The Global V taboo Tracker from Bodyform

More research, less fear.

The Bodyform Global V Taboo Tracker is our ongoing research project, designed to better understand taboos around wombs, periods and vulvas. Our goal is to identify and fill knowledge gaps because understanding is critical to change. 

Talking about the stuff no one wants to talk about

There are still so many taboos surrounding women+’s bodies, so many topics that are still difficult to talk about, which impact access to knowledge and understanding about our own bodies.

Before we can dismantle taboos, we need to understand them. We need to know how much work there is still left to do. Our ongoing research project helps to uncover what taboos around wombs, vulvas and periods exist globally, taboos which come between us and better knowledge of our own bodies. Our research identifies the challenges and opportunities in breaking down these taboos, so we can build a world that actually understands our bodies.

Exposing the knowledge gap

We conducted an in depth, empathetic global survey of 10,000 people, from 21st March to 5th April 2024, across ten markets: France, UK, Australia, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, New Zealand, USA, and Sweden, to understand what women+ really go through during their lifetime of periods. The knowledge gap was staggering.

Our latest report uncovered how little knowledge we have about our own bodies.

> 1 in 3
More than 1 in 3 women+ agree that ‘looking back, I feel misinformed about how a woman’s body and how periods actually work’
74%
74% of all women+ reported negative emotions when starting their first period
90%
90% of us know little to nothing about the perimenopause

And the gap between what we are told, and what it’s actually like.

1.45% of women+ have been confused by spotting, image of someone looking into their pants, confused 2.52% of women+ experienced much more pain than they were led to believe, image of someone in terrible pain, gripping a hot water bottle  3.46% have felt that their cycle wasn’t the ‘normal’ 28 days, illustration of a confused person with Day 38 written inside a circle of blood droplets, representing a long cycle

Our report has revealed how badly we need more knowledge about our wombs, vulvas, and flows: better research, more conversations, a little warning. We deserve a world that understands and prepares us for the full reality of our bodies – in all their beautiful, strange complexity.

Read the full report here

What do you wish you’d been told? Share on social using #NeverJustAPeriod. For more on the gap between what we’re told and what it’s really like, watch our ‘Never Just A Period’ film here.