As of the coming academic year, the well-known menstruation workshops facilitated once every period by biology teacher Anneke Valk are open to all students (m/f/x). Each workshop is followed by a walk-in consultation for personal questions. The first edition is to take place on 23 September.
The workshops are supported by Student Training & Support in response to the popular workshops offered by Valk during Surf Your Stress Week. These workshops have been the most popular activity during that week for years (see the Resource report). The topic is popular among students, and the fact that several student associations have invited Valk to deliver a presentation on the topic is a testimony to this fact. She recently held a presentation for the Veetelers and Heeren XVII.
Inclusive
These workshops and walk-in consultations are designed to be inclusive, welcoming all students, regardless of sex or gender. Valk specifically extends an invitation to trans persons, stating, ‘I may not have all the answers, but I am here for you. I may be able to help by connecting trans men who are still menstruating with others at WUR who share the same experience.’
Valk plans to address a different topic in each workshop to match the students’ most pressing questions. ‘The combination of (severe) menstruation issues and exams, for example, the impact of stress and why you may feel on top of the world during a particular phase in your cycle, while your self-esteem evaporates a few days later’, she states.
Students only
Details on time, venue and registration will be divulged at the start of September. There is room for 35 students per session. The workshops are open exclusively to students. ‘I have seen that employees are also interested in this topic, as well as in a similar initiative on menopause following up on the Vital@Work workshop. However, there does not seem to be a budget available yet’, Valk clarifies.
