Hamburg start-up breaks the menstrual taboo

“Vulvani” explains the woman’s cycle. The founder talks about disgust, the tampon tax and the working atmosphere.

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Hamburg. Schools and universities in Scotland will soon have to offer tampons and pads. Free. Britta Wiebe (30) calls for this in the podcast “The Gender of Others” for Germany as well. Even more: she would like employers to join in too. Wiebe co-founded the Hamburg start-up Vulvani to break the taboo topic of “menstruation” and to educate people about the female cycle.

“We are taught from an early age to make the period invisible. That you should do it secretly and hide it, ”she says. On the way to the toilet, girls and women would make a fist and thus tightly encircle the tampon, because many people are already disgusted by the idea of ​​period blood. That is why blue blood is shown in advertisements for panty liners. Wiebe does not want to accept that, because blood is shown in films and it is never blue.

Women don’t know enough about their period

She welcomes the fact that Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz cut the value added tax on menstrual products from 19 to seven percent last year, the so-called “tampon tax”. On the one hand, this has fueled the discussion about the taboo topic, and on the other, it is a financial relief. On average, there was an average of five euros per cycle for hygiene products.

“If you extrapolate that over the years, it’s a small, nice, financial advantage.” Incidentally, painkillers are not included in the total. They are part of everyday life for many women. According to an online survey by the social enterprise Erdbeerwoche, 98 percent of all respondents suffer from menstrual pain.

And yet: The tax cut has not removed the taboo on the subject, says Wiebe. Instead, women still know too little about their periods, cycle and body, which have health consequences. In this way diseases could not be recognized and treated. Those affected often do not know that they suffer from chronic endometriosis. This causes painful growths to accumulate on the ovaries or other organs. In the podcast, Wiebe also talks about the consequences of the disease, the state of research and a harmonious working atmosphere.

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