2025 Menstrual Equity Summit at Suffolk University
Our Bodies Ourselves at Suffolk University was thrilled to host the 2025 Menstrual Equity Summit at Suffolk University with MassNOW on Saturday, January 25, 2025. Over 100 passionate menstrual equity activists attended the event!
The Menstrual Equity Summit is a powerful collaboration, bringing together activists from diverse backgrounds. They included Our Bodies Ourselves content experts Dr. Noelle Elizabeth Spencer, Sasha Goodfriend, Bria Gadsden, Sarah Pillone, and Charlotte Powley as well as executive director Amy Agigian, program associate Grace Koch, and several students who work with Our Bodies Ourselves.
The energy and inspiration at the event recalled the founding of the women’s health movement, and the kind of advocacy that Our Bodies Ourselves has engaged in since the 1970s. We need this kind of feminist community building and activism just as much now as we did then.
Along with a spectacular lineup of speakers and workshops, the event included organizations presenting innovative menstrual products, artistic expressions of menstrual equity, community-based equity initiatives, sexuality and pleasure resources, and more!
Attendees expressed deep gratitude for the “Our Bodies, Ourselves” books, and young activists were excited to learn about the Our Bodies Ourselves legacy including the ourbodiesourselves.org website. We featured menstrual health passages from multiple editions of the “Our Bodies, Ourselves” books as well as current menstrual equity resources on our site. (View our resources here)
The visionary and informative program kicked off with a welcome speech from Our Bodies Ourselves Executive Director Amy Agigian, encouraging everyone to embrace our feminist community to continue calling for equity and justice in all aspects of the health and sexuality of women and gender-expansive people. Next, everyone was moved by multiple slam poetry pieces by Zenaida Peterson and a powerful keynote speech by Dr. Noelle Elizabeth Spencer, a menstrual equity activist, researcher, and content expert on our menstrual cycle panel.
After the keynote, a panel spoke about “Periods Without Peril: Ensuring Safety and Equity in Menstrual Health.” Panelists Dr. Yvonne Gomez-Carrion, Dr. Shruthi Mahalingaiah, Louisa Corbett, Arion Long, and Mary Ellen Duggan addressed critical issues like menstrual health education, trusting our bodies, and advocating for ourselves, access to menstrual products in schools, and how our environment and chemicals in menstrual products can impact our health.
The afternoon continued with two dynamic workshops. Bria Gadsden and Katherine Blasius led “Menstruation Myth vs. Fact.” Prachi Patel, Daniela Minidis, and Nora Bent ran “Organizing Your Community for Menstrual Equity.”
Thank you to all of the wonderful activists who joined us on a Saturday afternoon to talk about menstrual equity in Massachusetts and beyond! Recordings of the summit are available to watch and share below.
Thank you to all of the wonderful activists who joined us on a Saturday afternoon to talk about menstrual equity in Massachusetts and beyond! Recordings of the summit are available to watch and share below.