easier to deal with their cycle. Forty five percent of homeless women in the US are unsheltered. How do these women deal with their menstrual cycle when resources are not available? Do they have access to free feminine hygiene products? The purpose of this ethnographic study is to find out how homeless women deal with their menstrual cycle.
The Bleeding Homeless
Guzman 111, Dominican University of California
There are currently around 553,742 homeless people living in the United States (The U.S. department of housing and urban development. 2017). Women make up 39% of the homeless population and within the sheltered population, 55% are females (The U.S. department of housing and urban development.2017).
As it is known, young women begin menstruating between the ages of 8 to 16 and stop at around the age of 50-55 years of age (Colin Sumpter & Belen Torondel, 2013). Women will on average menstruate for 1400 days throughout their life (Colin Sumpter & Belen Torondel, 2013).
A study of female refugees and displaced women in the Middle East found that they did not have access to tampons or sanitary pads and lacked the basic needs to manage their monthly blood flow (Schmitt et al., 2017). Many used reusable cloths when they didn’t have access to disposable pads. When they had access to disposable pads because they were provided by camps or shelters, they felt it was easier to deal with their cycle. Forty five percent of homeless women in the US are unsheltered. How do these women deal with their menstrual cycle when resources are not available? Do they have access to free feminine hygiene products? The purpose of this ethnographic study is to find out how homeless women deal with their menstrual cycle.