If you want a quick review on why menstrual equity matters to everybody, from school-age girls in San Diego to women living in Ugandan refugee camps, press play on episode 298 of It’s Hertime with Cody Sanders: “Periods, Power, and Policy: Fighting to End Menstrual Inequality Worldwide.”
In this 45-minute interview, host Cody Sanders (a noted holistic health practitioner, functional nutritionist, and no-nonsense women’s-health advocate) invited CouldYou? founder Christine Garde Denning to unpack the real-world stakes of period poverty and the very practical solution represented by our FDA–registered CouldYou? Cup.
This episode of Cody’s podcast captures her energy, Christine’s data-driven passion, and the tangible steps all of us can take to move the needle on menstrual health, environmental sustainability, and gender-equal policy.
From Gang-Intervention Work to Global Menstrual Equity
Christine’s origin story surprises many listeners. Raised in a small upstate New York town, she spent her early career on the San Diego–Tijuana border running HUD-funded drug-elimination and gang-intervention programs. That frontline experience with structural injustice prepared her to start CouldYou? in 2007 (we achieved 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in 2008). Christine recounts how our organization originally focused on literacy initiatives in Mozambique!
The pivot to menstrual health came after Mozambican officials revealed a staggering statistic: 93% of the nation’s girls started kindergarten, yet only 11% reached secondary school, and a mere 1% graduated college. When Christine and her local partners traced the dropout crisis backward, one “solvable driver” kept surfacing—period poverty.
Why a Ten-Dollar Cup Changes Everything
Cody opened the episode by calling the CouldYou? Cup “a sustainable, scalable solution,” and Christine quickly affirmed the math:
- $10 = 1 cup = 10 years of protection.
- The cup reduces a user’s carbon footprint by ~87 kg of CO₂ over its lifetime.
- At roughly $1 per year, it undercuts the $6–$10 most American families spend every month on disposables.
Listeners who already swear by CouldYou? Cups will agree when Cody describes 12-hour wear, leak-proof workouts, and stress-free backpacking trips. For newcomers, Christine admits there’s a learning curve of “about three cycles,” but the payoff dwarfs the adjustment period.
The Hidden Cost of Single-Use: Transactional Sex & Toxic Waste
One of the episode’s most sobering moments comes when Christine details the reality of transactional sex for menstrual pads. In Ghana’s Wa East district, a Plan International study found that 83 percent of adolescent girls had exchanged sex for menstrual products. Cody’s audible gasp mirrors the instinctive horror many of us feel. And yet this practice, Christine noted, is rising everywhere post-COVID, alongside spikes in teen pregnancy and STIs.
Equally sobering is the environmental ledger: tampons and pads (plus their plastic applicators and wrappers) take 500 to 800 years to decompose. “If Joan of Arc had used disposables,” Christine notes, “they’d still be in landfills today.”
What Makes the CouldYou? Model Different
Cody presses for the “secret sauce” behind CouldYou?’s 91–97% acceptability rates in 14 countries. Christine credits a wrap-around model that goes well beyond product drop-offs:
Local Production, Local Income: Marginalized women are paid to sew cotton carry-bags—an income boost of ~$250 for every 500 bags in regions where annual household income often hovers near $1,000.
Community-Led Health Education: Doctors, nurses, and trusted elders debunk myths about cups and virginity, engage boys and parents, and normalize period talk across generations.
Data, Data, Data: A Ghanaian monitoring-and-evaluation specialist oversees baseline and end-line surveys on absenteeism, infections, and “sex-for-pads” incidents, producing peer-review-ready evidence that funders can’t ignore.
Zero-Waste Lifecycle: Users can mail obsolete cups to Stericycle, which processes the silicone into renewable energy, closing the sustainability loop.
Policy Wins & Roadblocks
Christine’s frustration and determination are palpable when the conversation turns to U.S. menstrual-equity legislation.
Sixty-plus state and municipal bills mandate free period products in schools, yet almost every one defines “menstrual hygiene products” as only disposable tampons or pads. California lawmakers declined to broaden that definition; New York City, thanks to Council Member Amanda Farias, embraced menstrual cups in a matter of months.
Cody’s takeaway for listeners: call your representatives. Encourage them to update bill language so districts can choose cost-saving, eco-friendly cups—especially for high-school students who can manage insertion safely.
Stories That Keep the Mission Alive
Asked what keeps her going, Christine tells the story of Madalena, a Mozambican teenager orphaned by Cyclone Idai. Living alone in a UNICEF tent, Madalena received a CouldYou? Cup from a hospital nurse; the freedom from monthly panic became a turning point. Today she is a qualified nurse herself—proof that one cup can ripple outward in ways spreadsheets barely capture.
How You Can Help. Today, please!
Cody closes the episode with a rallying cry, and Christine outlines concrete pathways:
- Donate $10 at CouldYou.org—one dollar per year of menstrual dignity for a girl on a 2-million-person waitlist.
- If you are a Rotarian, join the Empowering Our Girls global grant in Uganda.
- Invite CouldYou? into your school district for sample kits and curriculum support.
- Lobby for inclusive language in state and city menstrual-equity bills.
