Design Challenge
How might empathy drive innovation in sexual and reproductive health - reimagining how we design with, rather than for, menstruating bodies?
Project
An ongoing inquiry into how reproductive health outcomes might improve when empathy, lived experience, and embodiment are placed at the center of design and innovation processes.
Role
Project Lead
Overview
Throughout history, social and cultural aversions to menstruation have shaped how societies relate to menstruating bodies. Despite decades of scientific research, fundamental questions about menstruation remain unresolved. Up to 80 percent of people who menstruate experience physical and emotional symptoms before their periods, yet the biological reasons behind these variations are still poorly understood.
Scientific progress in reproductive health has often prioritized intervention over understanding - offering ways to suppress or control periods before fully exploring their purpose or function. Rooted in patriarchal systems and political constraints, innovation in this field has evolved slowly, leaving a gap between lived experience and the products and services intended to support it.
This project emerged as a creative research inquiry into how empathy can reshape this landscape. It asks whether centering the voices, needs, and wisdom of menstruating people can lead to more caring, inclusive, and effective reproductive health solutions.
Currently in the ideation and concept development phase, this work invites collaboration from menstruating designers, technologists, and creative practitioners interested in co-designing a more equitable future for reproductive health.
Duration of Engagement
2019 - Present
Acknowledgements
Images: Unsplash, Lysol