Understanding Menstrual Hygiene: A Key to Health and Dignity

Understanding Menstrual Hygiene: A Key to Health and Dignity By : Irmak 

Menstrual hygiene is a vital aspect of health and well-being for millions of women and girls

worldwide. However, despite being a natural and essential part of life, menstruation is often

shrouded in stigma, myths, and misinformation, leading to significant health challenges and

social barriers. This article explores the importance of menstrual hygiene, the challenges faced,

and the steps that can be taken to promote better practices and understanding.

What Is Menstrual Hygiene?

Menstrual hygiene refers to the practices associated with the management of menstruation,

including the use of clean menstrual products, access to adequate sanitation facilities, and

proper disposal of used products. It also encompasses the broader need for education and

awareness about menstruation and menstrual health.

Maintaining good menstrual hygiene is crucial for preventing infections, managing discomfort,

and ensuring that women and girls can participate fully in their daily activities, including school,

work, and social interactions.

The Importance of Menstrual Hygiene

1. Health and Well-being: Poor menstrual hygiene can lead to a range of health problems,

including urinary tract infections (UTIs), reproductive tract infections (RTIs), and even

complications that can impact fertility. Using clean menstrual products and maintaining

good hygiene practices reduces the risk of these infections and promotes overall health.

2. Education and Empowerment: Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) is closely

linked to educational outcomes. Girls who do not have access to adequate menstrual

products or sanitation facilities may miss school during their periods, leading to gaps in

their education and affecting their long-term prospects. “Qualitative studies report girls’

fear and humiliation from leaking of blood and body odor, which lead menstruating girls

to absent themselves from school, with little quantitative data confirming this. Cultural

taboos add to girls’ difficulties, preventing them from seeking help, and imposing

restrictions on their diet and activities when menstruating.” By ensuring that girls have

the resources and knowledge they need, we can empower them to stay in school and

achieve their full potential.

3. Dignity and Self-esteem: Stigma and shame surrounding menstruation can have a

profound impact on a girl’s self-esteem and social interactions. Promoting open

conversations about menstruation and providing access to menstrual products helps to

break down these barriers, allowing women and girls to maintain their dignity and feel

confident during their periods.

Challenges in Menstrual Hygiene Management

Despite its importance, menstrual hygiene management faces significant challenges,

particularly in low-income and developing regions:

1. Lack of Access to Menstrual Products: Many women and girls, especially in rural

areas, lack access to affordable and reliable menstrual products. This can lead to the

use of unhygienic materials, such as rags, leaves, or even ash, which increase the risk

of infections and discomfort. “A substantial north-south disparity was found in the

exclusive use of hygienic methods, where the hygienic methods use is considerably low

in the central districts of rural India.”

2. Inadequate Sanitation Facilities: Proper sanitation facilities are essential for managing

menstruation with dignity. In many parts of the world, schools, workplaces, and public

spaces do not have clean, private toilets or facilities for washing and changing. This lack

of infrastructure can make it difficult for women and girls to manage their periods

effectively.

3. Cultural Stigma and Taboos: In many cultures, menstruation is considered a taboo

subject, surrounded by myths and misinformation. These cultural norms can prevent

women and girls from seeking the information and resources they need, leading to

feelings of shame and isolation. In some cases, menstruating women and girls are even

excluded from social activities or forced into seclusion, further perpetuating the stigma.

4. Education Gaps: Comprehensive education about menstruation and menstrual hygiene

is often lacking in schools and communities. Many girls receive little or no information

about menstruation before they experience their first period, leading to confusion, fear,

and unhealthy practices. “In a systematic review and meta-analysis on menstrual

hygiene management among adolescent girls in India, it was found that strengthening of

MHM programmes in India is needed. Education on awareness, access to hygienic

absorbents, and disposal of MHM items need to be addressed.”

Steps to Improve Menstrual Hygiene

Addressing the challenges of menstrual hygiene requires a multifaceted approach that includes

education, infrastructure, and policy changes. Here are some key steps that can be taken:

1. Education and Awareness: Providing comprehensive education about menstruation is

critical. Schools should include menstrual health in their curricula, ensuring that both girls

and boys understand the biological process and the importance of hygiene.

Community-based programs can also play a role in breaking down stigma and

encouraging open conversations about menstruation.

2. Improved Access to Menstrual Products: Governments, NGOs, and private sector

partners can work together to ensure that menstrual products are affordable and

accessible to all women and girls. This may include distributing free or financially

supported products in schools and communities, as well as promoting the use of

sustainable options like menstrual cups and reusable pads. “Empowering adolescent

women and promoting their education would yield greater results in increasing the level

of exclusive use of hygienic methods in rural India.”