- Share the episode with friends, PTA leads, and policymakers—knowledge is power.
Listen & Share
Ready to dive deeper? Stream the full conversation here: Periods, Power, and Policy—Fighting to End Menstrual Inequality Worldwide. Cody’s warm, relatable hosting style and Christine’s on-the-ground insights make this episode a masterclass in how personal health intersects with planetary health—and how ten dollars can rewrite a girl’s future.
As Christine poignantly noted in her interview, Frederick Buechner once wrote that “your true self happens where your deep gladness and the world’s deep need meet.” The CouldYou? community—staff, donors, Rotarians, healthcare partners, and podcast listeners—embodies that intersection every time a cup lands in a girl’s hands. Periods are powerful. Together, we can make sure they’re never a barrier again.
Full Transcript:
Cody Sanders
You’re listening to the it’s her time podcast with Cody Sanders.
Hi. Welcome back to the It’s Her Time podcast. My name is Cody Sanders, and I’m a holistic health practitioner and functional nutritionist. And most of all, I would say I am a women’s health advocate.
Now today’s guest is the incredible Christine Garde Denning. She is the founder of the nonprofit CouldYou? She is a powerful force in the global fight to end period poverty.
She offers not just awareness, but she also offers sustainable, scalable solutions through the CouldYou? Cup, which is a 10-year reusable menstrual cup.
Now, Christine is leading a movement that’s improving menstrual health and reducing environmental waste and challenging stigma and making sure that no girl is left behind, simply because of her period.
Now, whether she is working with the Gates Foundation, collaborating with the ministers of health in Africa, or fighting for menstrual equity here in the US, Christine is bringing dignity and data to this overlooked but essential conversation.
I know this episode is going to inspire so many of us to get involved because there is so much we can do. To make a difference not only just in our own communities, but for all of our sisters around the world.
I can’t wait for you to get to know Christine and more about her mission. So grab a cup of her time and settle in and let’s get this conversation started.
Cody Sanders
I’m excited for our audience to get to know you today, Christine.
I think that what you are doing is making a huge difference in the world and we love having women on here just like you, who can help inspire us and educate us and help us to know how we can be our own best health advocates, but also how we can be the advocates for other women out there in the world. So, before we begin this awesome and really exciting conversation, let’s just get to know you a little bit. I would love to have our audience hear from you. Have you maybe introduce yourself? Maybe tell us a little bit about your origin story.
Christine Garde Denning
So, I actually grew up in a small town in upstate New York about two hours from New York City. So not as upstate as actually upstate, but still upstate. And then I moved to San Diego in my 20s and I started my first career working with gang members.
That was on the Tijuana-San Diego border. I worked for… I started out working for HUD through a drug elimination grant. Trying to provide opportunities for at risk kids, gang members and families. I was young. I had never seen a gang member and it was transformational. I ended up working with Inner City Youth in America, pretty much my entire career until I started, CouldYou?
So, I started CouldYou? in 2007, but we got registered with the IRS in 2008, and so that’s when I pivoted from nonprofit work in America to nonprofit work in Africa.
Cody Sanders
Amazing. Alright. Well, tell us a little bit about what CouldYou? is.
Christine Garde Denning
So, when we started this organization, at the heart of it is a quote by Frederick Buechner. It speaks about [how] your true self happens when your deepest gladness and the world’s deep need meet.
So, we built the organization originally around helping people who wanted to leave a legacy, people who had influence and wanted to make a mark in the world, how they could journey with us in Africa to understand what are some of the needs that are out there and how might they intersect with what they’re good at. It could be their time, their talent, it could be their skill set. That’s how we started the organization.
But from the very beginning, we had always said that we wanted to be sure that Africa was leading, and that we in the West were filling in the gaps and it evolved into… We started a literacy campaign in Mozambique working with provincial ministries of education.
At the time, the largest oil discovery in the world in the last 60 years is actually in Mozambique, and so it’s a coordination. And the country wanted to be sure that their own people would benefit the very high illiteracy rate. At the time it was 70%.
And so we began to work with their teachers, training them on a new curriculum that was actually created by Mozambicans, and it could get students that were in secondary school literate in five months.
Great program. It still works. But during that time, it was brought to our attention that 93% of girls were starting kindergarten and only 11% were ending up in secondary school and only 1% to college.
You can’t build a nation without girls, and so that’s when we began to have local, provincial government and NGO’s and partners ask us to look at the gap and how to help close it, and that is when I learned about the issue of period poverty, something that I did not know about.
And now that I know about it, it is something that I am passionate about.
We pivoted completely because we really believe it’s solvable, and we want to… and it’s impacting every country, including our own. 500 million women and girls a month are facing it. And yet there’s… it could be… it could end by 2040.
And so, we’ve decided that we want to be on a mission to spread the word and partner with as many people as possible so that we can look back and solve something else. But let this thing be solved.
Cody Sanders
Right, it could create a whole positive ripple effect and I love, I love being, you know, behind a mission that we feel like we can actually solve. And it sounds like you really have been very instrumental in helping to be like the boots on the ground and helping to really start with education.
