Overview:
- Despite being a biological process, menstruation is wrapped in numerous taboos and notions.
- Period education is crucial to break the stigma and achieve period equity.
- Awareness enables menstruators to speak up, challenge harmful norms, and advocate for change.
- Girl Power USA is working to make period education accessible to combat period poverty.
For ages, society and the world have taught women to feel ashamed of periods. Learning, educating, researching, or even talking about periods has always been discouraged. We need age-appropriate education and awareness about periods to battle the stigmas around menstruation.
Period education refers to teaching the masses accurate information about menstruation, hygiene, and related physical and emotional health aspects. Hence, it is crucial for breaking stigmas, empowering women, and achieving period equity.
Girl Power USA has been constantly educating girls and women about menstruation. Our goal is to make menstrual health education accessible and increase access to menstrual health hygiene to normalize menstruation.
Cultural Taboos and Misconceptions Surrounding Menstruation
A process as natural and biological as menstruation has always been wrapped in false notions and kept isolated. Periods have been described as impure and shameful for women.
How Menstruation is Perceived Around The World
Cultural taboos across the globe have fueled ignorance and myths around menstruation. For instance, in most parts of Africa, menstruating females are prohibited from having interactions with males. Similarly, in several regions of India, women are banned from visiting temples or kitchens. In Latin America and the Middle East, conversation around the topic is considered taboo.
According to The Week (2024), 70% of girls in India find menstruation to be “dirty”. Over 30% of girls experience fear and anxiety due to period taboos. In rural areas, women are kept in huts outside homes without basic amenities. They are prohibited from bathing, cooking, walking, or talking.
Period Stigma Is Still Persistent
Period stigma is different from taboos, which are culturally associated. It is about shame, awkwardness, and misconceptions. In a way, stigmas lead to taboos. Lack of period education and awareness, silent shame, and toxic jokes around periods and gender all rise from period stigma.
Stigma is present all across the globe and continues in countries where there are no strict taboos on menstruation. A poll by Thinx in 2018 says that in the United States, 58% of females are ashamed of their period. From jokes and media portrayals in the West to a lack of education and support in developing regions, stigma extends beyond discomfort. It leads to missed school, poor mental health, and limited policy action on menstrual health.
The Consequences of Inadequate Period Education
Period education is crucial to break stigmas around menstruation. Lack of awareness also leads to unhygienic practices, menstrual disorders and illness, and a negative impact on mental health.
Impact on Academics and Social Disruption
Poor menstrual health education fosters shame and uncertainty, leading to many girls missing school during their periods, particularly in low-resource settings. This further broadens the gender gap, harming academic achievement and confidence.
The stigma also results in social disengagement, loneliness, and low self-esteem, upholding gender inequity from an early age.
Unsafe Periods And Unhygienic Practices
Many menstruators are unaware of proper hygiene procedures because they have not received adequate information. The use of harmful materials such as old cloth, ash, or newspaper can result in infections, rashes, and reproductive health difficulties.
Myths around periods discourage girls from changing their pads frequently or maintaining cleanliness. Hence, it increases the risk of long-term health problems.
Lack of Awareness about Basic Needs
Period education is essential for knowing and exercising menstruation rights, such as hygiene, privacy, dignity, and access to products. Without it, many girls and women accept inferior living conditions, discrimination, and shame as usual. They may not be aware that they can demand clean toilets, free pads, or protection from period-based exclusion.
Awareness enables menstruators to speak up, challenge harmful norms, and advocate for change. Period rights are human rights, and education is the first step in obtaining them.
Breaking the Stigma
Combating period stigma requires shifting both narratives and systems. It can start with normalizing period talk, improving access to products, and including menstruation in health education and workplace policies. This can only be achieved through period education.
Period education doesn’t necessarily need to start from schools, it can start from homes, workplaces, and community gatherings. When problems are discussed, ideas are brainstormed, and solutions are formed. The first step to equality is teaching women to prioritize themselves, their bodies, health, and hygiene.
