Opinion: Menstrual health isn’t part of California sex education. Why that needs to change

When I was 12, I lost my period. Though I’d attended sex education classes in middle school, nobody taught me what a period was, how to regulate one, how to care for one and, especially, how to notice irregularities and when or how to seek medical care.

Many young people don’t have a parent, guardian or trusted adult they can ask. I turned to online sources, where I encountered misinformation that only increased my anxiety. Disreputable health websites told me I could have cancer or a terminal disease. It took months before a doctor finally helped identify the treatable underlying health issue causing my irregular menstrual cycle.

I could have avoided so much silent suffering and stress if I’d been taught to understand my period.

California is a progressive state with a robust sex education curriculum, but there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure young people understand our bodies. Our state isn’t alone: Nearly every state lacks curricular requirements about menstruation.

That’s an even bigger problem since young people are starting puberty earlier than previous generations.

Armed with this information about the urgent need for sex ed that includes menstruation, my peers and I at the Solano Reproductive Health Club have joined hundreds of young people across California to launch the Know Your Period Campaign, in support of Assembly Bill 2229, which we wrote and introduced in partnership with Assemblymember Lori Wilson.

The first-of-its-kind proposal would update 2016’s California Healthy Youth Act to include age-appropriate facts about periods, giving young people the tools we need to understand our bodies and our development. It addresses period stigma, premenstrual syndrome and pain management, menstrual hygiene, disorders, irregularities and more.

As a young girl growing up in Solano County, I never thought I’d be at the Capitol asking lawmakers to pass a bill I helped draft. After passing the Assembly’s Education Committee, it’s in the Appropriations Committee’s suspense file, but we expect it to move forward.

The legislative process felt distant and murky — something I’d definitely learned about in school, but had little to do with my daily life. That all changed when I realized my state’s sex ed curriculum had failed me, and I needed to step up and become an advocate for young people like me.

This work has brought me to places I never imagined I could belong. As a 16-year-old, I can’t vote yet but I can use my voice. A few weeks ago, I joined over a hundred young women in Sacramento for an “Ignite the Capitol” event, where we called on our representatives to take action on the issues impacting our lives the most.

Young women and girls in California and around the country should understand that, when we advocate on issues that matter to us, it’s possible to cut through society’s divides and make progress. I know I’m young, but I’ve learned to use my voice, and now I’m calling on my peers and the adults in our lives to use theirs, too, and embrace the Know Your Period campaign.

Being a young person is isolating enough. Nobody should suffer shame, confusion or pain related to their period. That starts with education – and today, with advocacy.

Sriya Srinivasan is a high school student based in Solano County and a member of Advocates for Youth’s Young Womxn of Color for Reproductive Justice Leadership Council. Srinivasan wrote this column for CalMatters.