And all of that then can trickle into so many other things like literacy and better education for women and all of that. So I am so curious because I I love having people on here like you, cause I find you guys so, so inspirational, and it really just, you know, wants me. It makes me want to be a little more like you and be able to kind of take action, and make a difference in the world, and I know everybody that’s listening today is probably feeling the same way.
So, I think this is going to be one of those conversations that we are all listening to and tuning in. And I feel like we’re going to have a lot of things stirring in our hearts and that’s a good thing because the more we can come together and let that stirring in our hearts drive us, the bigger impact we’re going to be able to have.
So, this is incredible. So I would love for you to share with us, Christine, about what you maybe saw during the early days. You know when you were noticing that this was a problem, you know, either whether it was on when you were on the ground, or when you were looking at some of the data. I would love to know what made you say, “this is where we need to focus.”
Christine Garde Denning
So, first, I found it really strange that I had never heard of the menstrual cup and yet the menstrual cup has been around 88 years, and it’s widely used in Europe, and it’s getting increasingly widely used in America, and even around the world.
But I still, to this minute find it odd that we aren’t teaching about it in our schools. That… just as an option to say that… We too often say that there is a tampon or pad, but we don’t talk about the menstrual cup.
So, when I started to use it for the first time, I was a bit angry. I thought, I love it.
Cody Sanders
I do too.
Christine Garde Denning
Right? And because we’re saving money. But on a plane, it’s better. When you’re out in the field, it’s better. It’s… I like it. It’s cleaner. It’s… Everything about it feels like, “how is it we have the safest, greenest, least expensive menstrual option out there? And yet, why is it still hidden?”
Cody Sanders
Right!
Christine Garde Denning
Because I care about justice and I care deeply about… I just want… I want things to be fair. And so I found when I was using it, I thought, “okay, where is it?”
Why is it that there are little girls everywhere, [including in] our own country… I’m talking to girls in the San Diego or New York City who will tell me they don’t go to school three to five days a month right here. Why? Because they can’t afford pads. I’ve heard people say [they] use a tampon for 16 hours.
Cody Sanders
Wow.
Christine Garde Denning
Okay, that’s a recipe for toxic shock. I have heard worse, where they’ll say “well, you get a boyfriend who’s older than you might have a car. He has a job. And then he could buy you your pads.”
And then the thing that I continue to hear in Africa is… it’s heartbreaking, because if you’re living on $2.00 a day, how do you… And you can barely have enough money for your basic needs, your food, your water. How are you then also going to be able to buy pads that are really expensive, maybe $5.00 a month?
So not only are girls missing school, women missing work, but also transactional sex for pads is a thing, something I didn’t know about.
Cody Sanders
Wow.
Christine Garde Denning
I thought it was [a myth], but it isn’t. They mentioned at in Geneva at the World Health Assembly that ever since COVID, the number of girls having transactional sex globally has increased, so has STI’s and HIV, child marriage, and teen pregnancy.
So, for me, I think, okay, hang on, what is it that we need to do to help bring nations a dollar-a-year solution? And that’s what we’re trying to do, because the menstrual cup lasts ten years. We bring it to these communities for $10, which means you don’t have to buy pads for a decade. With a $10 investment.
Cody Sanders
It’s amazing. And honestly, what is the investment to get a cup… one cup?
Christine Garde Denning
Ten dollars.
Cody Sanders
Ten dollars. It… and yeah, and here, you know, in the United States, I’ve seen some that are a little more expensive than that. But I feel like it’s so much more affordable if you were to add it up, and so much more convenient.
And I’m a huge advocate of the menstrual cup as well. I feel like I have to talk women into trying it. I feel like there’s a lot of fear around it. A little, you know, and I say, yeah, maybe there’s a little bit of a learning curve, you know, when you’re first going to use it, but once you figure this out, girls, it is a game changer.
You can have that menstrual cup in you for up to 12 hours and it’s easy, so you can go on about your day and you’re not worrying about whether your tampon is, you know, gonna hold everything and whether your pads going to be able to protect you.
It’s just… it’s so simple. I’ve used it backpacking. I’ve gotten, you know, on airplane rides. I’ve done it when I’ve worked out, when I’ve gone swimming, I used my menstrual cup all the time and I think for the majority of my life I didn’t even know they existed. When you said that they’ve been around for 80 years, I was shocked because honestly, I thought this was a new thing for us.
Christine Garde Denning
I love… I love that you are using it. And I also think there is a learning curve. I think that that is why people, maybe, shy away from it. But isn’t it worth it?
I think, on average, they say it takes three cycles to figure it out. Just to see how often do you have to empty it to make sure it doesn’t leak. because it won’t leak as long as you have it in correctly.
And I think it’s worth the three months of figuring it out, and then you don’t have to worry about pads for a decade. I think that is… And if you look at all the studies that are coming out, even around “forever chemicals” that are in every disposable tampon and pad. That just feels like, if we know you have 100% medical grade silicone item, why wouldn’t we want something that is even safer, even greener. And I think about the environment, they say disposable tampons and pads take between 500 and 800 years to decompose.
Cody Sanders
That’s a really long time, right?
Christine Garde Denning
Right!
