When a Period Ends More Than A Sentence

Thatcher Mweu is a high school sophomore at Choate Rosemary Hall, a prestigious New England boarding school. Two years ago, she was living in a rural Kenyan village. Introducing the new class of 2011, Choate's headmaster told the school of its deepening diversity--there was a girl who had never been in an elevator before. What he didn't know is that Thatcher had never seen a tampon before, either.

Despite the fact that half the world menstruates, most people overlook the serious repercussions of a lack of affordable sanitary supplies in developing countries. The reason? Most people don't know that it is a problem. Others find the subject embarrassing. Even those who do understand think there are more pressing problems at hand. Why spend money on pads when AIDS remains to be solved, when countries desperately need infrastructure, when the economy is collapsing? Because it turns out that providing pads does much more than prevent embarrassing stains. It is a simple solution that can change the standing of a gender, and thus an economy, across a continent.

In the US, sanitary pads first became widespread in 1921, tampons in 1936. As a result girls and women had the opportunity to fully participate in school, sports, and the workforce. These products equaled freedom. And this is why many women say tampons are one of the greatest inventions of all time. They effectively reduced the inconvenience, opportunity cost, and stigma of menstruation.

But in developing countries, periods continue to be a serious handicap. According to UNICEF, ten percent of school-age African girls miss school because of a lack of access to affordable sanitary products. In Rwanda, it's much worse. According to on-the-ground research by Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE), half the girls are missing school due to menstruation and the main reason given is that sanitary pads are too expensive. For women, 24% miss work--up to 45 days per year--for the same reason. This not only limits girls' educational and women's professional achievement, but leads to a significant economic loss for nations. SHE estimates that a lack of affordable sanitary pads reduces GDP by $115 million per year in Rwanda alone.

There are also serious health repercussions of not having pads. In Asia, many women still use rags; less fortunate ones use newspapers, banana leaves, even sand or ash. While rags were common before the pad was invented, the problem in developing countries is that often women don't have access to clean water to wash them. And the taboo of menstruation means that many women cannot hang their rags to dry in the open. So, instead, they hide them in dark, damp places where no one will find them. As one might imagine, infections are rampant.

The first step is to destigmatize menstruation. Bringing periods into the open won't be easy. The taboo of menstruation is embedded in our religions, culture, and history. The Quran declares that menstruating women "are a hurt and a pollution." Indian women are exiled from their own homes. Orthodox Jewish women are forbidden to have sex. French housewives can't make mayonnaise. In ancient Rome, Pliny the Elder wrote that contact with menstrual blood "turns new wine sour, crops touched by it become barren, grafts die, ..., the edge of steel and the gleam of ivory are dulled." Today, Pliny seems ridiculous, but discrimination and ignorance remain.

To change attitudes means breaking the silence. Our hope is that this article will help start a dialogue with the women and men around you. Almost every woman remembers her first period--where and when it happened, who, if anyone, she told, and even what she was wearing. Girls should know the stories of the women in their family. Sharing these stories will help mothers and daughters (and dads, too) talk more openly about this natural process.

Equally important is to change the economy of menstruation. Sanitary pads should be affordable and safe. This is an investment not only in women, but economies.

Thirty years ago, Gloria Steinem published one of her most famous essays, If Men Could Menstruate. There would be no taboos. Men would brag about how long and how much. And sanitary supplies would be federally funded and free. It's time we do a better job helping our sisters around the world. P&G is contributing $5 million over five years to provide sanity supplies in Africa. SHE is jump-starting local businesses to produce affordable sanitary supplies around the globe. Individually, we can all help end the taboo by talking. These are the ways to truly celebrate International Women's Day.

Comments

[Hopetohelp]

Do you readers know that a family here in the U.S. which only receives food stamps cannot use them to buy sanitary supplies (nor can they purchase toilet paper, laundry detergent, shampoo...) Comment from a middle schooler to the social worker asking why she was not in school, "What do you want me to do - bleed all over the school?" The only way food stamp usage can be expanded to items which most of us take for granted is to have Congress pass a law. How about writing your Congresspersons and ask for their help on this?

[seiwu]

I have enjoyed reading everybody's comments and learning what other women think/feel about this topic. I do believe that all women everywhere need to have the same options for dealing with menstruation and sanitary conditions/clean water are needed. I also, however pine for a society that would support me in choosing not to leave my home when I bleed. I detest having to leave home when blood is pouring from my body, I am weak, experiencing pain and generally feeling introverted. For many women, menstruation is a time of creativity, contemplation and sensitivity. I am not ashamed of bleeding and it is insane that any of us ever should be made to feel so but there is also nothing shameful about resting a body that is weak, taxed and in essence detoxifying. I am not saying that remaining "hidden" during this time should be required, many women prefer to remain active, but if a body is in need of rest, which many menstruating bodies are, women should not be made to feel as though we are lazy or weak willed.
So while I support assisting women everywhere to good sanitary protection, I also favor supporting women who choose rest and care for their bodies. Schools can support this by preparing lessons girls can complete at home and workplaces might also fashion a solution for women who need that down time. If leave is allowed for maternity reasons it should be feasible to support women in this too.

