Hey y’all!! Allafia! I’m Chelsea VonChaz, doula, charity exec, & creator of Menärche. Menärchē is a conscious guide to having a better relationship with your body. Menärchē aims to contribute to reproductive education and wellness being more accessible. I wanted to start this newsletter to support my culture with curated content, news, and resources for their cycle care. Humans with vaginas motivate me. There's not much in the world that makes it convenient for you if you have a period or even a uterus. My experience being The Period Doula has taught me that the heavy stigma on menstruation has silenced half of the human population. In doing this I made two discoveries: Humans lack of understanding of the menstrual cycle and the exclusion of periods in wellness and lifestyle conversations. The why behind Menärchē is inspired by my 8 years of experience fighting for menstrual equity. Besides running my own organization, I’m a consultant within the femtech industry and I continuously contribute to policy and advocacy programs centered on menstrual equity in the nonprofit sector.
Menärchē was born as a digital community on June 16th, 2023. When I established the company back in 2020, I had high expectations. Initially I wanted to kickstart it as a quarterly retail pop-up in the style of a wellness center, apothecary. Which is something I still want to do in the future, but to be foreal I bit off more than I could chew. I mean I had my business plan, renderings, and every ting! But, it wasn’t meant to carry out that way. Or maybe it was because I needed those lessons that came with having that plan and it coming undone. With a curated, pop-up marketplace, my plan was to create a shame-free shopping experience, and a safe space for learning about a variety of wellness products. Now, I’m confident to put that goal side for when the time is right and the community calls for it. It will come. I’m working on it. Always.
While shifting my focus to going digital, in doing some intense research I discovered more specific details about my target market aka y’all. LOL. This global femtech article broke down that 58% of Women in the U.S. feel embarrassed about their period, 44% of the Women surveyed felt awkward while buying tampons or pads at the store —with 15% feeling so uneasy that they have resorted to buying them online to avoid the store altogether. This results in people 1) feeling shamed by society for their natural body function 2) having limited access to period products to manage their cycle 3) silenced into a lower quality of life due to discrimination.
I feel as though people with periods deserve more than a limited aisle when shopping for their menstrual products. We also deserve to shop shame-free, and have a range of choices that don't feed into the stigma of menstruation. I think the problem is centered on the lack of positive media due to the stigma and the abundance of misinformation centering reproductive health. Overall I was inspired to create something that I wished existed. In doing this work, coming in contact with so many creators, entrepreneurs within the femtech and reproductive health space, I felt the calling to cultivate a community. And here we are! So please tap in. I’ll be updating and moving all previous issues to substack so you can catch up. Prepare to tap into some exclusive resources, curated articles, product reviews, hacks, discounts, and more! I’m confident you will appreciate it.
Get Free,
Chelsea, The Period Doula