Painfully Periodic
A collective memoir of menstrual pain
Final Review Thesis 2024, Parsons School of Design
Reshma Rose Thomas
Context
Menstrual Pain Context
Context
Menstruation + Pain Care
Context
Pharmaceuticals
Broken Support System
Medical Practitioners
Menstrual Pain Researchers
Activists, advocates
Menstruating People
Policy makers, Funders
Menstruating people experience: Motivation
Prevalence of menstrual pain
Disruption of quality of life 3. Normalization & underreporting
Support system ill-equipped due to:
Inadequate research
Incorrect assessment of need & funding
Focus on mortality of QoL
Menstruating people experience: Motivation
Prevalence of menstrual pain
Disruption of quality of life 3. Normalization & underreporting
Support system ill-equipped due to:
Inadequate research
Incorrect assessment of need & funding
Focus on mortality of QoL
Menstruating people experience: Motivation
1. Prevalence of menstrual pain 2. Disruption of quality of life
3. Normalization & underreporting
Support system ill-equipped due to:
Inadequate research
2. Incorrect assessment of need & funding
3. Focus on mortality of QoL
Menstruating people experience: Motivation
1. Prevalence of menstrual pain 2. Disruption of quality of life
3. Normalization & underreporting
Support system ill-equipped due to:
Inadequate research
2. Incorrect assessment of need & funding
3. Focus on mortality of QoL
Menstruating people experience: Motivation
1. Prevalence of menstrual pain 2. Disruption of quality of life
3. Normalization & underreporting
Support system ill-equipped due to:
Inadequate research
2. Incorrect assessment of need & funding
3. Focus on mortality of QoL
Menstruating people experience: 1. Prevalence of menstrual pain 2. Disruption of quality of life
3. Normalization & underreporting Motivation
Support system ill-equipped due to:
Inadequate research
2. Incorrect assessment of need & funding
Focus on mortality of QoL
3.
Menstruating people experience:
3. Normalization & underreporting Motivation
1. Prevalence of menstrual pain 2. Disruption of quality of life
Support system ill-equipped due to: 1. Inadequate research
2. Incorrect assessment of need & funding
3. Focus on mortality of QoL
Motivation
Menstruating people experience:
Prevalence of menstrual pain
Disruption of quality of life
Normalization & underreporting
Support system ill-equipped due to:
Inadequate research
Incorrect assessment of need & funding
Focus on mortality of QoL
Motivation
Menstruating people experience:
Prevalence of menstrual pain
Disruption of quality of life
Normalization & underreporting
Support system ill-equipped due to:
Inadequate research
Incorrect assessment of need & funding
Focus on mortality of QoL
There is a lack of a complete picture of our collective menstrual pain experience
Mimi Onuoha
“Missing datasets are my term for the blank spots that exist in spaces that are otherwise data-saturated… Unsurprisingly, this lack of data typically correlates with issues affecting those who are most vulnerable in that context.
The word "missing" is inherently normative. It implies both a lack and an ought: something does not exist, but it should.
That which we ignore reveals more than what we give our attention to. It’s in these things that we find cultural and colloquial hints of what is deemed important.”
Mimi Onuoha
Concept
Menstruating People
call for morearesearch,wareness
More reflection, community, resource, languaging
Systemic Support Researchers, Family Medical Practitioners, Pharmaceuticals, Funders, Orgs,
Concept a collective memoir of menstrual pain
A digital space that invites menstruating people to visualize and describe their experiences of menstrual pain, through prompts, polls and questions. Answering them reveals anonymously aggregated visualizations of all the responses so far, which they can then engage with.
The survey questions hope to fill the fill the data void, generate reflection and discourse
Immediate visualizations on answering, hopes to give power back to those who contributed
Concept
Short term, this project aims to help menstruating people
1. Visualize and describe the nature of their pain
2. Feel validated in their experience
3. Witness this is a shared yet diverse experience
4. Reflect on any assumptions or undue normalization
Long term, this project aims to facilitate
1. A crowdsourced resource on the menstrual pain
2. Co-creation of visual and verbal language for menstrual pain
3. Better advocacy for funding menstrual pain research
4. More product development surrounding menstrual pain
Prototypes
Prototypes / 02
/ 03
/ 04
video/live demo
Plan & Scope Future Scope
Quality of Life Questions
Evaluating how much the pain affects different aspects of life, using questions along the lines:
● Do you have to stop your work and double over? Do you cry?
● How much does the pain sleep, sex, childcare, going to work; stress level; relationships; socialization,;willingness to go out
Medication & Care Questions
Understanding how menstruating people manage their pain and why they choose that method:
● How do you take care of yourself?
● Do you take medication? Why/why not?
● Have you sought medical help for the pain? Why/why not?
Healthcare Questions
Enquiring how healthcare providers have/have not been meeting their needs:
● Do you feel your provider understood your level of pain?
● Do you feel your menstrual pain was dismissed by any provider ever?
● Are you satisfied with the solutions provided to you by your healthcare provider?
● Are you satisfied with the solutions available and accessible to you to manage your pain?
To help understand how narratives, methods of care and access differ across cultures and economic groups
● Ethnicity
● Country you were raised in / Country you lived in the most
● A smart universal way to measure economic status/household income
Future Scope
Menstrual Pain Futures
Role-play and imagine an alternative menstrual future
● If you had a magic wand, would you get rid of your pain? How much would you pay for the wand?
● How do you imagine you would prepare your teenage self for the experiences of menstrual pain??
I need to bring in visual and narrative consistency that ties back in to the topic
‘menstrual pain’ better
Reflection Tensions
Reflection Tensions
Quantitative
Qualitative
Reflection Tensions
Quantitative Qualitative Data Viz Memoir
Objectivity
Subjectivity