28 May: World Menstrual Hygiene Day
Break the taboo around periods and ensure that all women have access to menstrual products: these are the objectives of World Menstrual Hygiene Day.
While menstruation is a natural fact of life, taboos still exist. Feeling afraid or embarrassed to talk about periods leads to a lack of information among women, and teenagers in particular, and can also cause:
- A negative and sometimes traumatising experience of one’s first period
- Feeling ashamed of one’s body and ill at ease
- A misunderstanding of symptoms and consequently feeling stressed when they arise
- Internalising pain often considered to be natural and normal, resulting in the delayed diagnosis of diseases like endometriosis.
On average, periods last 5 days each month for 38 years, representing 2,280 days of menstruation per woman. If we estimate that women use on average five menstrual products a day, this totals over 11,400 products in a lifetime.
Period poverty is defined as a lack of access to menstrual products due to financial constraints. In France, it is estimated that period poverty affects approximately 1.7 million people (IFOP, 2019). Students are of course greatly concerned. Period poverty is not only a financial cost but one that impacts one’s health and hygiene, and which can also affect educational success and performance during studies, as well as physical and mental health and security.
It is therefore a question of giving the women the most in need access to menstrual products. These women often don’t have the means to buy enough of the products they need the most, having to resort to alternatives which are dangerous for their health.
The objective of this day is to break the silence, relay the necessary information to girls and women about menstrual hygiene as widely as possible, and question more broadly the condition of women and the issues related to periods around the world.
STOP PERIOD POVERTY
With the support of elected representatives and student associations, Université Paris-Saclay has committed itself to the fight against period poverty by launching the operation “Never in the red again!”. The project facilitates access to menstrual products for students thanks to the installation of dispensers across campuses. The dispensers are free of charge for all at all times. Equally concerned about environmental issues, the university also provides reusable sanitary products to students in the most need: menstrual pads, pants and cups.
More information on the “Never in the red again” operation is available here