3. Better Sanitation Facilities: Investing in sanitation infrastructure is essential for

effective menstrual hygiene management. This includes building clean, private toilets

with water and soap for washing, as well as facilities for the safe disposal of menstrual

products. Schools, workplaces, and public spaces must prioritize these needs to support

women and girls.

4. Policy and Advocacy: Governments must recognize menstrual hygiene as a public

health and human rights issue. This includes implementing policies that ensure access

to menstrual products, providing menstrual education in schools, and addressing the

broader issues of gender inequality that contribute to stigma and discrimination.

Conclusion

Menstrual hygiene is not just a health issue; it is a matter of dignity, empowerment, and equality.

“By addressing the challenges of menstrual hygiene management, we can ensure that all

women and girls have the opportunity to lead healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives.” It is time to

break the silence, dispel the myths, and create a world where menstruation is understood,

managed, and respected as a natural and essential part of life.

Sources:

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14622-7 : Menstrual hygiene practices among adolescent

women in rural India: a cross-sectional study, Singh et al. BMC Public Health

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-021-01082-2 : The state of adolescent menstrual health in lowand

middle-income countries and suggestions for future action and research, Plesons et al.

Reprod Health

What is early puberty?

Understanding Early Puberty: Causes, Implications, and Management

Early puberty, also known as precocious puberty, is a condition where children experience the

physical and hormonal changes of puberty at an unusually young age. Typically, puberty begins

between ages 9 and 14 for girls and 10 and 15 for boys. When these changes occur before age

9 in girls or before age 10 in boys, it is considered early puberty.

Causes of Early Puberty

The causes of early puberty can be categorized into central and peripheral types. Central

precocious puberty is triggered by an early activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal

(HPG) axis, which regulates puberty. This can result from genetic factors, tumors, or lesions in

the brain, but in many cases, the exact cause remains unknown. Peripheral precocious puberty

occurs when sex hormones are produced outside the normal control of the HPG axis, often due

to conditions such as adrenal gland disorders or ovarian cysts.

Implications for Physical and Emotional Health

Early puberty can have several implications for a child’s health. Physically, it can lead to

accelerated growth, which might result in a shorter adult height due to early closure of growth

plates. Emotional and psychological effects can be significant as well. Children undergoing early

puberty might struggle with body image issues and social challenges, including feeling different

from their peers or facing premature sexual attention.

Management and Treatment

Management of early puberty often involves addressing the underlying cause, if identifiable. In

cases where no specific cause is found, treatment may focus on halting or slowing the

progression of puberty to allow for more normal growth and development. This is typically done

using medications which inhibit the release of sex hormones.

It is also crucial to provide emotional support and counseling to children experiencing early

puberty. They may need help coping with the social and emotional changes that come with early

development. Educating parents and caregivers about the condition and involving them in the

treatment plan is essential for effective management.

Conclusion

Early puberty is a complex condition with potential physical and emotional impacts on children.

Understanding the causes and implications is vital for appropriate management. Early

intervention and support can help mitigate the effects and ensure that children navigate this

challenging period with greater ease and well-being.

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Menstrual Hygiene Workshop In Gurgaon

Menstrual Hygiene Project Based on our Research Survey Results we conducted Workshop In Gurgaon and Delhi Schools. Followed by Gifts , Sanitary Pads , WASH Booklets and Menstrual Hygiene Posters To Schools and Children. 

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WaSH & MHM Workshop In Ghaziabad

WaSH & MHM Workshop In Ghaziabad ,Uttar Pradesh Schools and Distributed Sanitary pads and WASH & MH Booklet .

WASH ,Child Marriage & Menstrual Hygiene Workshop

WASH ,Child Marriage & Menstrual Hygiene Workshop & Distributed Sanitary pads ,WASH and MH Booklet and Posters In Gurgaon Schools !

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Stop Child Marriage & Menstrual Hygiene Workshop L.S School Gurgaon

WASH ,Child Marriage & Menstrual Hygiene Workshop & Distributed Sanitary pads ,WASH and MH Booklet and Posters In Gurgaon Schools !

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LET ME SAY “MENSTRUATION”. Hygiene education for facing cultural taboos.

