Northwestern Medical Makers and HeForSWE, an initiative within the Society of Women Engineers, invited students to try out a period pain simulator Tuesday in the Technological Institute for National Women’s Health Week.
Participants donated $5 to use the pain simulator. McCormick first-year and HeForSWE co-Director Anna Siebers said the money raised will be donated to The Period Collective, a nonprofit organization that provides period products to shelters, schools, housing facilities and food banks.
NU Medical Makers is a club dedicated to designing medical devices for people with a need that is unmet by current medical equipment. Within SWE, HeForSWE aims to “spread awareness of gender biases and inequality specifically within the field of engineering.”
Weinberg first-year Isabella Lu said she used the simulator to see if it was accurate.
“It didn’t really feel like an actual period,” Lu said. “It just felt like you were taking a massage gun to your stomach,” Lu said.
Still, she said that she felt vibrations that differed in strength as the machine’s levels went up and down.
However, Lu said she doesn’t think the simulator gave an accurate picture of what a period feels like.
“I think that cramps are different in that they go on for longer and that you actually feel it affecting your life,” Lu said.
For McCormick junior Tanay Acharya, the simulator’s first levels felt more like vibrations and tickles, he said.
As the levels increased, Acharya said the pain became more of a shock. But overall, he said it felt like pinching and shaking.
“It just feels like muscle cramps, which I guess is what it is, but with a lot more vibrations,” Acharya said. “It’s like an electric toothbrush on your stomach.”
Siebers said the simulator was also popular when NU Medical Makers and HeForSWE offered it last year.
In addition to promoting awareness about women’s health, Siebers said the event also aimed to raise money since access to period supplies and taxes on those products are a big issue.
She said she hopes Tuesday’s event will raise awareness about the cost of period supplies.
“Building more empathy is the only way we can really get the issue solved with legislation,” she said.
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