...not a taboo!

The locations of the free menstraual product dispensers are:

Campus:
Ground floor, A0.11 (handicapped restroom and diaper-changing room)

Holzstraße:
Ground floor, in the restroom vestibule next to the elevators

Rheinstraße:
Ground floor, in front of the restrooms across from Room R.0.06

Wallstraße:
4th floor, in the restroom vestibule

In the LUX Pavillon:
2nd floor, in the vestibule of the women’s restroom

Since April 2023, dispensers for menstrual products have been hanging in all locations of Mainz University of Applied Sciences, meaning on campus, on Holzstrasse, Rheinstrasse, and Wallstrasse, as well as in the LUX Pavilion. The dispensers contain tampons and pads.

With these complimentary and freely accessible products, we want to support university staff and students who spontaneously need period products in their daily studies or at work. In addition, Mainz University of Applied Sciences is hereby taking an important step towards making its premises and infrastructure more equal.

With this project, Mainz University of Applied Sciences is also actively working to combat period poverty. For menstruating individuals, periods can be a major financial burden: For example, Der Spiegel put the cost at 5 Euro for tampons, pads and painkillers.¹ Huffington Post added new underwear and heat patches to the list in 2017, for example, and came up with an average of 35 Euro per month; in other words, total costs of around 16,000 Euro in a lifetime.²

A representative survey conducted by the child rights organization Plan International Germany in 2022 shows that one in four women in Germany has difficulty financing the expenses incurred by periods. In the 16 to 24 age group, as many as one in three have this problem. One in seven respondents also stated that as few menstrual products as possible are used per period in order to save money.³ That's why we are convinced: tampons and pads are part of everyday life, just like toilet paper and soap. By offering period products free of charge, we can counteract the structural disadvantage.

With these dispensers in public spaces, Mainz University of Applied Sciences is also making a statement against the social taboo surrounding menstruation. Menstruation is a biological process of the body that should not be regarded as impure or shameful. Tabooing can have everyday effects, but it can also have serious consequences. For example, it has contributed to the fact that diseases such as endometriosis, which is now considered the second most common gynecological disease, was not adequately researched for decades, and instead it was communicated that the pain was normal and acceptable. Only in recent years has endometriosis been taken seriously medically and studied scientifically.