Cody Sanders
I know all the studies that came out last year… If you don’t know what Christine is talking about, there were studies that came out last year that, even though organic tampons that we’ve been buying, thinking we were doing ourselves a favor by that, that they were showing that they were heavy in heavy metals. And so, we have been being exposed to these toxins. That can lead to so many long-term health problems for us, but you know, just that alone, right there isn’t a reason to try a cup, but also just the convenience.
And I feel like that’s where I try to help women understand is just the convenience of it, just knowing that it’s something that’s safe, that it’s easy to use, that it’s something that you can count on and that you can reuse it over and over again.
Like I said earlier, it is a game changer for sure.
And so, I think that, yeah, there’s a lot of probably reasons about why girls or women respond differently when they are introduced to the cup, but you just got to keep with it. And there’s great, you know, information out there: instructional videos if you ever want to learn how to use it appropriately.
I think one of the things, though, that I get asked a lot, I think something that a lot of women don’t understand is that there are actually different sizes of cups and so you can also have that piece of mind knowing that it’s not a one-size-fits-all. It’s… there’s a… there’s options for us girls because, you know, we are all different shapes and sizes.
Christine Garde Denning
That’s right. That’s right.
Cody Sanders
Yeah. So, for those that are new to the concept of menstrual cups, I would love for maybe you to have, you know, maybe walk us through the learning curve, and then the support systems that maybe you have also built, because I know you’ve been putting some work into that around menstrual cup education.
Christine Garde Denning
Yes. So the majority to date… We pivoted to ending period poverty with the reusable menstrual cup back in 2018. And so, we started to test it on the ground in communities, starting in Mozambique.
We found it was being incredibly accepted, it was decreasing absenteeism, increasing health and well-being. Girls would say that they weren’t.. not having to have sex again for a box of pads.
And so, we realized that it was something that was scalable.
We started to bring it to other countries and so, as of now, we’ve donated… we have served 200,000 women and girls. The majority of that is in Africa. We’ve served about 10,000 users in America, mostly California and New York, a little bit in DC. And then we’ve also served 12,000 in Ukraine and some Indian… 2000 in India and Nepal, but the rest are all in in Africa.
So, our model. We built the organization while this project… for first time users who mostly live in Africa. Therefore, what we realized was a menstrual cup by itself won’t work. A lot of these girls are not tampon users, so they are using either a disposable pad when they can afford it, or unfortunately, they’re having to use rags, cow dung, banana leaves, sand. There’s lots of unhygienic things that they’re using as alternatives if they can’t afford a pad.
So, what we realized was it’s a holistic package that we have to offer. And so, we do make our cup in… it’s FDA registered, it’s made in California and then we ship it to Africa. So it is global standard. It’s actually made… some of the best cup in America, in the same factory, but we have a humanitarian angle, so our cup is just cheaper because we’re trying to bring it to the poor.
Cody Sanders
Mm-hmm.
Christine Garde Denning
So, same quality, though. And so, what we are doing, it’s a wrap-around service. Meaning for $10 you get a cup delivered to Africa.
We hire marginalized women in each community to make the beautiful cotton carry bags. They’re beautiful, they’re handmade, they’re from local cotton. And that is really employing people. And if you think about, if someone’s living on a thousand dollars a year, as a family, and they’re able to make $250 by making 500 bags, it’s a game changer.
Cody Sanders
Wow.
Christine Garde Denning
So we’ve really been excited about the groups of women we’re able to partner with just in that economic add-on. In addition, it does require community sensitization. It requires breaking taboos. It also requires the buy in of the community. And, so, inside the $10 you also get our community leaders who will train your trainers to come in, and we bring in nurses or doctors or our community leads to talk about all of the aspects of how do you use it? Answer the questions, talk about hymen and how hymen and virginity should not be… There’s not a correlation, and so we do that.
And then we also hired a monitoring and evaluating specialist out of Ghana. He’s amazing because, what I found the most frustrating when I started this work was it just seemed obvious that it was working. It seemed obvious and I loved it and that all the women on the ground that we were… they loved it. And yet there’s a big disconnect, and there still is.
The larger entities that are funding this issue, which there’s a lot of people, organizations, foundations, governments buying disposable pads. Whether it’s in America or whether it’s in Africa. And, that’s a one time use. And so I found it incredibly frustrating when people would say, “ohh, the cup works in Europe and America, but it doesn’t work in Africa.”
And the reasons they would say were for cultural reasons, religious reasons, or lack of water.
The problem is none of those things were actually the problem. The problem was, you have to partner with local people on the ground already doing good sexual and reproductive health work, and let this be an add-on because when people understand that what they have been believing for years isn’t even true. Then they’re able to trust that they can try it, and once they try it, it speaks for itself.
And so it has been… the whole $10 includes the cup, the instructions for use in your local language, data collection, and the community health and education as well as the follow up. For $10.
Cody Sanders
That is amazing, Christine. Way to go with all of that for $10.00.
But so, so important because think about even just here in the United States. I’ve been in this, you know, industry helping women understand their hormonal health, understanding their periods. There has been a lot of taboos. And a lot of barriers that we’ve had to breakthrough, even here. And so, I can only imagine what you have had to face, there in Africa, you know, cultural, political, maybe even legal. I don’t know, all of these things that have been big barriers I can imagine.
