Title:
Women’s History Month Tribute: The Power of Our Periods & Inclusivity
Subtitle:
Accessible Healthcare, Menstrual Equity and Periods for All: Carly Pistawka & Holly Johnston
Transcript:
Alycia Anderson: Welcome to Pushing Forward with Alycia a podcast that gives disability a voice each week. We will explore topics like confidence, ambition, resilience, and finding success against all odds. We are creating a collective community that believes that all things are possible for all people. Open hearts, clear paths.
Let’s go.
Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia. I am Alycia Anderson and today we’re exploring menstrual equity and inclusion. Yep. That’s right. I said it. We are going to be talking about the power of our periods. I’m your host and today we have incredible guests and advocates joining us. Who are doing this amazing work.
Holly Johnston is a dedicated champion for children and youth. From her early experiences in child and family services to founding a non profit called Periods for All. Holly is on a mission to bridge the gap in menstrual accessibility for marginalized communities. Our paths crossed on LinkedIn and her page came through mine and I saw these words menstrual accessibility, equity for marginalized groups.
And communities. And I was like, what is this? She needs to come on my podcast immediately.
So I’m so excited. And then I was introduced to our second guest, Carly Pistawka is a passionate advocate for access and equity.
She’s the co founder of Moon Time Sisters BC and the education and advocacy lead at Periods for All. Thank you for bringing your expertise, both of you and Carly. I believe you have a little bit of lived experience. So with disability. So I’m really excited to dive in to all of this. Can we start with understanding your relationship with disability?
Holly Johnston: Go ahead, Carly, you can go first.
Carly Pistawka: Okay. I am physically disabled. I use a mobility aid primarily just a cane or a walker, but I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user. Primarily deal with chronic pain and a bunch of other random conditions that have come on because of that. And I became disabled when I was 17. So I’ve been dealing with it for about seven years now. And yeah, that’s my personal experience and then has gotten me to the point where I’m very interested in, advocating in the disability community and was also interested in the menstrual health community and it’s, great opportunity with Holly at Periods for All to mesh both of those worlds together.
Alycia Anderson: I love it. How about you, Holly? Can you share your inspiration behind all of this?
Holly Johnston: I’ve done a lot of work aside from my husband is an amputee. So in my world, I am not someone who lives with a disability, but I have people I love in my life that also do live with a disability. I have a couple of children who are neurodivergent. My husband like I said, is an amputee. So I have learned To go through the world and go through my family life, trying to look at things from other people’s perspectives and not understanding personally from not having any barriers in my way what types of challenges might come up for other people. And as they did, and it was right from the beginning with my husband being an amputee, but some of the things that I took for granted in my world, all of a sudden, became very real as barriers and having children that had barriers, but that was a lot of things that like education being able to regulate themselves. I started to realize that, so many people we love, live with, and care about have barriers to things that people like myself take for granted, and how I was going to try and make just their everyday moments a little bit easier for them. And that’s mum role I find that I picked up in my work, that I would get very disappointed and hurt for them when things didn’t need to be a barrier for things that should have in the very beginning been accessible for everybody. And the work that I do with menstrual health just exacerbated that, and I just thought, wait a minute, why isn’t someone doing this? It’s not that hard to provide accessibility and inclusion right from the very beginning. Everybody needs to feel like they have the same access. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t.
Except for that people very often just don’t want to think about what that might mean for somebody else and the difficulties it might mean for somebody else. So I decided that wasn’t good enough. So the mom in me said, I am going to find a way that any of these barriers I come across, that I will do my best to try and, create ways. So the barriers didn’t exist.
Alycia Anderson: And were you working in menstrual health in your career?
Holly Johnston: That kind of came across, I have five children, four of them are menstruators.
Alycia Anderson: okay.
