Period poverty is the lack of accessible menstrual education or menstrual tools. Millions of women and girls around the world experience period poverty, which can contribute to disparities in school and work performance, as well as overall quality of life. However, not much is known about youth experiences and perceptions of period poverty. This study aims to understand the personal experiences and opinions of American youth regarding knowledge about menstruation and period poverty, as well as to gauge youth attitudes of existing and future period poverty initiatives. The MyVoice nationwide text message poll was used to ask five open-ended questions to over 1,000 youth across the United States aged 14–24 years. Responses were analyzed using content analysis by two independent researchers, and differences in coding were reviewed and resolved by discussion. Overall, 963 youth (80%) responded, and the sample was 54.7% self-reported male with an average age of 20.1 years (standard deviation = 2.3). Three main themes emerged: 1. Most youth, regardless of self-reported gender, have had conversations about periods but comfort discussing the topic varies, 2. Youths' knowledge of menstruation varies with personal experience, or lack thereof, and 3. Some youth have experience with period poverty, and most are overwhelmingly supportive of policies to improve access to period products. These findings suggest that normalization of discussions of menstruation, increasing awareness of the prevalence and impacts of period poverty, and greater implementation of programs to mitigate period poverty are supported by youth, and may reduce period poverty in the United States.

中文翻译：

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青少年对月经和经期贫困的看法和经验

经期贫困是指缺乏可获得的月经教育或月经工具。世界各地有数百万妇女和女童经历经期贫困，这可能导致学业和工作表现以及整体生活质量的差异。然而，人们对青少年的经历和对经期贫困的看法知之甚少。本研究旨在了解美国青少年对月经和经期贫困知识的个人经历和看法，并评估青少年对当前和未来经期贫困倡议的态度。 MyVoice 全国短信民意调查向全美 1,000 多名 14 至 24 岁的青少年提出了 5 个开放式问题。两名独立研究人员使用内容分析对回复进行了分析，并通过讨论审查和解决了编码中的差异。总体而言，共有 963 名青少年 (80%) 做出了回应，样本中 54.7% 为自述男性，平均年龄为 20.1 岁（标准差 = 2.3）。出现了三个主题： 1. 大多数青少年，无论自我报告的性别如何，都曾谈论过月经，但讨论该话题的舒适度各不相同，2. 青少年对月经的了解因个人经历或缺乏个人经历而异，以及 3. 一些青少年有经期贫困的经验，大多数人都强烈支持改善经期产品获取的政策。这些研究结果表明，青少年支持月经讨论正常化、提高对经期贫困的普遍性和影响的认识以及加强实施减轻经期贫困的计划，可能会减少美国的经期贫困。