[neighborhoodmole]

There is no reason for a woman to have a period today unless she is trying to get pregnant.
Daily use of low dose combo (estrogen/­progestero­ne) pills can be taken safely indefinitely and
will prevent periods and pregnancy. My gynocologist says that this secret has been known
since the 1960's but most women are not informed about this option. She says that having a
period every month for 30 years is unnatural, women were designed to be pregnant or lactating
most of that time. If you don't want that, it is actually more natural and safer to stay on a
constant low dose of hormones. It will also lower your chance of uterine and ovarian cancer,
since these organs will not be cycling for 30 years. So if affordable, generic birth control pills
that have an active dose in every pill were made available to women around the world, that
could be cheaper and simpler and allow them to remain productive. When they are ready to
plan a child, they just stop taking the pills. I also believe that poverty could be wiped out
world-wide in one generation if women delayed having a child until they were 30 or had the
money and resources to support one. Universal access to affordable birth control pills could
make this a reality in our life time.

[MJinCanada]

Pregnancies after age 30 have more complications. Early to mid-twenties are the safest.

Once upon a time, when we were hunters and gatherers, women did not have periods while breastfeeding, up to three or four years. Nature made sure women didn't have to carry two babies from camp to camp. Settling down with a sufficient diet with plenty of carbohydrates changed that.

[LadyAurora]

I started taking birth control when I was 15. I took it just about everyday for over 20 years. I never had children (and don't plan on it). When I was in my late 30's I started having symptoms of pre-menapause (not sleeping very well, no sex drive, hot flashes, etc.). My gynnocologist said to stop taking the pills (by that time I was on a very low-does pill). After about two months, my symptoms went away and everything has been back to normal.

So staying on the pill for too long can be problematic. So I disagree with you that " it is actually more natural and safer to stay on a constant low dose of hormones".

[Elizabeth Scharpf]

Great discussion all around!

The value added tax on pads and other fem hygiene products continues to be a problem. While some countries have abolished them, others continue to tax these products 10-20%. There's definitely an opportunity for governments around the world to get involved in exactly what we are discussing today by changing their tax policies.

[SusanMontreal]

Here is a story about Congolese refugees in Uganda making sanitary pads from papyrus.

www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45797

"Bagging papyrus - women are creating livelihoods and providing an affordable alternative for menstrual hygiene.... the manufacturing process for these innovative pads was developed by Dr Moses Kiiza Musaazi at Makerere University in Kampala. Refugees at Kyaka 2 make around a thousand pads a day using nothing more than reeds harvested from a nearby swamp, waste paper and water, processed with human-powered machinery designed and manufactured by the Faculty of Technology at Makerere"

[MJinCanada]

Great idea. Papyrus was the original disposable "paper."

[scensibles]

This is not just a problem in developing countries but right here in the USA. Did you know that food stamps can not be used to purchase sanitary pads or tampons? Girls in this country stay home from school when they have their periods, resort to using wads of toilet paper or do not change their products as often as they should. You will be shocked by the following list of items ~many are highly priced~ that can not be purchased with food stamps. Besides tampons and sanitary pads, they include toilet paper ,toothbrushes ,toothpaste deodorant, shampoo, bar soap, razors, shaving cream ,condoms, and dental floss .

Helping girls in Africa is fantastic but we must start raising awareness that this is a problem in the US as well.

[ohjodi]

That's why they're called food stamps.

[Andie Olivia]

Eh, I keep seeing claims that companies put things in tampons to cause heavier bleeding for profit$, but can anyone provide a link to a for-real science report that states this? I don't need a lot of convincing, just something more substantial than email rumor.

I've no love for the things but I absolutely hated pads and I'll keep using tampons unless I can find something better.

[Victoria-nola]

Agree that clean water is what everyone needs and that should be a world priority.

Something not addressed in the article is that HIV+ women are in an even greater quandary-- their menstrual blood is (I think still) considered a biohazard. So clean water should be the world's agenda.

[Megan White]

Commendable work! My journey over 8 years in Kenya working with girls led me to talk about this issue – and do something. I knew the solution must be environmentally friendly in its creation and disposal, and must work with government.

Through Rotary, I helped launch the National Sanitary Towels Campaign (2005), and sit on the National Sanitary Towels Campaign Coordinating Committee. I began ZanaAfrica (2007) to find the tools (= “Zana” in Kiswahili) within Africa to solve challenges of poverty. We’re working with local inventors to improve and scale up their products. We as the West have so much to learn from African innovations.

