General Database Information
This is a general description of our databases. Please note that if you want to go to the databases themselves, go to the “Products” tab (for listings of organizations that produce and/or distribute products), the “Education” tab (for educational resources, digital storytelling resources, and listings of organizations that focus on menstrual education), or the “Research” tab (for listings of scholarly resources about MHM.)
All of our data & databases…
→ Are updated on a regular basis by adding new records, but not necessarily in real time. We update the databases when academic calendars allow, usually on a quarterly basis. We will check for broken links on at least an annual basis.
→ Are searchable and filterable by a number of variables (usually country of headquarters and countries of operation, language, type of product, etc.) using a desktop or laptop computer (full search, sort, and filter functionality is not yet available for mobile devices.)
→ Are subject to standard international and U.S. copyright law and citation requirements and conventions. For questions about the usage of IMHER’s information, contact us here. For the use of information from other organizations, contact those organizations directly.
→ Are designed partly as learning opportunities for undergraduate students, in which errors and missteps will be viewed as learning opportunities for our team. As such, readers should consider the information presented here to only be a starting point, rather than ending point, for their own MHM research or marketplace analysis. Always cross-check information using the links we provide directly to a given organization or resource to confirm key information for yourself, using original sources.
Beyond our internal checks, errors and additions are crowd-sourced by readers and users of this website. Please go to our contact page to see how to communicate needed additions, updates, or other changes to IMHER.
Database-specific Information
– For more about the Organizations databases (both product & puberty education organizations), go here.
– For more about the Educational Resources databases, go here
– For more about the Digital Storytelling database, go here
– For more about the Research database, go here
Tips for Database Searches using Computers
All of the same data appears on mobile and stationary devices; however, there are some additional search functions available on desktop and laptop computers that do not exist on mobile phones and tablets. We list the most common locations of the relevant search functions below; however, your browser may display them differently.
To DISPLAY records: Click on a given record to see the full entry.
To FILTER records: On the upper left-hand side corner of the table, click on “filter”. You can “filter” on any criteria that is included in that view (for example, by type of product, or country), meaning that it will then only show you the records that we have coded to fit those characteristics. For organization searches filtering by country, consider checking off “Global” in addition to the particular country of interest, to include large organizations that serve 10 or so countries.
To SORT records: On the upper left-hand side corner of the table, click on “sort.” You can sort based on any of the included variables, and it will redisplay them in your preferred order.
To SEARCH records: On the upper right-hand side corner of the table, use the magnifying glass symbol to find a particular record of interest. It searches not just for organization names, but through any word displayed in the entire record.
Airtable is a cloud-based data management system that powers our databases and most of our forms. For information about the technical requirements for Airtable, please click on this link.
Tips for Searches using Mobile Devices
All of the same information is available on stationary computers and mobile devices. However, it is important to note that filtering, sorting, and searching functions (i.e., to be able to quickly locate a specific organization, or to only see resources written in a given language, or organizations located in a given set of countries) are not possible yet on mobile phones or tablets due to limitations with Airtable, the data program we use to power our databases.