You are on the second day of your period, infamously known as the worst day of many people’s periods. You are at work or in class and you get the most painful cramps. Not only does your abdomen feel like it's been punched hundreds of times, you lose focus and can barely pay attention to your lecture or your laptop. You try to pop a painkiller when you get the moment, but it doesn’t help for at least an hour. It’s a friday afternoon and you were planning on going out with your friends later that evening, and possibly even drinking, but it looks like you’ll have to scrap your plans and resort to laying in bed with some tea, fuzzy socks and a heat pad over your stomach. Since you think you’ll be using the rest of your painkillers all night, you can’t have a sip of your favorite red wine.

So many people also experience rough days just like this. These annoying, painful days signal a major lack of equity amongst those with cycles and those without. Seeing that those without cycles are predominantly male, it shines light on the lack of opportunity that people who have periods experience because of who they are. And, this is not just a problem regarding the glass ceiling or financial situation. This is an inherent injustice to people with cycles because of their biological makeup. If we want to take charge of our destiny and truly bring us to the same level of opportunity and quality of life as men, we should also care about improving our period care.