This TED Talk features student and activist Ananya Grover, recorded live at TED-Ed Weekend 2020.

Mensuration. A simple word describing a natural biological process weighed down by centuries of stigma has been transformed into something most of us can only speak about in

whispers. But why? As I speak to you right now, more than 800 million women around the world

are having a period. None of us would exist without it, and yet it remains an embarrassing

subject to approach. From my experience and that of the women around me, I can tell you that it's exhausting.

It's exhausting to carefully take out a brown paper bag, hiding a pad,

stuffing it into your pocket in the middle of a class and rushing to the washroom,

as discreetly as possible.

It's exhausting to sit through lessons and

meetings pretending to be absolutely normal while internally crying out from intense period cramps.

It's exhausting to be dismissively told that you're PMSing or suffering from that time of the

month and it's exhausting to continuously fight back

against age-old traditions

that ask you not to pray, visit temples, cook, touch pickle,

and the list goes on and on,

while you're just trying to bleed and be left in peace.

But you know what the worst part is?

The worst part is that the things that seem tiring to us

are merely the tip of the iceberg.

Because we in this room are privileged enough to be able to afford sanitary napkins every month,

to be able to visit a gynecologist in case of any problem, to be able to tell

what's normal and abnormal with our monthly cycle. We have access to water, sanitation and

...