Holly Johnston: So I learned to handle, I was a life skills coach by trade, way back in the nineties. So I’ve been teaching life skills in the ministry of children and families and working with youth. And a lot of the youth I worked with aside from having a barrier of being in foster care they also had a lot of trauma issues and et cetera. So we would have to try and find creative ways to make impact with them and to help them make their life a little bit easier. So I started off teaching life skills and working in that world. And then I had my own children. When I was ready to, fall back into work. It became obvious to so many people and me. If I was going to teach them anything, it’d be how to navigate periods, hormones, and stuff with a lot of people in their world, and how we could make it easier, and I had a lot of clients who had children that were reaching puberty age and asked me, like how was I going to deal with their daughter. Say, who had autism and how I was going to prepare.
And I think having the skills as a mother, as well as a menstruator, helped me break down the steps into very bite sized chunks on how we were going to prepare someone. Who might see the world differently, how we were going to get them ready for such a big experience, and it is a big experience that’s going to impact people, physically, mentally, and it was very important to make sure that they got right off the hop, they got all the information that was going to help them have a better experience. And once I started doing that, I became hooked. I couldn’t stop. I was like, that’s not there. Let me build it. What? They don’t know about this. Let me help you. Because everybody needs someone in their lives that’s on their side, and in their corner and to make sure, and it’s really important to understand menstrual health. And I wanted to make sure that I could do that for them.
Alycia Anderson: So you’re bringing me back to when I started menstruating. I’m like having some flashbacks of just what it was like as a disabled kid. And my mom actually passed away when I was seven.
Holly Johnston: Oh no.
I’m so sorry.
Alycia Anderson: No, that’s okay. Definitely part of the story, but I navigated this with my dad and stepmoms and just by myself, and I remember how difficult it was.
Number one, just. Figuring out how to manage that as a young girl, but then also for me as a wheelchair user, it was a difficult process to just figure out how to adapt my body and my movements and transferring, just the whole thing. So can we talk about I think what some of the common barriers are for disabled people that are starting down this path?
And also, I think it would be interesting to note some of the misconceptions that are out there. Can we talk about both of those a little bit?
Holly Johnston: Absolutely.
Carly Pistawka: I was just going to say, I think that terms of barriers, there’s definitely shared barriers, but there’s difference between the physical side of barriers and The less physical side of the barriers. For me, in terms of having a physical disability, I know that trying to manage like the pain and the physical bleeding, like having to use products, for example difficult and trying to have something that works a product that works well for your body, given your situation, like I’m mentioning as a wheelchair user, that is a barrier that’s common. In general, the barrier is definitely cost of menstrual products. And I know that’s a bigger discussion outside of the disability community that’s going on around the world. In terms of me, I just felt like a barrier was just not being able to have conversations and the stigma behind everything. Having, to have those conversations and not knowing what’s out there for me personally, I didn’t know what products would be available and when I became physically disabled, having to try and change what I was doing with my periods and how I was managing my menstrual health. I didn’t know how to initiate that conversation.
It was a lot for me. And I think is similar for other people is when you don’t know what’s out there, it’s really hard to try and be like, okay is this an option for me? And I think, yeah, that’s, those are things that more I’ve experienced, but I, Holly probably has a lot more.
Alycia Anderson: And a thought too, as you’re saying that is, also as like a disabled young adolescent, we’re already dealing with having to navigate accommodations and asking for special things. And this just adds another layer of that requirement on our shoulders. When I was young, I didn’t want to have to be the one that was like, Oh, I need this. Oh, and now I need, products to manage my period.
Carly Pistawka: It’s not the one you want to talk about I have a list when I go to my doctor, it’s that’s going to be at the bottom because I don’t want to discuss it. Obviously, now I’m happy to discuss it, but back when I was a teenager I didn’t want to be having those conversations. When you already have, yeah, so much to be dealing with the concept of having to find something that’s also tailored to you as a disabled individual can just be a lot of effort. Till you find out what’s out there for you. There are a lack of materials that I know we’ve been working on trying to address, but yeah.
Alycia Anderson: How about what do you have to add there, Holly?
