If I got a period, and if I bled for five days a month for an average of 40 years, I would spend 2,400 days of my life bleeding. That’s six and a half years. If I didn’t have the tools and resources I needed to manage my menstrual health safely and with dignity, I could potentially spend those 2,400 days not going to school, or work or participating in my community. Can you imagine the impact this would have on my health outcomes and health literacy, psychological well being, social and economic development? This is the reality for many girls, women and people who menstruate. This is called period poverty and it is experienced by an estimated 500 million people who menstruate globally and it’s fueling gender inequality.
Period poverty is experienced when someone does not have access to safe and appropriate period products, menstrual health education, safe spaces to change menstrual products and WASH facilities to manage their period. Communities that are the most vulnerable to this experience are people who are already marginalised, experiencing health, social and economic systemic inequalities.
Although menstruation is a normal physiological process that half the population will most likely experience at some point in their lives, how girls, women, trans and non-binary people experience menstruation depends on the complex intersectionality of the social, cultural and political contexts which shape their experiences.
Across many cultures, society tells girls and women that period blood is dirty, or that they are impure, and in some cases that they need to stay away from their community while bleeding. These taboos are dangerous as they lead to harmful practices like isolation, leading to negative mental and physical health outcomes. Menstrual taboos are deeply rooted in, and fuel gender inequality.
These cultural beliefs and social restrictions continue to fuel menstrual stigma and silencing around periods, resulting in girls and women internalising this shame. The silence around menstrual health management leads to limited resources and information available, preventing girls and women from having conversations around periods, accessing safe period products and practicing good menstrual hygiene. We know that when people don’t have access to appropriate period products, they are often forced to wear products longer than is safely recommended, use lower quality products, or use proxy period products like toilet paper and socks to manage their periods. This increases the risk of urinary and reproductive tract infections and fuels cycles of shame and embarrassment. Poor menstrual health literacy and outcomes ultimately adversely affect family planning and contraception use, which can lead to young or unplanned pregnancy, leading to further social, health and economic implications. All of these factors act as obstacles to equal participation. Furthermore, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ people and people in humanitarian crisis settings face additional dimensions of vulnerability that intersect with menstrual stigma, further compromising their health outcomes and access to opportunity.
Period poverty in Australia is a huge problem, with research from Plan International showing that almost 6 million girls, women and people who menstruate in Australia cannot afford period products. Barriers to period products and menstrual health education has an immediate effect on people’s physical and mental health, and can lead to significant social, health and economic structural inequalities for girls, women and people who menstruate.
When people experience barriers to accessing period products and menstrual health education, their capacity to manage their period is limited and their participation in school, work and social activities is compromised. If learning, working, sporting and social environments are not set up to be accessible for people who menstruate with period products, bins, and safe private spaces to change period products, people who menstruate are ultimately excluded from participating in these environments. Additionally, due to the incomplete, inaccurate or missing education on menstrual health, girls, women and people who menstruate commonly lack the resources and information to manage menstrual pain, which can further impact social participation and work and school attendance.
Recent research in Australia shows that on average, people are missing 6 days of school per year, 5 days of work per year, and 5 days of sport per year because of period poverty. The social and economic development impact that this has on people who menstruate is huge. The same research shows that the average person who menstruates will spend $6,750 on period products over their lifetime. This cost does not take into account the cost of pain management, healthcare treatment for period related medical conditions, or the time people take off work, sport and social activities to deal with their period. These experiences and implications are significant, and are unique to girls, women, trans and non-binary people who menstruate. Period poverty is further exacerbating gender inequality in Australia.
So what is the solution? We need responsible systems and a society that understands our basic needs. We’re advocating for infrastructure that reflects our biological reality so that when we need, we can safely access period products with dignity so we can continue to participate in our communities. There is strong evidence to suggest that the combined interventions of menstrual health education, WASH facilities and the provision of period products, will have significant positive impacts on girls, women and people who menstruates psychological well being, education and employment opportunities. We want, and deserve to live in a world where every person who menstruates has equal access and opportunity, and someone's period is not a deterrent from engaging fully in their society. Everyone benefits from a more equal world.
We can do it bleeding, especially when our spaces, systems and society are set up to support us to do so.
References
- https://womendeliver.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Climate-Change-Report.pdf
- https://www.plan.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/A-Tough-Period-Australia-Report.pdf
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363506011_Assessment_of_female_students'_knowledge_attiudes_and_practices_KAP_regarding_menstrual_hygiene_management
- https://www.sharethedignity.org.au/end-period-poverty/bloody-big-survey-2024