Nowadays, our society still finds difficult to tackle the "menstruation" discourse. Although they are natural, cyclical and common in every woman, even today it is not easy to talk freely about this topic. All over the world, the female gender must face something that represents them negatively every month. In the United States, a research was carried out in the 1990s in which it was sought to understand what the opinion among students was about menstruation. As if they are something natural, they are at the same time annoying. Women during the period should lead their lives normally without having to show menstruation. Thus, instead of celebrating the cyclical nature of being a woman, they must ignore the phenomenon so as not to neglect husband, children and work. On the contrary, however, during the menstrual cycle a woman undergoes strong hormonal changes, the body consumes a lot of energy and the feeling of exhaustion is stronger than usual, the area of ​​the belly at the uterus swells and often hurts, indeed many women suffer from very intense pains in the lower abdomen (premenstrual syndrome).In short, for about six to eight days a month, woman undergoes a change in her body. She can lead her life normally but that does not mean she has to hide what she is going through. What we are talking about is recognized as a cultural taboo. This is also demonstrated by the use of different euphemisms such as "menses" or "period" or the prestige games that women make to go to the bathroom with a sanitary napkin to change, hoping to avoid to show it. The social exclusion of women during menstruation is rooted in many cultures but a particular cultural taboo is recognized in India. Menstruation, in addition to being an "off-limits" topic in education, also find a lack of facilities that together exacerbate the maintenance of intimate hygiene. Behind social exclusion and cultural taboos, religious and cultural practices play an important role.In fact, during menstruation many women cannot perform normal religious functions, Muslims cannot touch the Koran and many cannot enter places of worship where to pray. 

We are talking taboo because many women are not informed before the menarche to prepare themselves psychologically. In fact, many girls when they have the cycle for the first time remain traumatized by what happens to them. According to a purely cultural aspect, everything that expels our body is impure and dirty, which is why our body intends to eliminate it by making it come out. This means that menstruation is something dirty and impure that comes out of a woman's body and is itself impure and dirty. In India, many women when they have the cycle cannot enter the kitchen and cook because they can spread "diseases", touch the fruit or vegetables because they become rotten, or they poison the food; they cannot touch plants because they die, but not even sacred animals.

The first experience of the menstrual cycle is not pleasant: you lose for the first time a lot of blood from parts of your body little known; the pain can be mild but annoying and you do not know what you're feeling pain for; you do not know what to wear because your clothes are stained and you cannot walk without having something that can absorb the blood; It's embarrassing because you do not want anyone to know, otherwise you could be judged. Think about it without having ever heard about “Menstruation”. Many girls could think about an illness.

According to a purely cultural aspect, everything that expels our body is impure and dirty, which is why our body intends to eliminate it by making it come out. It’s true, our body is programmed to expel the impurities, but the fact that it is capable of it is a positive aspect.However, this means that menstruation is considered as something dirty and impure that comes out of a woman's body and is itself impure and dirty. In India, many women when they have the cycle cannot enter the kitchen and cook because they can spread "diseases", touch the fruit or vegetables because they become rotten, or they poison the food; they cannot touch plants because they die, also sacred animals.

However, the problem gets worse when girls in schools do not have separate baths and only about half of the schools in India own them. Without separate baths the girls have no privacy to wash or change their dirty clothes. Furthermore, in rural areas girls do not have sanitary towels, they use dirty fabrics, sand, sawdust, dust, leaves to tamp with menstrual flow and use water to contaminate to wash their private parts. All this causes vaginal infections or sexually transmitted diseases that, due to embarrassment, are not treated.

As a result, 113 million young girls leave school when they reach puberty. A recurring fact is that only 12%, out of a total of about 350 million women who have a menstrual cycle, use sanitary pads, above all for their high cost, unattainable for the lower caste. To counter this situation, campaigns are taking place in the country to make the sanitary towels accessible to all women and above all to spread education in schools. In fact, the idea of ​​HEEALS NGO is to start from the education of Menstrual Cycle Management in schools and distribute absorbers to girls in village and rural schools. Education is a fundamental element for the awareness of girls who often find themselves facing a traumatic and panic experience during their first menstrual cycle. In fact, according to the 2016 international weekly magazine Newsweek, 70% of girls in India have never heard of menstruation before their arrival. Keeping girls from the menstrual cycle in the dark is also due to the desire to prevent awareness of their sexuality and the possibility of becoming mothers. This attitude is adopted especially in rural areas where girls are given in brides at 13-14 years as soon as they have menstruated and consequently leave school. The achievement of puberty is seen as the right time to start taking care of the family and looking after the home professions.