The Role of Schools in Providing Period Education
Growing up, I watched my biology teachers hesitate and rush through the chapter on menstruation, often skipping key details out of discomfort. Female teachers would quietly pull us aside to discuss hygiene, as if it were a secret and not science. And this was in privileged, urban schools. In many rural and government schools, discussions about periods are outright ignored or considered taboo.
This silence creates a harmful divide around something as natural as menstruation. It chips away at the confidence of young menstruators and teaches boys to see it as something shameful. When a biological process tied to life itself is treated with embarrassment, it fuels a culture where women are undervalued and misunderstood from a young age.
Need for an Inclusive Space
Training teachers to talk freely about periods, menstrual health disorders, hygiene practices, and social stigma is crucial.
According to a study by Plan International, more than 1 in 3 boys think periods should be kept secret. Awareness around menstruation and open discussions can help boys learn to respect women from an early age. Menstruation must be taught in detail, similar to other biology chapters. When teachers teach it comfortably and sensitively, it will foster a healthy curiosity in children.
Schools must provide basic hygiene products like sanitary pads, tampons, and dustbins for girls. A proper toilet must be made in government schools to ensure safety and hygiene.
The Future of Period Education
Period literacy is the first step to creating an inclusive and just world for women.
Collaboration in Universal Period Education
To ensure that every girl, regardless of location or socioeconomic status, gets access to period education, civil society groups, governments, and companies must work together.
-Government policy should require menstrual health instruction in schools and provide funds for free products in public places.
-Nonprofits and grassroots organizations can bridge gaps by holding culturally sensitive community workshops, particularly in distant and underserved areas.
-Businesses, particularly those in healthcare and hygiene, can support programs, provide low-cost or free sanitary goods, and aid in reducing stigma associated with menstruation through advertising and CSR initiatives.
-Public-private partnerships can increase impact by combining legislative support with innovation and resources, ensuring that period education is widely available, inclusive, and sustainable.
The Impact of Girl Power USA in Menstrual Health Education
At Girl Power USA, we believe that menstrual health education is integral to empowering women. From our awareness initiatives, sanitary pad drives, to pad-making workshops, we are creating a change, one step at a time.
Alignment with SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
The third Sustainable Development Goal strives to ensure everyone’s health and well-being. Menstrual health education contributes directly to this goal. Improving menstrual hygiene lowers the risk of infections and reproductive health problems. Breaking down period stigma minimizes shame, anxiety, and social exclusion among females and hence promotes good mental health. Making informed decisions empowers menstruating women to take care of their health responsibly and with dignity.
Through our project—Period Power—we are educating women across Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria on menstruation and period rights. In Kenya and Uganda, we’re equipping women with skills to make sustainable, reusable sanitary kits, a first milestone achieved through our partnership with Together for Better.
Our goal is to empower our beneficiaries to train others in their communities, reaching schools, children’s homes, and local groups. This helps reduce period poverty and improves access to sanitary products in underprivileged areas to establish period equity.
By promoting sustainability and reuse, we not only address menstrual health but also create income-generating opportunities for women, supported by our community of donors and patrons.
Conclusion:
Period education is the foundation of menstrual equity. It breaks down taboos, dispels myths, and provides menstruators with the knowledge they need to care for their bodies with dignity.
Menstrual health awareness is fundamentally concerned with human rights, health, and long-term empowerment. When women understand their menstrual health, they have the confidence to speak for their own needs, make informed decisions, and help others in their communities.
FAQs:
1- Why is period education important?
Period education helps reduce stigma, promote hygiene, and empower menstruators to manage their periods safely and confidently. It also ensures boys and non-menstruators understand and support menstrual health. This helps to build an inclusive and respectful space for women and others who menstruate.
2- Can I go to school/work/exercise during my period?
Yes! Menstruation is natural and should not stop anyone from regular activities. However, pain or stigma can sometimes make participation hard. In case of abdominal pain, make sure to take rest and consult a doctor. Support matters.
3- Can boys and men learn about periods?
Males should learn about periods. Menstrual health education is crucial for all. Understanding periods promotes empathy, reduces stigma, and creates inclusive spaces.