But, I’m seeing that you’re being effective, and that is super exciting. So tell me a little bit about what it does take to shift, maybe, those deep-rooted stigmas around menstruation so that, you know, things can change at a policy level there.
Christine Garde Denning
So I actually think it’s kind of who you are speaking to.
So, I’ll give you an example. If you look in America, the numbers might have changed, but the last time that I was looking, it had 67 menstrual equity bills passed in our country. That means cities or states, like the state of California, passing a bill mandating free disposable menstrual hygiene products for all schools, grades six through 12 in California. It’s beyond that, it’s even universities and some public buildings and all of that.
But when we looked at each of these bills, all of them in the definition of a menstrual hygiene product, it said, “the definition of a menstrual hygiene product is a disposable tampon or pad.”
The very nature of the language… you’ve excluded anything but that. So that makes no sense.
So we ended up looking at… comparing… what are you spending on these disposable tampons and pads in bathrooms, in dispensers that have to be filled [and] maintained. And every month, now you have to give them to your students.
And so, we were shocked at this idea that we thought, okay, if you switch to the cup for the older girls, for high schools, obviously. Younger kids, they should go with pads, but if you offer the cup, even as a choice, you could potentially save $14.48 per menstruator. You would not have any environmental impact compared to all the disposable tampons and pads. But the biggest reason was if you give them a disposable product during school hours, what about when they leave school [for] nights, holidays, weekends and summers?
So you would think. I often feel like, okay, common sense is, if you save money, serve more people and serve the environment, everybody would want it.
And that’s not true.
Cody Sanders
Hm.
Christine Garde Denning
[We] tried to get it included in California, we were told “no thank you.”
But here and… but here and… Why? I have no idea.
But here’s what I will say, we did this thing. We had the same conversation with lawmakers in California. And then we had the same conversation with lawmakers in New York City. The difference was… we said nothing different. It was who was listening.
New York City, led by Amanda Farias. And women’s… and City Council realized, oh, this is an important change. Within four months, her team had rewritten or just written, I think, four or five new menstrual equity bills around the cup. And one got enacted, okay? But the least, the one that got enacted, did change the name of the definition, expanded it to include menstrual cups, which is actually so… It’s a huge win. I’m just surprised that it’s taking this much effort. Why is every city and state not just doing it? I think that would be… That’s a question.
Cody Sanders
That’s a big question.
Christine Garde Denning
That’s the question. I don’t have the answer.
Cody Sanders
It doesn’t make a lot of sense. This sounds so much more sustainable and it just… it makes so much more sense in something that is going to be more effective, more cost effective, especially.
And I can’t believe that it’s literally just the need for a change of wording in these bills. And I feel like that’s where maybe we can get involved.
A lot of us that are listening today is maybe getting in touch with our representatives, and encouraging this. I’m in the state of Utah. I know that I’ve been involved with our period policy project here and trying to get these types of products in our schools. And you know, honestly, I don’t know that it dawned on me that I should be including a menstrual cup. I just was so passionate about making sure that we were providing things for the girls out there in schools and whatnot.
But you’re right, it doesn’t go far enough. It’s a good start. It’s something where we’ve begun to start making it, you know, people becoming more aware of this issue. Because I think sometimes we don’t realize that period poverty exists in our own backyard.
And so… But, we can go a little further and I think we can actually have a bigger impact. By just simply changing the wording and offering the options for menstrual cups, because as you’ve learned today, as we’ve talked today, they really are something that is so much more sustainable and more helpful for these girls, no matter what age, you know, they are at, they’re going to be able to rely on them and have that, you know, peace of mind for much longer, especially when they’re not in school.
So, I think that’s incredible. I think that is something that a lot of us have kind of missed. So thank you for pointing that out to us.
Christine Garde Denning
I would say thank you and also if you do have people inside the school systems in your audience, we really ought to imagine if you’re a superintendent of a large school system and you simply looked at your curriculum that talks, maybe it’s 6th grade. I don’t know anymore if it’s 6th grade, but it used to be in grade 6, you began to learn about periods and you know, you start the conversation and you talk about, “this is a pad, this is a tampon.” You talk about hygiene.
It feels like even a simple step as making sure that superintendents and school teachers are aware of the menstrual cup. Because as soon as they become aware of it, then they will naturally add it in.
So I think that that’s kind of even a first step is, let’s start talking about it in classes, and then as teachers and students. Because if you think about, how does a girl usually get her product? Her mother gives it to her. Well, if her mother doesn’t know about the cups, she can’t offer it. And so I feel like we have to be proactive in, in changing laws, but also having just everyday school systems engage in understanding.
I’d be happy to partner with any school system who wants samples from… for teachers, or superintendents, or principals to try out, just so that they understand its safety and I can send all the data that shows it’s safe as well.
Cody Sanders
I think that would be incredible. So we’ll definitely have a ways that you know, if you know a school, or a teacher, or a superintendent, or any that, you can come to the show notes and you’ll know how to get in touch with Christine to do that.
But, yeah, girls, we know, now are starting their periods much younger than they used to, and so here in the state of Utah, that’s the only thing I know, we do have what’s known as a maturation clinic. And that’s in our fifth-grade year, and that’s wonderful.
