Imagine having to decide between buying a tampon or buying your lunch. For guys this may be an easy answer, but now imagine you are Anne, a lifelong resident of San Francisco, who is informed that her landlord has tripled her rent and is now left without a home, followed by a job layoff. For Anne, this is a decision she now must face every month, for about a week. That constitutes 12 weeks each year where she has to decide between self nourishment or maintenance of a biological cycle over which she has no control. If it is still easy to choose buying your lunch, let me make it a little more difficult. This biological cycle better known as menstruation, or a period, can be excruciatingly painful and embarrassing for any menstruator of any age, in any nation. Every month, the womb sheds its lining. As stated by PubMed Health, “to shed the lining... the muscles of the womb tighten and relax in an irregular rhythm [helping] the lining...to detach and flow out of the body, together with blood.” Side effects sometimes amount to “mild discomfort, but are also sometimes felt as painful cramps...in the abdomen, back, or legs...[causing] nausea, vomiting or diarrhea...as well as headaches or general discomfort.” Imagine constantly being in public enduring what 29 year old Sydney describes her experience as “[taking] probably more ibuprofen than I should in a day, just so I can walk around without a grimace on my face. I just feel really low on energy, as if it's hard to get the daily tasks done” and wish “I could curl up in a ball with a heating pad and shut out the whole world!" (Florio) In addition to this undesirable pain, the immense amount of societal taboo and stigma surrounding menstruation means that it is a topic of secrecy and avoidance not only to the public, but also for a woman herself. These attitudes toward periods are just one aspect of the many struggles that come with “that time of the month.” Menstruation also comes with other emotional, financial and health related problems which are especially intensified among the homeless.