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Last year, a team of women researchers decided to test period
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products with real human blood instead of just salt water,
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which is actually a practice used by male researchers until now salt
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Doctor Bethany Samuelson Banna and her team from Oregon Health and Science
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University in Portland published a study to understand how period products absorb
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blood, aiming to diagnose heavy menstrual bleeding better.
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This change sheds light on the negligence and properly testing period products
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An issue many women have faced unknowingly.
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Today, we are chatting with Jess,
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the creator of Jess period.
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She makes handmade reusable period pads.
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Hi, Jess, how are you doing?
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Welcome. Thanks so much for coming on.
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Yeah, I I just started my period literally five minutes ago
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How convenient we have period talk with just period.
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You kind of manifested it.
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Yes, I manifested my fear.
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I've done that before.
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You're probably telling your body mentally like,
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yeah, so we're going to just jump right into it.
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Recent research uncovered that period products were never tested using human
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blood until last year.
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Why is this a big deal my take away and I have
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three of them. The very first one is Doctor Bethany is
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bringing to light how there is very little woman research.
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There's no innovation, there's lack of funding.
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The infrastructure doesn't exist.
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She even details in her study,
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how they had to do everything manually themselves.
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There's no tools for it.
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I think that's the very first thing.
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Second thing is that they are highlighting how manufacturing period companies are
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not honoring menstruates. Why?
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Because the products don't sustain all the period blood they are saying
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they do. And then lastly,
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doctors use as reference what the period product manufacturing companies are saying
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to evaluate if a person has heavy menstrual bleeding.
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Obviously, if this is incorrect,
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then it's an incorrect reference and may lead to a misdiagnosed to
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a menstruate. Many of us grow up fearing and hearing about
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toxic shock syndrome. I'm scared about that.
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but I don't really know what it is.
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Could you help explain what TSS is to non menstruates or to
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menstruates and how we can better protect ourselves from this potentially fatal
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syndrome. So, TSS is caused by a bacteria that
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is already within the human body.
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However, it's associated with tampons because tampons may cause certain
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lesions or cuts in the walls of the vagina.
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And then this is when the bacteria inserts your system and that's
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when things get out of hand.
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It isn't necessarily that the tampon causes TSS.
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It's the function of the tampon when it's inserted in the vagina
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that can cause it some ways to prevent it are making sure
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that you're following the instructions of the tampons to not have them
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in your body for a certain amount of time.
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Right. Yeah. That's why I only,
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I'm scared of that because,
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like, that's why I only use pads.
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Yeah. Yeah. I'm just,
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I don't know, it's the troma because I've heard stories too
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I know, I feel like it was a really big deal
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growing up like, oh you use tampons like,
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my mom would say we have why?
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Because she would say like,
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because people would say like,
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oh you lose your virginity.
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The same thing. It was like,
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oh you lost your virginity.
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You was tamped. That was a thing.
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At least for me and my little sister.
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I don't know, maybe you're crazy.
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But I don't think so.
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I feel like that's a kind of Latino mom thing.
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Like my first experience with trying to put a tampon was in
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high school with my best friend and I was still not able
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to insert it. My mom never taught me about using a
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tampon. So I didn't have my first experience until high school
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aught met me. My mom,
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like I said, she was very anti tampon,
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inserting anything. Like no.
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I mean, told me about Patsy.
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Yeah. Well, this goes back to our culture,
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right? And kind of the education that we have seen that
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has passed on through generation and on.
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So,, the virginity myth is a myth.
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It has nothing related to it.
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And actually now they say that virginity doesn't even exist.
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that's a quick takeaway there but really is more about being educated
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and informed of what a tampon is.
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However, I would like to mention that when tampons were first
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introduced, they were only introduced to married women.
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Oh, I didn't know that.
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this doesn't come, it is a,
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It's an ideology for the most part pads and tampons are the
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standard period products, right?
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Are there more options like more sustainable,
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safer for like my body or what do you recommend Jess?
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Yeah. And I'm going to circle back a little bit to
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Dr Bethany research. The reason why she did this research
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is because heavy menstrual bleeders were using menstrual cups and the menstrual
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cup was not part of their assessment chart.
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So it was already outdated.
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It was not considering modern day period products any tips on how
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to choose the best period product for me.
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I mean, I know I had to start using tamp early
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on because I'm a beach lover.
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My period is going to stop me from going out.
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But I know there's other options.
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I don't know, intimidated to try.
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Yeah. So a few things to consider is one your lifestyle
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like you just mentioned for you,
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it's more convenient to use a tampon because of the activities that
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you have in your daily life.
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The second thing is to consider your flow and your own personal
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preference. Not everybody can insert something in their vaginas.
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So not everybody can use a tampon,
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a menstrual cup or a menstrual disc.
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That's why you kind of have the opposite,
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which is the pad or the reusable pad.
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But all of these have different effects and something to look
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out for is making sure that if you're using a disposable product
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it is made out of the highest percentage of organic cotton
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Also that it has no fragrance and no chlorine because this
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may affect the hormones in your body.
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And then if you are choosing a reusable product,
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make sure that you are sanitizing it and being hygienic with it
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That's the way to be effective with reusable products.
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Did you say chlorine?
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Chlorine, chlorine? Yes.
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Have you seen the pad?
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That, that's why it's so white.
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It's because it has chlorine material.
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That's crazy. I didn't know that.
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This was a really fun and informative,
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important conversation to have.
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Also we want to ask where can people follow you and your
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business? Yeah. My website is jesper.com and you can find
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me on Instagram and tiktok at Jesper underscore where I talk about
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menstruation and reusable products and anything really related to periods.
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talk all day, every day,
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period, period, period.
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Thank you. Thank you,
Series