Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

1.1. Menstrual Portal (“we,” “us,” “our”) is an educational platform about menstrual and reproductive health. This policy applies to menstrualportal.com and everything we do through it.

1.2. Menstrual Portal is operated by a qualified team of doctors who are responsible for your information under this policy. In privacy law, that role is called the “data controller.” You can reach us at help@menstrualportal.com.

1.3. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over it.

2. The information we collect

We collect two kinds of information: A little that arrives automatically, and whatever you choose to give us.

2.1. Information we collect automatically. When you visit the site, our systems and tools receive standard technical information, such as your IP address, browser type, device, time zone, the pages you view, how you arrived, and how you move through the site. Some of this comes through cookies (see section 5).

2.2. Information you give us when you ask a question. When you use Ask a Doctor, we collect your name, your email address, an age range, whether you’re asking for yourself or someone else, and the question itself. We also record which permissions you gave, including whether you agreed to our doctors reviewing the question, to being emailed the answer, to our Terms of Use, and, optionally, to publication. Your question may contain health information. See section 3.

2.3. Information you give us when you subscribe. If you join our newsletter, we collect your email address and a record of your consent, so we can show when and how you opted in.

2.4. Information you give us when you create an account. If you create an account to read your answers, we hold your email address and sign you in using a link sent to that address rather than a password. We keep a short security log of sign-in activity.

2.5. Information you give us in reviews and messages. If you leave a review, share a story, or email us, we keep what you send and the address you sent it from.

2.6. We don’t collect payment details, because we don’t sell anything on this site.

3. Health information, and your permission

3.1. A question about your body, your cycle, your symptoms or your reproductive health is health information. The law treats it as especially sensitive, and so do we.

3.2. We only collect it because you chose to send it to us, and we treat that choice as your explicit consent to us handling that information for the purpose of answering you. You don’t have to give us any health information to read the site. It’s only collected when you decide to ask a question.

3.3. We use health information you send us only to review and answer your question, and, if you gave that specific permission, to publish it in anonymized form as described in section 7. We do not use it for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not share it except with the providers who help us operate the site (section 6).

3.4. You can withdraw your consent at any time by emailing help@menstrualportal.com. Withdrawing consent doesn’t undo anything we did before you withdrew it, but it stops any further use.

4. How we use your information

4.1. We use the information we collect to:

• Answer the questions you send us, and email you the answer
• Run, maintain, secure and improve the site
• Send you the newsletter, if you asked for it
• Operate your account and sign you in
• Publish anonymized questions and answers, where you gave permission (section 7)
• Understand how the site is used, in aggregate, so we can make it better
• Show advertising that helps keep the site free (section 5)
• Respond to you when you contact us, and meet our legal obligations

4.2. If you’re in the UK or EU, the legal bases we rely on are: Your explicit consent for health information and for the newsletter; consent for non-essential cookies, analytics and advertising; the performance of our agreement with you to run your account and answer your question; and our legitimate interests in keeping the site secure and working, balanced against your rights.

5. Cookies, analytics and advertising

5.1. Cookies are small files placed on your device that help a site function and help its owners understand how it’s used. When you first visit, we ask your choice about non-essential cookies, and you can change it at any time.

5.2. Essential cookies keep the site working. For example, they remember your cookie choice and keep you signed in. These are always on because the site can’t run without them.

5.3. Analytics cookies help us see, in aggregate, how people use the site. We use Google Analytics for this. It sets its own cookies and processes data under Google’s own privacy terms, which you can read at policies.google.com/privacy. We use analytics only if you’ve accepted it.

5.4. Advertising cookies. We show ads on some article pages through Google AdSense, which helps keep the site free to read. Google and its advertising partners may set cookies to display ads and, where you allow it, to make them more relevant based on your visits to this and other sites. These advertising cookies are only set if you accept them through our cookie banner. You can review or withdraw that choice at any time, and you can opt out of personalized advertising through Google’s Ad Settings (adssettings.google.com) or aboutads.info. We never share the health question you send us for advertising.

6. Who we share your information with

6.1. We do not sell your information, and we share it only with the providers who help us run the site, each of which handles it under a contract that limits them to what we ask:

• WPX Hosting: Our hosting provider stores the site and its data.
• Postmark: Our email provider delivers the answer to your question and other service emails on our behalf.
• MailerLite: Our newsletter provider manages our mailing list and sends the newsletter.
• Google Analytics: It processes site-usage data as described in section 5.
• Google AdSense: It serves the ads you see on some pages and may use cookies as described in section 5.

6.2. We may also disclose information if the law requires it, to protect someone’s safety, or to enforce our Terms of Use, including, as those terms explain, taking appropriate steps if we believe someone (particularly a child) is at risk of serious harm.

6.3. If our business is ever transferred or reorganized, information may pass to the successor, who would remain bound by this policy or one at least as protective.

7. When we publish questions

7.1. Some questions and answers are published on the site so they can help other readers. This only happens if you checked the optional box giving permission when you asked. You can ask a question without agreeing to this, and we’ll still answer you.

7.2. Before anything is published, we remove your name, your email address, and details that could identify you, and we review it before it goes live. We take that seriously, but no anonymization is perfect, so please avoid putting identifying details in the question itself.