Holly Johnston: There’s so many important parts, to menstruation. One of the things that is important is, like Carly had mentioned, the stigma that goes along with periods right in the very beginning, just being a woman and being expected to take care of it on your own. And that is not talked about. I am a Gen X. It never even occurred to me to question, why should I have to figure out how to manage my menstruation? And what if I’m out? to actually expect that people with barriers have to then find an additional way to manage a normal human bodily function, on top of some barriers that they already have, and trying to figure out a way that is going to be safe and manageable for them. When they don’t have the basis for it in the beginning, especially young, I could only imagine what that must have been like, Alycia, being, able bodied myself without even, knowing what to do. I didn’t have to also come up with those extra ways. How, what types of products, like Carly said, was going to make it easier. Um, now at least I find that because there are so many options, it might be easier, for someone to manage. But if they don’t have that information, where do they even start?
Alycia Anderson: Yeah.
Holly Johnston: Where do you find that? And that’s what Carly and I are trying to spend our time building, is the information. That even in any of the menstrual work that I’m doing and that Carly was doing with Moon Time Sisters, there is such a lack of support. And information, and then now coupled with trying to find health information, menstrual health information for people with disabilities.
I tried to, when I started supporting, different communities, I was like, wait a minute. How am I going to teach someone who’s nonverbal about managing their menstruation? It’s always very important to me that they are able to manage it independently and successfully, not always having to ask someone to do things for them.
Like you said, you’re going, oh, can I have this for my period as well? So that’s what we are working on building, making sure that we make all of our resources as inclusive as possible. And we have just begun this journey there’s going to be a lot more. And as I partner with different organizations to provide like menstrual health videos. So I’m also keeping in mind not just closed captioning, but we are going to be working on American Sign Language for them. There are not a lot of menstrual health resources for who require braille. People don’t think about it, but by not making it inclusive in the very beginning, you’re leaving out the important menstrual health of people who have more barriers. And that’s something that really bothered me and so that’s why I keep fighting it. Something comes up and I go, what?
If you don’t have that in sign language, how is someone going to be able to receive that information?
Alycia Anderson: Yeah.
Holly Johnston: Not everyone can read.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah. I feel like this is really forward thinking. Even from just all of the advocacy in the medical field right now with basic things like inaccessible, exam tables and, mammogram machines where it makes it really difficult for us as women or humans at all, all of us that have a disability to access so the fact that you’re thinking forward and creating tools that are accessible, is modern day disability inclusion and hopefully where the medical industry is going overall.
Carly Pistawka: We want things to be starting, including with people with disabilities, for example, in mind, right? I’m in the research space in my career and in the medical world. And that’s like how, can you not start, if you don’t start thinking about these things early, adding them in later is going to be so much more work than if you’re keeping it in mind in the infrastructure of the project or the creation of content, for example.
Alycia Anderson: A hundred percent. I totally agree.
Holly Johnston: It does surprise me a lot sometimes I think when I go out and I’m involved in the events, say in the menstrual health space, it does still surprise me how much pushback I still get when it comes to providing accessibility, right? That, oh we can’t afford to do it this time. But maybe next time.
And then I can look over and see that tea and those biscuits. And I’m just like, that’s Starbucks coffee or whatever. You can, if you choose to do it. And not being a person with a disability, I can only imagine, and it’s not even from lived experience, how uncomfortable that makes me feel to have to ask that if I was in a position that I needed that. To ask for simple things like, um, access to washrooms, access to period products, access to the floor, the stage, all these things that I’m always keeping in mind. And Carly and I have events planned that we are working on and that’s what we talk about and Carly reminds me of things that sometimes I don’t even think about and it’s really important to think about everybody’s needs right from the very beginning and not to leave that out. And when we do that, we will ensure that people aren’t going to be coming back to us and say, I really would have loved to have gone, but I can’t read closed captioning. I really like to go, but I am unable to leave my house. I don’t want to be the creator of any more barriers for people.
And so Carly and I are trying to think of how we can bring things to others and always expect that people are going to come to us. So that’s what we’re working on. And it’s really important to us to do that right from the beginning. It still surprises me and saddens me that it’s a battle still, but it doesn’t matter.
Me and Carly, we’re up for the challenge, right?
