Period care with your hands, your chair and your helpers

A period product is also a set of moves: tear, peel, fold, reach, balance, pull, check. For some people those moves are easy. For others they depend on grip, on a chair, on a transfer, or on another person’s hands. This Column describes each format by those moves. It is for disabled readers, and for parents, partners and paid carers. It does not rank any format.

It depends on your hands, your bladder routine and your help

Spinal Cord Injury BC, a BC disability organization, published an answer by a nurse practitioner at BC Women’s Hospital, with contributions from a peer group. It says: “Your approach to managing your period might depend on your hand function, how you manage your bladder, and how much help you need or have available for your personal care.”

This is not a small group. Statistics Canada reports that in 2022, “27% of Canadians aged 15 years and older, or 8.0 million people, had one or more disabilities that limited them in their daily activities.” The rate was higher among women (30%) than men (24%). That counts every kind of disability, not only those that affect hands, balance or mobility.

A note on words: some sources we quote here say “women”, “girls”, “daughters”, “females”, “pads” and “sanitary pads”. One peer source says “quads”. We keep their words so we report them accurately. In our own words, we say “period pads” and “disabled people”, as the 2019 review does. The Reading Room is for everyone who menstruates.

Research on this is thin. A 2019 systematic review of disabled people’s period needs found 22 studies. Most were about intellectual impairments. Only two were about physical impairments. The barriers it found included “lack of appropriate options for people with physical impairments”, the high cost of period products, and a lack of guidance and training for carers.

The same review reports one US study of people with spinal cord injuries. In it, 19% reported “discomfort and difficulty in positioning the menstrual product to ensure its maximum absorbency, as well as increasing difficulties with catheters and urinary management during menstruation”.

In a US study of parents of young people with physical disabilities, the researchers wrote: “Current products require dexterity of both hands and the ability to balance.” One parent said: “trying to do some of these tasks one-handed, you don’t realize how hard it is until you do it that way too.”

Cost matters too. United Way BC ran a survey on period poverty. In its second phase, 43.9% of respondents with a physical disability said they had gone through a period without period products. Among respondents without a physical disability, it was 23.69%. (There were 82 respondents with a physical disability and 629 without.) The report is clear about its limits: “respondents self-selected to become involved; the data does not come from a random sampling of the BC population.”

Each format, move by move

Each entry below has the same two parts: what it involves, and what disability sources and people online describe. The order is the Reading Room’s fixed order. It is not a ranking. For the full explainer on each format, look for its own Column in the Reading Room.

Ask an occupational therapist

An occupational therapist, or OT, helps people with everyday tasks. A 2026 review in an occupational therapy journal says OTs are “uniquely placed” to help young people with the daily tasks of puberty. It describes what OTs do, including “step‐by‐step visual demonstrations of menstrual products”, building routines, and plain, accurate words. The review is Australian and is about adolescents.

The same review reports a 2021 North American survey: “fewer than 20% of clinicians working with pubertal‐aged children address menstruation.” So a clinician may not raise periods unless you do. You can ask.

The same review describes a study that found that people with low vision need non-visual ways to handle tasks such as knowing when a period is due, knowing when to change, buying period products, finding your way in public washrooms, and disposal. For sensory needs, see “Sensory-friendly period care”.

To find an OT, ask your doctor, nurse practitioner or care team.

For carers

This part is for parents, partners, family and paid carers.

Research has found gaps in standards and training for carers. The 2019 review found “an absence of standards and training on providing menstrual care” in the institutions it studied. It also warns that when needs go unmet, the results can include “shame, social isolation, and even sterilisation”. That is why the person’s own choices come first.

All the parents in the study felt their daughters wanted more privacy at their first period, and “care from only females at menarche”. Private washrooms were often not available when help was needed. At one school, it was “the lunch lady coming up to assist”. The researchers call for “respectful, gender-aligned care support and private bathrooms at schools”.

In online forums, people also say periods may need explaining again after a brain injury, and that they want information in accessible formats.

For your own questions about care, a healthcare provider, an OT or your provincial health line can help. See “Where to go from here”.

What this is not

This Column describes what each format involves, and reports what disability organizations, researchers, parents and people online say, in their own words. It does not say any format is best, easiest or most accessible, for anyone. It gives no advice on bladder care, catheters, skin or medicines. It names no product or aid.