Our affordable pads are organic, fair trade, and can be used as fertilizer. Every woman goes through 7 lbs of sanitary pads in just a year. It would be truly deplorable of us in the West to promote sanitary pads neither from local resources nor environmentally friendly.

ZanaA is further advocating 1) for the Ministry of Education to budget for sanitary pads as a basic school supply for girls and 2) the East Africa Bureau of Standards to include waste management as a requirement for all sanitary pads and diapers.

Only 26 girls scored in the top 100 in this year’s high school results, yet 46% of students are girls. Menstruation is a major cause of poor performance: 868,000 girls lose 3.5 million learning days every month. They can reach their destiny, but they must have the tools to do so.

www.zanaafrica.org.

[Victoria-nola]

Fantastic work! So glad to learn of it. You address the issues spot on.

[amp27]

pun intended?

p.s. the link above for www.zanaafrica.org needs to lose the period at the end

[MomfromTexas]

I just checked out your organization on the internet. It sounds great! Congratulations to all of you for coming up with this solution!

[SageFire]

Bless you for this work! Menstruation in our household when our girls were growing up was a time of comfort and rest, and the first one was marked with a nice blanket and a meal out. It is heartbreaking to me that women and girls in the world are treated like this.

[MJinCanada]

Bookmarked the site. When I have a few spare bucks I'll make a donation.

[tc2598]

I assume then, that you've read the stimulus package front to back, that you haven't just been given the gist of it by your television? Because seriously, that's the only way you'd be qualified to judge the items in it.

For my part, I usually refrain from barking like a seal and whacking my palms together just because my television told me to.

[tc2598]

Really, though, it's not true that half the world menstruates.

Sure, females make up a little over half of the world's population. But not all females menstruate. For example, only one of my three daughters menstruates. My mother no longer menstruates. My great aunt no longer menstruates. Two of my nieces do not menstrutate.

Children and post-menopausal females knock that figure down to just over a third.

[PatchyWarrior]

Nitpick over the figures, while ignoring the larger message. Great.

[tc2598]

Yeah, I totally hadn't had any coffee yet at that point. Sorry about that.

[MJinCanada]

On the other hand, half the world's population will, for approximately half their lives, menstruate.

[orzzys]

It seems it would make a lot more sense to give these women Diva Cups or Keepers. They are reusable, so it's a one-time-only expense, they can be reused, so there are less concerns about disposing of them discreetly, and they won't clog up primitive or nonexistent plumbing. Why you are advocating giving them toxic pads and tampons is beyond me. It seems P&G's altruism is probably more related to tapping a whole new market of pad/tampon consumers, much as cigarette companies often give away cigarettes in foreign countries.

[Shirley Fisk]

3/9/09
11:05am
Indianapolis Central Library

I have never used a Diva Cup or Keeper (don't need any of that stuff any more) but yours sounds like a better idea to me because of disposal issues as well as costs.

I have always wondered how women in 3rd World countries coped with this issue. Not very well, I figured.

[Rachel Nalebuff]

I agree that the Diva Cup of the Keeper seems like a smart solution. However, you have to keep in mind that in most the countries where sanitary supply distribution is a problem, virginity is paramount and there is a serious stigma around anything inserted in a woman's bodies--this includes tampons and cups. Also, without clean water, reusing a cup seems like a health risk.

[OrangeCatholic]

I'm going to go one step further and suggest women consider not menstruating at all.

Birth control "placebos" (which cause menstruation) are, as I understand them, a male inventor's way of throwing up his hands and saying, "Well, I don't have time to investigate the effects of shutting off menstruation, so I'm just going to leave it alone."

Fact is, menstruation gets shut off naturally for 9 months at a time.

I'm not suggesting hormonal birth control is for everyone. But for those who are comfortably on it, I wonder why you are so protective of this agonizing ritual.

[PatchyWarrior]

"Agonizing ritual"? You say that like it's a choice we all make. Your comment is just plain silly

[MomfromTexas]

You two are correct. Women don't talk about periods, in regards to sanitation supplies. One of the people responding to this blog commented on flannel pads. Well, I've NEVER heard of them!

I can't remember exactly what show I was watching, but it was something about pioneer women, and I was watching it with a female friend of mine. After the show, she asked, "I wonder what it was like to have periods back then? Can you imagine being in a covered wagon, traveling across the plains, mountains, and deserts, while having your period?" I laughed and told her that she was the only other woman I knew, other than myself, who wondered those kinds of things, while watching shows about pioneer women. LOL! We concluded that history books would probably never reveal the answer.

Anyway, enlightening blog, so thanks for this, and keep up the good work on women's issues! I now have a couple more charities to check out :).

[Fudgefase]

Yup. Apparently they're a luxury here in UK too and taxed accordingly. Personally, I'd rather have chocolate as my luxury item.....

[PatchyWarrior]

Incredibly, it was "Iron Lady" Thatcher herself who re-cast feminine hygiene products as luxury items. It just beggars belief.