Carly Pistawka: Yeah, exactly.
Alycia Anderson: And I think that what you just said about the event or the organization or, the partner that you might be working with, the answer is that’s the same answer in workplace too, with the advocacy that I do, there’s this reeducation going on about the prevalence of disability and how it’s better business to be.
Like you said, Carly, making things accessible at the forefront instead of constantly trying to redesign makeup and waste more funds towards the end of it while you’re trying to catch up. I think what you’re doing again is very in line with the movement in general with disability inclusion, which is super powerful.
What are some of the tools, resources, initiatives that you’re working on and bringing to the table for, your community?
Holly Johnston: Do you want to go first, Carly?
Carly Pistawka: So we’ve been applying for some grants and stuff recently, just because, everything does cost money. and we have a scale of things where some of the smaller projects have, along the lines of creating educational material, whether it be videos with captioning and ASL interpretation to handout material or to the big scale of things where we’re trying to create, for in Canada, we have a National Accessibility Week, for example, could we have some sort of pop up almost where people could go visit an accessible space and learn about different products, for example, and about menstrual health in a way that fits the needs of the community.
A diverse set of needs. And so it all then leads back to, okay, what would we have in terms of smaller materials that we could show? Holly’s been, a champion in terms of starting to develop those materials based on her experience.
Holly Johnston: Yeah. As a, we are quite a recent nonprofit. So my organization that I started three years ago is Hello Period Equity. So it’s providing equitable spaces. And what does that look like when it comes to menstruation? I do a lot of work with students and I work in schools. When it came to creating accessible, like real accessible materials, it wasn’t enough just to have my organization and spend my husband’s retirement money. So we, I took one piece of my organization at and called it Periods for All and made it strictly nonprofit so that we try and access government funds and stuff to create more of these resources. So that is the biggest hurdle is we keep applying for grants and we’re hoping as we go through these grants that we will, build up funds so that, like Carly said, we will be able to build resources for people with diverse needs. We develop social stories around menstruation for those who are non verbal so that I could tape them to the bathroom walls. And then they know what products are available, what they can access. And I have social stories, like on key rings, and they can just touch photographs and stuff about materials that they might use. But Carly and I have talked because Accessibility Week here in Canada also crosses over Menstrual Health Day, which happens to be my birthday.
Alycia Anderson: No,
Carly Pistawka: I didn’t know that
Holly Johnston: I didn’t tell you that early. Yeah. How are we going to develop these materials? How are we going to get support to develop these materials? How are we going to create these videos? And partnering up with a lot of good organization like Kahani Pictures and Project AIM.
We were just doing some menstrual health videos and I’ve gotten them to make sure that they have closed captioning and they talk to some of their sponsors about getting ASL in there. So all of this work we’re doing is just, picking away at reminding people how important this work is and how important it is to make it accessible. And Carly and I love doing that and we love writing these grants to try and get more support. We really would like Accessibility Week to be creating an educational environment where people of all abilities can come and learn about menstruation. Carly and I talk about periods a lot, and a lot of people don’t know what things are out there that can be beneficial and helpful to them and make their experience better .
Alycia Anderson: This feels like such a great resource for not only the individual, but also for parents or caregivers.
Looking at a bigger picture too, of giving these educational resources to big business, medical, companies and.
Carly Pistawka: schools
Alycia Anderson: Because I can only imagine as a young girl, again, I’m going to relate this to myself, but when I started my period, if it was, if I had a resource like this and it was more comfortable, then frankly.
I could celebrate a moment in my life that we didn’t even know what happened or not successfully. And as a disabled person, I think you almost regret that it’s happening to you because there’s so many more obstacles.
Carly Pistawka: We all have a lot of people with disabilities have boatload of conditions that they’re dealing with, and this just feels like another one, unfortunately, you’re just trying to manage the symptoms at some point.
Alycia Anderson: But it actually is something to celebrate as something that’s happening naturally that should to your body. And so I think you’re opening that door. For it to be more comfortable for all of us, which is really beautiful, amazing work. So what’s on the horizon? Like how do our listeners help you support you?