But, this has been one of my frustrations as somebody that, you know, is in the field, as a practitioner, is that the amount of education that the girls are getting in the fifth grade is very limited. It literally… they go into, “here’s a tampon and here’s a pad and you will start your period and it will happen every month. And when you start having cramps, you can take Tylenol or use a heating pad.”
Or, you know, they kind of go into the very basics of things. Let’s take it further.
You know, all of you that are listening today, you know, in all of my podcasts, I love for us to learn, and be educated. But then I want to take that education and turn it into actionable steps. Well, the same thing goes for these types of maturation clinics, or these types of opportunities. Let’s take the information and learn about our bodies. Yes. But then let’s teach the actionable steps that can actually help girls be able to succeed, and feel like they are armed with all that they need, all the tools to help them love their bodies, love their periods, and be able to do… and be able to stay healthy, and be able to not feel like they are being debilitated by their monthly cycle.
So, I love that. Thank you for explaining all of that to us. I just feel a new fire burning within me to kind of get out there and start pushing this even a little bit more, you know, take one step. We’re now going to take the second step too.
So, let’s go in a little bit about the sustainability, and the systemic change, and all that. I know we’ve kind of been covering that so far.
But, disposable period products.
This is what my thinking is, Christine, and this is just me thinking it’s a money thing. This is why, possibly, they might be not thinking that the menstrual cup is the best option, because unfortunately you know there’s a lot of money to be made through the use of disposable products. And so… because they generate billions of, you know, money. And they also, you know, generate billions of waste though, too.
So, I think that it’s important for us to understand, maybe like, what the role… You know, from maybe, CouldYou?, or like, how the cup can play into our fight against these kinds of things, especially the environmental harm that this could be, you know, having?
Christine Garde Denning
Yeah. So, they say… I’ve looked at some different studies and things that have come out and ultimately, one menstrual cup, because it lasts ten years, it saves… about 87 kilograms of CO2 emissions. And so that’s per cup.
They say that there’s a lot of microplastics that end up in our ocean, and that one main reason is, all of… if you think about tampons and pads, the boxes, the cartons like, there’s so much of everything, and you’re buying them and using them every month for 40 years like, that’s a long time.
And so, I think the environmental impact is something that… if you could have that, or you could have a zero-waste product, and the reason I can say ours is zero-waste is yes, first of all, our menstrual cup, we don’t waste money on packaging, and we put it in a biodegradable zip lock bag, and then it comes with the 100% medical grade silicone FDA registered cup with a handmade cotton carry bag for storage, plus the instructions for use.
Now, the cup itself is reusable for 10 years, and so we ended up partnering with Stericycle, saying that if.. when it’s obsolete… because we wanted to have a full circle moment, right? And close the circle. So, Stericycle is able to… when it’s absolute… If anybody wants to return it back. Mail it back, you know, boil it, mail it back after 10 years, they can recycle it into renewable energy. Now, at the end of the day, the fact that if your cup lasted 10 years and you didn’t use all of those monthly other products, you’ve already saved the environment. But we decided to even offer that other added incentive for those who were saying they genuinely wanted zero waste.
Cody Sanders
You’ve really thought of everything! Yeah, this is full circle. This is genius. Christine. I’m so proud of you. I just think it’s so awesome. I know that our audience is just full of moms and aunts and big sisters and mentors. You know, women who are really wanting the best for the girls in our life. And I just really feel like we can all get behind what you’re doing.
‘Cause it just makes so much sense. And so, this has been an awesome conversation so far. I would love for you to just go into what we can do today to help our daughters and the young girls that are out there, just[to] feel more empowered about their cycles.
Christine Garde Denning
Yeah. So, I would say, people like you who are practitioners and you’re already already doing a really great job. So I feel like, being aware of what’s in the products you’re using matters. Doing the extra research, if you’re a mother that wants to give your daughter something to understand. And also testing a reusable product like the menstrual cup yourself.
They say we are experiencing 91% acceptability. So out of 100 people, nine people won’t like it. That’s OK. But the 91 who do, it’s a game changer.
So, I’d say, exploring an environmentally friendly product like the menstrual cup is valuable.
And then, for me, what I’m passionate about is, I think all of us want to do something, and we never know what to do. And so, the thing that drives me the most has to do with unhealthy items girls are using.
So there’s a community in Uganda where the community, whether they’re girls or women, they literally sit on sand, dig a hole and bleed into it. These girls don’t necessarily even have underwear, and so a pad wouldn’t fit on their… in their life anyway.
And so when I hear about in the Wa East of Ghana., Plan International funded a study that showed 83% of adolescent girls were having transactional sex for pads. The high high rates of teen pregnancy in that community was really high. So when we heard about that, I thought okay, this is someone’s daughter and we can’t just do nothing.
And so we brought it to the attention of the government and the organizations involved. We are not a huge organization compared to some of the other ones, but we still raised the money, donated 2,000 cups and even paid some of their teams to be able to watch. Like do it with us.
2,000 adolescent girls were served in that region. The same region, after seven months, the data showed 97% acceptability. So that means 97% of those girls never had to miss school, never had to choose to have sex with a person that they weren’t dating, just so that they could get a box of pads.
