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Experiment

The Expression System

2024

The barrier to communicating about menstruation is structural, not cultural — the vocabulary does not exist in everyday conversation. The Expression System addresses that gap at population scale: a free WhatsApp sticker vocabulary across five functional categories — physical state, emotional state, needs, boundaries, and gratitude — built on primary research and distributed free.

The numbers

The evidence is structural,
not anecdotal.

0%

of Indian adolescent girls are completely unaware of menstruation before their first period

Ujaas Menstrual Health Initiative
0.0%

of women delay seeking medical care for menstruation-related health problems

SSMF Report: Menarche To Menopause, 2025
0M

girls drop out of school in India when menstruation begins — the communication gap has educational consequences that compound across a lifetime

Period Poverty Research, India
0M

Indians on WhatsApp monthly — the largest national user base in the world. None had an adequate vocabulary for this.

WhatsApp Statistics, 2025
0

adequate words exist in everyday Hindi or English conversation for what menstruation actually feels like — not clinical terms, not euphemisms. Words.Zerologic Primary Research, 2024

The research

The silence isn't cultural.
It's linguistic.

Every month, women who want to communicate what they are experiencing during their period frequently cannot find the words — not because of stigma alone, but because the words that exist are either clinical, euphemistic, or borrowed from a tradition that treats menstruation as something to be hidden.

Primary research interviews produced a consistent pattern across ages and backgrounds. The structural failure was the same each time: the support system was present. The communication infrastructure was not.

They had someone to talk to. They didn't have a way to say it.

There is a clinical term for this — alexithymia, literally “no words for feelings.” Research specific to India identifies this gap as both culturally reinforced and neurologically grounded. The design implication: the menstrual communication problem is not only social. It is structural. Structural problems have design solutions.

Read the full research methodology

Primary user interviews across age groups 20–31, market analysis of existing Indian period health products (Avni, Period Buddy, Blossom Kit, Sirona, Nua, Eco Femme), competitive landscape review, and quantitative symptom data analysis across 15 documented menstrual symptoms including tiredness (50.1%), back pain (27.6%), headaches (14.2%), and mood shifts (8%). Secondary research drew from clinical studies on alexithymia and PMS in Indian women, menstrual stigma research from NCBI and SSMF, and WhatsApp platform data from Infobip and Quantumrun Foresight.

The expression system

A vocabulary system in five categories.

Free. For WhatsApp. For every conversation that needed words and had none.

Physical state
Sleepy
Sleepy
Crampsss
Crampsss
Body hurts
Body hurts
It's periods
It's periods
Oops
Oops
Emotional state
Triggered
Triggered
Midnight crisis
Midnight crisis
Seriously
Seriously
Why me?
Why me?
New day
New day
What I need
Huggy
Huggy
Help me
Help me
I need a pad
I need a pad
Attention
Attention
Do not disturb
Do not disturb
Boundaries
Done with you
Done with you
Please, shut up
Please, shut up
Not today
Not today
Period leave
Period leave
Support + gratitude
Hectic but happy
Hectic but happy
Calm
Calm
Oh okay
Oh okay
Almost over
Almost over
I am back
I am back
Share the research

Designed to be sent.

Each card is a standalone 1080×1080 image — for Instagram Stories, WhatsApp Status, or any conversation where this needs to be said.

71%

Unprepared for their first period

Zerologic
91.7%

Delay seeking medical care

Zerologic
23M

Girls drop out when menstruation begins

Zerologic
535M

On WhatsApp. No vocabulary for this.

Zerologic
0

Adequate words in everyday language

Zerologic

Get the sticker pack.
It's free. Always.

Download for WhatsApp. Share with someone who needs it. Or send them this page.

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Open a conversation.

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