What’s the North star tell us.
Holly Johnston: North Star. Okay. If we could have all of our dreams come true biggest end project I would really love to get to by creating all these resources I have a young woman in Calgary who has agreed to volunteer their time to help me create. Menstrual Health app.
People with diverse needs, because I don’t know if you have ever used menstrual health apps, a lot of the material around there is, it’s a lot of information.
It’s not actually necessarily helping the person at the moment. It might, help them track their cycle or when to get pregnant, but there’s so much missed when it comes to periods. Decreasing the shame and stigma. That’s a really big part of it, right? To make it a good experience as much as that can be depending on the person but also education that’s accessible. Also we are working on having an app that can have menstrual products being delivered to your door. So what if you’re in a northern community in B. C. and it’s hard to get product on a good day, right? So have it delivered to your door is really important. And we’ve created good partnerships with Joni. which is a natural period care company that doesn’t charge anything in Canada or the US for delivery of product. So if accessibility and mobility is an issue, having product delivered to your door. So having accessible information, not having barrier to accessing product is really important and to learn about our bodies in a way that everybody can understand.
Alycia Anderson: Yes. I love it.
Holly Johnston: Are more and more organizations that are providing free period product. we also have a map that people can use. It’s a Google map where you can know where you are and how to access free period product. If you need it, say you’re walking down the street. and you’re like, Oh, how am I going to get product for so and I can just walk into this washroom and get it right. So there’s so many things that we’re going to try and do. But if we were to have our North Star, it’d be able to get menstrual health information everybody that needs it. And by having it online and tools that people can use to empower themselves. think that would be great thing to do.
Alycia Anderson: love it. Okay. So we’re going to leave all of your information in our show notes. So all of our listeners can connect with you. They can reach out to you on your website, get involved. First of all, I want to say thank you for the amazing work that you’re doing. It’s incredible. Did we miss anything?
Carly Pistawka: What do you think, Carly? I don’t think so. I think we got the main messages across and of course, if people want to find out more, they can reach out to one of us or find us through our social media and website.
Holly Johnston: And if anybody knows of any resources that they should need that isn’t out there, let us know because we love to build them.
Alycia Anderson: I love it.
Holly Johnston: we really do love to build them. And we’re not going to think of everything, but if somebody says, Hey, if I had this would really help me. With my menstruation, or just my cycle, let us know.
We’d love to hear about it, and we’ll do our best to build that.
Alycia Anderson: Okay. I warned you about the pushing forward moment. Do you two have a little mantra, something you live by that keeps you going every day?
Carly.
Holly Johnston: See, Carly, you first.
Carly Pistawka: I think my biggest thing is that, if I can do something that helps another person with a disability, then my struggle has been worth it. And I think about that in terms of all Periods for All being part of it.
My menstrual health journey is obviously Contributed to why I’m passionate about this, but also in my other side of patient volunteering and patient partnerships is trying to help other people through my experiences and hoping that accessibility continues to improve in the way that I’m seeing it. Yeah, I think that’s probably my biggest thing.
Alycia Anderson: Beautiful. Holly, what’s your pushing forward moment?
Holly Johnston: I really believe that together, we can create accessibility, so that everybody can thrive. It’s not just people who have the edge, or someone who may not have barriers. I think everybody deserves to thrive and if me and Carly, if we can make it easier for people to thrive when it comes to their menstruation or, anything, we’re here to do our best to assist you have that.
Alycia Anderson: Beautiful. Thank you both so much for the incredible work you’re doing. It is so impactful. It’s so needed. And I can’t wait for the app, by the way.
Holly Johnston: Yeah.
Carly Pistawka: Yeah.
Holly Johnston: What we need is, we need sponsors of the App.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah.
Alycia Anderson: Okay. We’re going to leave all your information on the show. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you to our pushing forward community for joining us again.
Please leave in our comments what you thought about this show. I loved every moment of it. This has been pushing forward with Alycia and that is literally how we roll on this podcast. We will see you next time.