Menstrual Hygiene Management Around the World

 

All around the world women must find ways to maintain proper feminine hygiene. How a woman maintains her feminine hygiene here in America may be a little different than how a woman in a developing country maintains her feminine hygiene.

Feminine hygiene is how a woman takes care of her reproductive health and intimate area. When a female menstruates, she uses feminine hygiene products that help her maintain her menstrual blood. The products used during a woman’s cycle are typically tampons and pads that come in varying sizes.

 

Women that lack proper menstrual hygiene management:

According to the Worldbank an estimate of 500 million women lack access to menstrual products and facilities to maintain proper menstrual hygiene. Around the world menstruating women lack access to sanitary pads, tampons, clean water, and private toilets.

12.8% of women and girls worldwide live-in poverty. Women and girls living in poverty often have to choose between purchasing food or purchasing feminine hygiene products. Lacking accessing to menstrual products, sanitation facilities, and clean water affects a woman not only physically but mentally as well. Menstruation is already a vulnerable time and when women go without products to maintain their menstrual blood it can become challenging for them to live life to the fullest, holding them back from work, school, and the ability to be social with other people.

In an article written by Women in International Security, they state that in Lebanon 66% of adolescent girls that were surveyed reported they were financially unable to purchase sanitary pads. In Kenya nearly 76% of women and girls don’t have access to adequate water and sanitation facilities resulting in them being unable to maintain their cycle in a healthy hygienic way. In the same article they state that 33.6% of women and girls in rural India use sanitary pads and many girls find alternative ways to maintain their cycle by using old rags or cloths. In the UK 1 in 10 girls can’t afford to by menstrual products.

In a May 2021 study it was found that 2 in 5 people struggle with access to menstrual products.

 

How women who lack proper menstrual hygiene management maintain their periods:

Women that can’t afford menstrual products or don’t have access to clean sanitation facilities must find ways to maintain their menstrual hygiene. Some women use old rags, newspapers, or cotton cloths to maintain their menstrual blood. Women that don’t have access to clean water risk getting infections, and the women that don’t have access to private restrooms often wait until dark to use the restroom putting their lives at risk.

 

In-Conclusion:

 

Every month women menstruate and each month millions of menstruating women around the world must find ways to maintain their cycle. Whether it is using old rags, dirty water, or missing out on school it is up to them to find a way.

Women in developing countries go without menstrual products the most but women in America also go out without when they are living in poverty. Having a period is not something that women can control it is a natural process that occurs every month to their body, yet women have to find way to make an already vulnerable time in their life a little less vulnerable.

At Ava, introduced by Stetho health Systems, we strive to make every day better for women and young girls living in the communities we operate in because we believe every menstruating woman should have access to proper menstrual hygiene management.