Finally, although it is one of the most natural thing in the world, in India, as in several other countries and for several religions, the menstrual cycle remains a taboo. The woman "in those days" is isolated from society, or feels uncomfortable in the environment in which she lives. For this reason there are awareness campaigns such as that of Sushmita Dev, a politician and a member of the Indian National Congress, which intends to guarantee Indian women the possibility of having free sanitary towels. In addition, various humanitarian organizations, such as HEEALS, have begun to make available free or low-cost women's sanitary napkins and awareness campaigns to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal no 5 for gender equality, hoping to make women free to express themselves, guaranteeing them the right to feel the benefits from awareness by giving the correct education to face personal intimate hygiene as any other day.

Elisa Stucchi-

Why Menstrual Hygiene Management Matters Most !

Toilet For Healthier, Dignified And Free Life

The possibility of access to safe, accessible and clean sanitary facilities reperesent an added value to the dignity of man and, in this particular context, of women.

In India, one of the greatest challenges is to provide women the opportunity to use safe and functional toilets to manage their personal hygiene. Many people in India are forced to defecate outdoors which not only corresponds to a lack of privacy but also to a mismanagement of hygiene because there isn’t clean water available to wash your hands and clean the body after defecation.

Although the Indian state is engaging through the Swachh Bharat mission undertaken on 2^nd of October, 2014 to ensure that the entire Indian population has the benefit of being able to use safe toilets,still today, access to clean water and sanitation is a great problem.In India, about 522 million people still defecate in the open, increasing the risk of spreading diseases like diarrhoea and other types of viruses, not being able to wash their hands and walk for the most part barefoot.According to Indian government data mission the percentage of children who do not have access to the toilet corresponds to 50.2% of males 44.6% of females compared to those who instead use accessible baths that account for 26% of males and 24% of females.Although the state is committed to providing more infrastructure, the problem affects more deepen in the socio-cultural and educational aspect. More specifically, this factor affects the dignity of women and respect for gender equality.

Women who live in rural areas and in suburban villages that do not have toilets, often reduce themselves keeping their physiological needs until the night, and look for a land abandoned, miles away from home in the complete darkness to be able to relieve themselves. This, however, exposes them to a high risk not only to contract parasitic diseases but also to the nights dangers, as ill-intentioned that would sexually abuse them or would like to rob them.According to research, 70% of abused women suffered this type of violence while looking for a place to defecate far from their home.

Keeping the physiological needs, brings serious consequences to metabolism, requiring your body an unnatural effort that causes infections both in the urinary tract and in the intestine due to the bacteria not expelled for too long by our body. According to the Indian Medical Association, retaining physiological needs for a long time, and not expelling them when the body requires, itcan also cause the intestine to collapse as well as the lack of assimilation of nutrients. Indeed, some data reported by the Indian government in 2013 show that 33.5% of women in the state of Andhra Pradesh weigh below the threshold established by the World Health Organization (WHO), also declaring that the% 63 of women suffer from anaemia such as % 56.4 of pregnant women, while men reach 20%.The Indian Medical Association also added that resisting to defecate necessity provoke and accumulation of gases in the intestine that damage the inner bacterial flora which becomes weak and don’t protect the intestine from intestinal virus and bacterial infections easily verifiable in case of bad quality of the water. Data show that, 1.7 million cases of diarrhoeal diseases were registered in Andhra Pradesh in 2013, more than half of them in women.

Hygiene Education and the good practices.

The absence of a toilets or a latrine where to defecate, also means not having available clean water to be able to wash hands after defecating. This means that the faeces bacteria are transferred to the hands and contaminate everything that the hands touch, like the food that women cook. Being able to manage one's own hygiene is fundamental in order to avoid many infectious diseases. However, it is necessary to explain the value of this practice, because unfortunately it is not common, especially for those used to defecate in the open. The importance of disease prevention is often not understood because it changes the practices of common use which contrast the willingness to use latrines because they are considered dirty. It is important to act through education and teaching also at school level of which are the unfortunate causes caused by a lack of personal hygiene and defecation outdoors. In this respect, the intervention of many NGOs, such as HEEAL, is vital for the purpose of learning and achieving hygiene practices. In fact, for HEEALS the objectives are schools, where children are the right age to fully understand and not have already rooted improper practices, difficult to change. Through interactive lessons, Heeals promotes and supports personal hygiene education and adequate water use, in order to guarantee children, and adults who learn from children, a healthier life by avoiding many diseases.

-Elisa Stucchi.

Menstrual hygiene management workshop

Menstrual hygiene management workshop was organized in Gurgaon & Uttar Pradesh schools and distributed sanitary pads

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Agriculture and Indian Farmer

Research work done on agriculture and Indian Farmer !

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