Grace & Green

We seem to have set some fairly unrealistic standards for vaginas.

No smell. No discharge. No changes. Preferably no evidence they’re there at all.

The irony is, a lot of what we’ve labelled “unhygienic” is actually completely normal vaginal function.

Women were never understudied. Our health was.

Researchers have found the time to investigate whether women with endometriosis are attractive, whether PMOS make us less psychologically ‘feminine’ and whether our b***s can predict how nurturing a mother we’ll be.

Meanwhile, we still don’t know what causes endometriosis, PMOS remains poorly understood and huge gaps in women’s health research remain.

So perhaps the problem was never a lack of interest in studying women. It was deciding what about us was worth studying.

But at least we know ovulating lap dancers make more tips.

Has the PMOS rebrand failed… already?

For decades, the name Polycystic O***y Syndrome (PCOS) told everyone to look in one place, and one place only: the ovaries.

But PMOS is a complex hormonal and metabolic condition affecting 1 in 8 women worldwide (source: WHO). And despite what the old name suggested, it was never simply a condition centred around ovarian “cysts”.

That misleading name narrowed public understanding of the condition and contributed to delayed diagnosis and care, with an estimated 70% of women with PMOS worldwide remaining undiagnosed (source: WHO).

Which is why PCOS was officially renamed Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS) in May this year. A change that took 14 years of research and consultation, and an important step towards better reflecting what the condition actually is.

But changing the name is only useful if the understanding behind it reaches the people providing the care.

So when someone goes for an ovarian scan, mentions PMOS, and is met with a blank look from the healthcare professional carrying it out, it raises a pretty important question: how can you spend 14 years renaming a major medical condition, only for that change to seemingly not reach parts of the healthcare system treating it?

The rebrand itself is a step in the right direction. But a healthcare rebrand has to go further than a new name and an awareness campaign. It has to reach clinical education and everyday care.

If not, then what was the point?”

There has been a lot of trial and error in the pursuit of a better period product.

Some ideas genuinely changed period care. Others gave us dangerously absorbent tampons and contaminated sea sponges.

Safe to say, the route to modern period care wasn’t particularly straightforward.

There’s a part of having a period that most people never see.

It’s the invisible mental load that comes with having a period. And somewhere along the way, “being prepared” became the solution instead of asking why the responsibility sits entirely with the person having the period.

Normalising periods isn’t about talking about them all the time. It’s simply about making period needs ordinary enough that they stop taking up quite so much space in people’s heads.

Periods don’t just happen in bathrooms.

They happen in offices, in classrooms, on trains, on planes, on football benches. Yet, somehow we’re still expected to act like they only exist behind a locked toilet door.

Everyone seems to agree periods are normal, right up until there’s any evidence of one. Perhaps it’s time we stopped expecting periods to be invisible.

Only 1 in 2 adults say they’d feel comfortable talking to a young person about periods*.

Then we wonder why so many young people are asking TikTok, Reddit or ChatGPT questions about their menstrual health instead of a trusted healthcare professional.

Periods aren’t difficult to talk about. We’ve just spent years teaching people that they are.

* (source: Irise International The Red Report)

We hear the same period advice over and over again.

Don’t use scented products. Don’t leave tampons in too long. Change your pad regularly. And yes, all of that matters.

But there are also a lot of smaller, less obvious habits people never really talk about. Which is why so many people grow up knowing the “big rules” while missing everything else around them.

Buying period products shouldn’t feel like a part-time job.

You’re expected to understand ingredients, sustainability claims, certifications, supply chains, packaging, carbon footprints and greenwashing. All before you’ve even added someting to your basket.

The reality is that most people don’t have the time to investigate every claim a company makes. And they shouldn’t have to.

That’s why being a B Corp certified company matters. It’s a level of accountability that goes beyond marketing.

At a time when trust feels harder to earn than ever, that’s important. Because you shouldn’t have to become an expert just to buy an everyday essential.

People often assume period products are heavily regulated.

That if they’re sold on supermarket shelves, somebody, somewhere, has asked all the questions that need asking.

The reality is far from it.

The last decade has seen huge shifts in how we talk about periods. They’re discussed more openly. Period poverty is recognised more widely. Menstrual health is finally receiving more attention.

But while we’ve spent a decade making period products more accessible, we haven’t spent the same decade making them more transparent.