Editor’s note: The spelling of Deidra Mwalimu’s name has been corrected. We apologize for the error.

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Here’s a deeper look into an issue affecting many women in Louisiana. The stigma surrounding it often prevents people from talking about it. The topic? Period poverty. It’s when women and girls can’t get the menstrual products they need.

“This is not something that we’ve asked for,” said Jazmon Derousselle, a senior at Southern University. “This is just a basic necessity we need.”

BRProud interviewed a group of ladies who are advocates and college students who aren’t afraid to talk about the taboo topic.

“When those things are not available, it really does deepen the burden and the stigma of people talking about periods,” said Jennifer Gaines, program director of Alliance for Period Products.

Thousands of women across the state can’t afford them or even a trip to the doctor if they are in pain.

“Students have these horrible, horrible cycles, and I was one of them,” explained Gabrielle Stevens, a senior at Southern University.

Megan Abraham, a junior at Southern, went through the same experience.

“Mine was awful but I was grateful to get birth control and see different options but a lot of people don’t have that,” she said

According to the Alliance of Period Supplies, two in nine women and girls, between the ages of 12 and 44, live below the poverty line. Cherie Johnson, senior VP of patient care at Woman’s Hospital, said many choose desperate means or go without.

“Some of our families are choosing between food and period products,” she explained.

Not having these items can interrupt a woman’s and a girl’s life.

“When a student doesn’t have a pad or a couple of pads to get them through the day, they’re going to miss school,” Gaines said.

“The inability to afford those products leads to absenteeism, which really affects their education over a lifetime.,” said Renada Deschamp, chief diversity officer of Woman’s Hospital.

We found one local group that’s working to solve the problem. Deidra Mwalimu is the creator of ‘Network of Women’ or NOW. She is spearheading a partnership between her agency and schools to provide sanitary napkins to students by hosting supply drives, but she said they aren’t sustainable.

“There’s about 169,000 menstruating girls in the state Louisiana, and of that we’d have to come up with at least 85 million pads and or tampons a year,” Mwalimu explained.

That’s where the legislature comes in. Just last year lawmakers got rid of the pink tax, making period products exempt from the state’s sales tax.

“Half of the folks, elected officials, or folks that are making decisions about what happens do not menstruate,” Jennifer Gaines said. “They can’t relate how a woman’s body works and what it means.”

Then came along House Bill 117, a piece of legislation created by state Rep. Aimee Freeman. It would require schools to provide pads and tampons to girls for free. But the bill didn’t have a plan on how it would be paid for, and thus, was stopped in the finance committee. Along with bringing legislation, these women also think there needs to be a deeper conversation involving the opposite sex.

“If I can’t talk about my period with a man, that is childish,” said Morgan Abraham, a senior at Southern.

They don’t think men should consider their periods as ‘gross,’ but as a way of life for women.

“We need to educate ourselves on the things that happened within a woman, our health, emotional well-being, physical, everything,” Stevens said.

And the products used for it should be accessible to all who get one. Period.