7.3. Questions from anyone under 18 are never published.

7.4. Our Terms of Use, section 7, explain the publishing arrangement in full.

8. Children’s privacy

8.1. Anyone can read Menstrual Portal, but you must be at least 13 to send us anything. We do not knowingly collect any information from children under 13. Our question form asks for an age range and does not accept submissions from under-13s, and no record is created for them.

8.2. If we learn that we’ve collected information from a child under 13, we delete it promptly. If you believe a child under 13 has sent us something, please tell us at help@menstrualportal.com and we’ll remove it.

8.3. For readers aged 13 to 17, we encourage the involvement of a parent or guardian, we take extra care with what we publish, and, as noted above, we never publish a question from anyone under 18.

9. How long we keep your information

9.1. We keep information only as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it, then delete it or fully anonymize it.

9.2. In practice:

• Answered health questions: Kept for 24 months, then deleted or fully anonymized.
• Questions we declined or couldn’t answer: Kept for 6 months, then deleted.
• Newsletter email address: Kept until you unsubscribe, after which we keep a minimal record of your opt-out so we can honor it.
• Account information: Kept while your account is active, and deleted 30 days after it’s closed.
• Sign-in and security logs: Kept for 90 days, then deleted.
• Analytics data: Retained for 14 months, in line with our Google Analytics settings.

9.3. Published anonymized questions and answers (section 7) are kept as part of our library. Once anonymized they no longer identify you, but if you ask us to erase your information, we will also remove the published version, as explained in section 11.

10. Your privacy rights

10.1. Everyone, wherever you live, can email us to ask what we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, or to unsubscribe. We’ll always help.

10.2. If you live in the United States, your rights depend on your state, and several states, including California, Virginia, Colorado and Connecticut, now give you rights to know what personal information we collect, to access and delete it, to correct it, and to opt out of its sale or of certain sharing. We don’t sell your information for money, and we never sell or share the health information you send us. As section 12 explains, though, the advertising on our pages can count as “sharing” under some state laws, and you can opt out at any time. We treat health information as sensitive. If you’re a California resident, you also have the right not to be treated differently for exercising these rights.

10.3. If you live in the UK or EU, you have rights under the UK GDPR and GDPR to access your information, correct it, erase it, restrict or object to how we use it, receive a copy in a portable form, and withdraw consent at any time. You also have the right to complain to your data protection authority. In the UK, that is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk).

10.4. If you live in Australia, you have rights under the Australian Privacy Principles to access and correct your information, and to complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).

11. How to exercise your rights

11.1. To use any of these rights, email help@menstrualportal.com and tell us what you’d like. We may need to confirm your identity, usually just by contacting you at the email address on file, so we don’t hand your information to the wrong person.

11.2. We’ll respond within the time the law allows (generally 30 to 45 days depending on where you live), and we won’t charge you unless a request is clearly excessive or repetitive.

11.3. If you ask us to erase your information, we delete the identifiable records we hold: Your question, your email, your account. We also remove any question of yours that we had published anonymously, even though the published version no longer identifies you. We’ll confirm when it’s done.

12. Selling and sharing your information

12.1. We do not sell your personal information for money, and we never sell or share the health information you send us when you ask a question.

12.2. We do show advertising through Google AdSense (see section 5). When those ads are personalized, the advertising cookies involved can count as “selling” or “sharing” personal information under some US state privacy laws, even though no money changes hands, and even though we never pass on your name, your email, or the health question you sent us. You can opt out at any time: Decline advertising cookies in our cookie banner, use Google’s Ad Settings (adssettings.google.com), or visit aboutads.info. If you’re a California resident, you can treat this as exercising your right to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information.

13. Keeping your information secure

13.1. We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including limiting who can access it and securing the connection to the site. No method of transmitting or storing data is completely secure, so we can’t promise absolute security, but we take it seriously and we keep our approach under review.

13.2. If a breach ever affected your information in a way the law requires us to disclose, we would notify you and the relevant authority as required.

14. Where your information is processed

14.1. We operate the site from outside the United States, and some of the providers who help us run it, including Postmark and Google, process information in the United States and other countries. This means your information may be transferred to, and handled in, a country other than your own.

14.2. Where the law requires it, we rely on appropriate safeguards (such as standard contractual clauses) for those transfers. By using the site and sending us information, you understand that it will be processed as described here.

15. Affiliate links

15.1. Some links on the site are affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you buy something after clicking through, at no extra cost to you. This never influences what our doctors recommend or how our content is written, and it doesn’t change the price you pay. We only point to things we believe in, and we’d always encourage you to do your own research before buying.

16. Links to other websites

16.1. We link to other sites we think are useful, but we don’t control them and aren’t responsible for their content or their privacy practices. When you follow a link away from us, that site’s own privacy policy applies. We’d encourage you to read it.

17. Changes to this policy

17.1. We may update this policy from time to time, to reflect a change in how we work, a new provider, or a legal requirement. When we make a material change, we’ll update the date at the top and, where it significantly affects you, take reasonable steps to let you know. Using the site after a change means you accept the updated policy.

18. How to contact us

18.1. For anything about your privacy or this policy, including any request about your information, email us at help@menstrualportal.com and a person will get back to you.