Rebecca McCray reports that the number of incarcerated women in the US increased by 600 percent between 1980 and 2023, and as this population grows, so too does the number of people behind bars going through perimenopause and menopause. In this story, a collaboration between The 19th and The Marshall Project, McCray explores this largely invisible health crisis unfolding in prisons, where inadequate medical care forces women to self-diagnose and improvise.
In Texas, Harris said women are often denied an adequate supply of menstrual products — a particular problem for the subset of perimenopausal women who experience heavier than typical bleeding during their periods. Lacking sufficient pads and tampons, Harris said women have ripped up sheets and folded them to absorb menstrual blood, a hack that is then punished and written up as “destruction of state property.” These infractions add up.
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