As a result, we were the only non-academics that were invited to have a chapter in the other companion, which is coming out this year. And we were nominated for the Ershad Prize. We didn’t win, but we were nominated.
And so to me, I am trying to… Like right now, we have a 2 million girl waitlist.
So, if they’re… We are always wanting partners, whether it’s an individual who wants to see $10 go a long way, $10 could meet the medical needs of a girl for 10 years, whether it’s a family foundation… Whether it’s a CSR budget out of a business, we feel like, if we would love to see listeners engage in a healthy practice in their own country for their own person and their own girls, and also if they’re thinking about how they might also want to have charity go a long way.
We think we’re a great return on investment.
Cody Sanders
Absolutely and congratulations for all that you’ve achieved so far. And it does seem a little overwhelming with how many girls are out there waiting for this kind of support.
But, we can be mighty when we come together. We can be mighty. We can make such a huge change, and that that feels doable.
I see… I see the vision here, and I think that this is something that many of us listening today and participating in this conversation can think of ways that we can contribute to this.
And, you know. I think that we care about our sisters that live, you know, in other parts of the world, and we’re all connected, all women around the world. It’s heartbreaking to think I had never heard of this transactional sex for pads, but I believe it. I have, you know, unfortunately, I’ve, I’ve heard of other things like that. And it’s one of those things that every girl on this earth has a menstrual cycle, and they’re all trying to figure it out. However, they can figure it out and unfortunately this is the reality for many women that are out there. Little girls that are out there.
So, you know, I think that we do need to pay attention and we can’t just sit idly by and think that it’s going to be taken care of for us. But if we can all kind of pitch in together, then I really do feel like we can make a huge difference.
I know for me just, you know, as I was a young teenager starting my period for the first time, (I have three older sisters) and you know I Iearned everything that I needed to learn at that time from my older sisters, from conversations that were being had in our home. You know, much more than what was being taught at the school at that time.
But I do want us to build more body literacy. That’s been my mission and my passion, you know, but I also, just because the reason I care so much about is because I want girls to feel confidence. I want them to have confidence with their bodies. I want their experiences of being a woman being so much more joyful and positive. Not just the girls that are here locally, but the girls all around the world.
And so I think it’s important that we continue to have the right kinds of conversations like we are today. And so maybe you have some thoughts on that too, Christine, maybe you could share maybe what you think are some of the most important conversations that we should be having in our own homes?
Christine Garde Denning
Yeah. No, I think… I think it’s important that we are breaking the taboo that talking about having your period is not… is something that you whisper. Or I think, if we would normalize it, talk about it more openly. Imagine there… I think it’s getting better.
Cody Sanders
Absolutely.
Christine Garde Denning
So, I think it’s a generation of older men that did not want the word spoken. But I think it’s important when fathers talk about it openly and there’s no shame or a brother, or siblings. If friends…
If you, at a young age, are around the language, then by the time you’re in junior high, you will never bully a little girl because she stains her clothes or it won’t feel awkward. And I think that if we are reminding each other that that is how life is given. And so it shouldn’t… it shouldn’t be a taboo. It should be… I mean, not that it’s not hard sometimes, but if we thought of it, or if we thought about it as, “this is a gift to the world.” And so it, we should have no shame around it.
I also think that you’re right. It is a $40 billion-a-year industry. And I think that’s a lot of money backing something that is encouraging buying single-use products every month for 40 years.
And so, I hope that year by year, people choose to maybe go away from that, and one day we can look back and see, I think it won’t be long before the menstrual cup is as familiar as the tampon.
Cody Sanders
I hope so. I hope so. I think that, yeah, I think it’s just knowledge is power, right? And having the knowledge of what is available for us… That’s, I think, right there, where we start.
And so just having the full conversation with all of the information about what we can use, you know, as women, for our menstrual cycles.
So, I think that you are doing such a great work. I can’t say that enough in this episode. You know, I know that you are making a huge global impact, and I think that’s super-inspiring. And I wonder, you know, you’ve been doing this for a long time. I wonder, you know, what keeps you grounded in your mission, what keeps you going?
Christine Garde Denning
Yeah. So I can say, I I’m an optimist. Which is helpful.
And what gets me… what keeps me going is, stories from the field. So whether it’s a girl in Brooklyn, or a girl in Minnesota, the testimonies of this thing… It is, often has greater impact than any one of us listening has any idea.
And so, whether it’s an American girl who is saying, “you have no idea, this is the first time I’ve had a product in three years. Using toilet paper, using… it’s heartbreaking missing school.” Or girls saying, like I said, like, “I don’t have to have sex anymore for pads. I haven’t missed school. I’m not using cow dung.”
I’d say, every so often, I get encouraged because we are making some breakthrough. Right at the end of last year, we had a huge breakthrough, [it] was our biggest breakthrough. We had been convinced trying to work with the larger funders who kept saying the cup didn’t work, only it was working, and we finally were able to get to the right people, present the right information. And we were awarded a big grant in partnership with USAid, [the] Children’s Investment Fund, and the Gates Foundation.
