Menstrual Health

Defining Menstrual Health

The state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being in relation to the menstrual cycle.

Core Components:

Awareness of menstruation before experiencing it
Access to a private place to wash and change
Participation in school, work, and social activities during menstruation
Use of menstrual products

Menstrual product access gets a lot of attention in popular movements, but awareness, participation in daily life, and clean facilities are integral as well. Often they are not centered because the topics cannot be neatly packaged and addressed in the same way hygiene products can.

Menstraution in Education Systems

India

One in four girls in India do not attend school while they are menstruating because of a lack of adequate toilets. In addition to that, 23% of young women drop out of school because of their menstrual cycle. This could be because they don't have menstrual products or are unaware of safe menstrual practices. Clearly, there is a gap in access to facilities, products, and knowledge.

Proper education is a large part of closing this gap. Young girls need to be informed about what is happening to their bodies in such a normal process. Often girls become scared of this unknown process and might believe they are sick, abnormal, need to keep it a secret, or are using the wrong products.
Photographed below is a middle school classroom in North Maharashtra, India where students are learing about menstruation from a school teacher trained in sex education and another adult with experience in conducting community0based sex educatio sessions.

United States

While schools in the US have standardized, clean restrooms, the issue of proper education is ever present. This pivotal time in a young girl's life must be informed so as not to create unneccessary stress and stigma. Organizations like the Period Education Project aim to spread awareness to young people and eliminate barriers to menstrual health knowledge.

Lack of funding to public schools can mean there isn't an official "Health" class for students. Laws in certain states can also prohibit the discussion of menstruation and sex in school settings. The legal precedence varies from state to state as this topic is not federally controlled. Lack of knowledge is the first way that young men and women can feel shame around their bodies and put themselves into potentially dangerous situations.
A major controversy in the US around menstrual health education is who should be teaching it to students. Parents might miscommunicate or be uncomfortable with the topic. It is usually expected of schools to be the main source of education, but often it doesn't come early enough to be before girls get their first periods.

Do you have a young child that you would like to start introducing menstruation to?

Here's a guide by UNICEF for 10 things to teach about menstruation!!

https://www.unicef.org/rosa/stories/period-lesson-plan-guide-menstruation-teachers

Participation in Life and Social Acceptance

India

In all parts of the world, there is some sort of stigma around menstruation and India is no exception to that. In some communitites, the practice of Chhaupadi, originating in some Hindu cultures is still around. The idea that a woman on her menstrual cycle is "unclean" means that she must make herself scarce. This rule is practiced differently depending on location, but it can mean she must live in a small hut during her cycle with minimal protection from the elements and bad hygiene. This also removes her from daily life and activities. Not only is she physically ostracized, but mentally as well since she is seen as "dirty" or "unwell". The mental and physical damage this practice can cause is extremely harmful.

---> To read more on this topic, check out this link

United States

Social acceptance in the US is a major struggle for progress in menstrual health. In the early 1900s, advertisements for menstrual products were being made and portraying a woman's cycle to be dirty and unclean. This idea has persisted to today and throughout this time it has been a way to deepen social divides between women as well. The products were most accessible to wealthy white women who could afford them, creating seperation from poorer women and women of color who were now easily marked as unhygienic. We can still see the effects of this effective advertising in the fact that women and girls cannot discuss their periods freely and often feel the need to hide them. Menstrual products only recently started being tested with real blood and advertisements now still use some blue liquid for displays.

Menstrual and Hormonal Conditions

Barriers for participating in everyday life often come in the form of menstrual related illness diagnoses. Polycystic Ovary Syndrome is one condition that is thought to have 70% of affected individuals undiagnosed globally. More is being discovered about this condition as time goes on, but there is still so much unknown. A large factor in that is a lack of research. Women's health has not been a priority for most of human history and research studying women's bodies is extremely new. As priorities shift, the hope is that more will be known about these syndromes and accurate diagnoses will be made. PCOS can have a great affect on a person's life and can impede their ability to work even.

Example of the huts for Chhaupadi practices

Period Myths: DEBUNKED

Click on the image to learn!

Watch the 2018 documentary by Rayka Zehtabchi, which follows the life of women in Kathikera, Hapur in India as they combat stigma surrounding menstruation through the manufacturing and selling of sanitary pads.The project began when students from Oakwood High School in Los Angeles, California raised money and partnered with Zehtabchi and Action India to make the documentary. The women of Kathikera create a sanitary pad company called Fly and make and sell their sanitary pads throughout the village. The film is based on the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham a social activist from Coimbatore who invented a machine that manufactures sanitary pads out of natural, locally-sourced materials at a low cost.The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short in 2019. The film led to the devleopment of the Pad Project, a 'global nonprofit that expands access to menstrual care products, combats period stigma, and champions menstrual equity for all.'

Home - The Pad ProjectThe Pad Project is the nonprofit behind the 2019 Academy Award-winning documentary short Period. End of Sentence.We take a multi-pronged approach to achieving menstrual equity by partnering with grassroots organizations in the U.S. and around the world to establish pad-making enterprises, distribute menstrual products, and implement menstrual health education program

More on Menstrual Product Access

Organizations around the world are working towards making it possible for every woman to get the products she needs for her menstrual cycle. This has been shown to greatly increase the likelyhood a woman will attend school and have a better quality life.

In India, the Menstrual Health Alliance India (MHAI) is making a big impact through action and discussion
In the US, prisons treat menstruation horribly and access to products can be extremely limited; organizations like Reproductive Justice Inside are working against this issue