So, we were on our way to something extraordinary where we were testing 82,000 cups between Kenya and Malawi. [A] three-year research-rigorous trial with Liverpool School.
Unfortunately, even though we were… everything was obligated, USAid closed, and we lost the money. So did a lot of other people. And so, now the trial is still happening, but only with Gates [Foundation] and 1000 of the cups. Which is still a good step in the right direction.
But I’d say when I start to get excited because we get a breakthrough, and then the world changes and we lose it… What keeps me going is remembering that each girl matters.
And if I can, I’d love to serve millions. I’d love to end this thing. And in the meantime, until we get there, I will stay grounded on the face of one.
Cody Sanders
It’s amazing. And it’s beautiful. Each girl does matter.
It seems like you maybe have one or two or three in mind. Specific women, you know, who have made a huge impact.
I wondered if you would be willing to share, you know, maybe a story from your work that you’ll never forget or one that still that does, you know, fuel you like you’ve just shared.
Christine Garde Denning
Yeah. So. There’s… The first one always comes to mind was actually in Mozambique. And she… there was a cyclone, Idai, that came through. And unfortunately during that cyclone, she lost her home. But she also lost her mother and her father. They passed in it.
The littler siblings were taken away up north to an uncle and he was a farmer, and so she was in a UNICEF, like a, resettlement camp. A teenager by herself.
[She] ended up getting infected, [and she] goes to the Central Hospital. And the nurse there knew about us, and gave her a menstrual cup.
And now, think about, you’re a teenager who has lost everything. I can’t even imagine that. But then living in in this tent, figuring out your period… like the whole thing, just is too much.
And so, that girl is now in her 20s, and she just graduated as a nurse. And she is still there with the passion for her community.
And so, I think that one always stands out, because I think about how many refugees are living in camps, or how many displaced people, and how hard it would be to manage your period in those situations. And so… I don’t know, she’s always the first one that comes to my mind.
Cody Sanders
I love that. Yep, every girl matters.
And that’s incredible. So, you know, for the women that are listening today that want to get involved, and I think that’s going to be every single person that has been joining us today is going to want to get involved.
What is the best way that we can all support CouldYou? Or is there something we can do to start something on our own? You know, that’s similar to this, in our own communities?
Christine Garde Denning
Yeah. So I would say, thank you for asking that. I would say if you’re a Rotarian, I am also a Rotarian, and we have a global Rotary project that we are launching in Uganda. But we… I’m part of the Empowering Our Girls Rotary Club. It’s an online club. So, if there’s anyone out there that wants to join that, I think that’s a great way to continue to get involved in some grassroots things both locally, and also globally.
If you want to donate, we’re online at www.couldyou.org, and there’s a donate button.
We also… if you’re in San Diego, we’re having a fundraiser Duelling Pianos on June 29th [2025].
If you’re in New York City, we’re doing an event in September during you UNGA.
And if you follow us on social media, we have… a YouTube channel… We have Facebook, Instagram… It, kind of, will show you day-to-day real images from the fields, and it can keep you up to date on how you might want to get involved.
We also have an internship program. Right now, we have three interns out of New York City, [at the] Colin Powell [School for Civic and Global Leadership].
And so, I would say… and if you know lawmakers, continue to push to get the cup included. If you know anybody at the EPA or USAID because those were two avenues that, unfortunately, the funding got shut off from.
And so, we feel like, if we just keep talking common sense, perhaps some of the right people will listen and some of the money will get reallocated to help have a sustainable solution.
Cody Sanders
Yes, OK! We can do this. We can do this!
And of course, we’re going to have all of the things that Christine just mentioned, the ways you can get involved, the ways you can connect, we’re going to have those things in the show notes.
So, you girls, if you’re not going to the show notes after listening to each of our episodes, you’re missing out. Is there’s always the goods. They’re always in the show notes.
And also, just so you are aware too, there are ways that you can text me directly. There’s a link there in the show notes too, so that I can hear from you.
And as a community, we can share our thoughts on this and maybe some of our efforts on this. Questions that you have or people that you would like to have on the show, I think that this is important. We got to keep this conversation going. We got to unite. We’re going to make a difference. It’s going to be amazing.
So, Christine, thank you so much for being here.
Christine Garde Denning
Thank you!
Cody Sanders
And thank you for the work that you are doing to transform menstrual health around the world. It’s a reminder that something as personal as our periods is actually deeply political, it’s deeply environmental, and it’s deeply powerful.
Also, ladies are listening today, if this episode moved you, which I know it did, ‘cause it did me, please share it with the women in your life because sharing is caring, and we need to do this together. We are mightier when we are united, and so, go and check out couldyou.org to learn how you can be a part of this menstrual health movement. And let’s make a difference.
Let’s make the world a better place for, you know, not just the women, but we know, as women, when we’re thriving, the world is going to thrive. And so, it goes much bigger than that.
So thank you again for tuning in. This has been a powerful conversation. Christina is such an excellent guest. We appreciate you being here. And I want all of you to know that this is going to be something that we can solve together.
All right, until next time, you know, I will miss you, but I will look forward to our next conversation. So I hope you all have a very happy and healthy week and we’ll talk soon.
Bye!