In addition, feminine hygiene products are a multibillion-dollar industry, which, if properly tapped into, can generate income for many and significantly boost economic growth.

Disposable sanitary products contribute to large amounts of global waste. Ensuring women and girls have access to sustainable and quality products, and improving the management of the disposal of menstrual products, can make a big difference to the environment.

In India alone, roughly million women and girls use an average of eight disposable and non-compostable pads per month, generating 1. Country Examples.

Enhancing opportunities for women to access adequate menstrual health and hygiene is central to the World Bank Group in achieving its development outcomes. In addition, the project is facilitating behavior change sessions and training on the importance of menstrual hygiene and safely managed WASH facilities.

Access to finance will be provided to women entrepreneurs to help them market and sell soaps, disinfectants and menstrual hygiene products at household doorsteps. This will improve menstrual hygiene practices, especially among those who are too shy and reluctant to purchase them at public markets.

This includes gender-separated facilities with door locks, lighting, disposal bins, and handwashing stations with soap and water. Behavior changes and hygiene promotion campaigns incorporating MHH will be undertaken, targeting students, teachers, parents and the larger community.

Under the project, sanitation facilities were constructed at more than schools across the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area. The facilities all include separate toilets and changing rooms for girls, with locks on doors, handwashing facilities, and hygienic and safe spaces for disposal of used sanitary products.

The project aims to address low attendance of adolescent girls in schools by ensuring that school sanitation facilities provide functional single-sex toilets with a reliable supply of water and soap.

Educational materials on hygiene and MHM will also be provided and dispersed. Few schools have adequate sanitation facilities, and those that do are poorly maintained and unsuitable for MHH.

The Urban Sanitation Project is responding with a sanitation marketing and hygiene promotion campaign emphasizing the improvement of menstrual hygiene for girls and women.

It is financing construction of 78 sanitation facilities in schools and market places in two project cities. Standard designs include handwashing facilities, accessibility for people with disabilities, and MHH amenities.

MHH and hygiene promotion activities, including training for teachers and pupils, will be conducted in the schools. These approaches will inform future interventions in schools across the country. The Enabling Environment for Menstrual Health and Hygiene: Case Study - Kenya. Menstrual Health and Hygiene Resource Package: Tools and Resources for Task Teams PDF.

Providing Sustainable Sanitation Services for All in WASH Interventions through a Menstrual Hygiene Management Approach PDF. Improving toilet hygiene and handwashing practices during and post-COVID pandemic in Indonesian schools.

The Rising Tide : A New Look at Water and Gender. A Holistic Approach to Better Menstrual Health and Hygiene: Entrepreneurs in Action.

ItsTimeForAction: Investing in Menstrual Hygiene Management is to Invest in Human Capital. Menstrual Hygiene Management Enables Women and Girls to Reach Their Full Potential. Menstrual health and hygiene empowers women and girls: How to ensure we get it right.

In times of COVID, the future of education depends on the provision of water, sanitation, and hygiene services. Reflections from a mother on Menstrual Hygiene Day.

Minus Related Pages. Practice Healthy Habits During Your Period Good menstrual health and hygiene practices can prevent infections, reduce odors, and help you stay comfortable during your period.

Menstrual Hygiene Is Key in Promoting Good Health These hygiene practices can help you stay healthy and comfortable during your period: Wear lightweight, breathable clothing such as cotton underwear. Tight fabrics can trap moisture and heat, allowing germs to thrive.

Change your menstrual products regularly. Trapped moisture provides a breeding ground for bacteria and fungi. Wearing a pad or period underwear for too long can lead to a rash or an infection. Keep your genital area clean. Wash the outside of your vagina vulva and bottom every day.

When you go to the bathroom, wipe from the front of your body toward the back, not the other way. Use only water to rinse your vulva.

The vagina is a self-cleaning organ. Changing the natural pH balance of your vagina by washing or using chemicals to cleanse out the vagina can be harmful and may result in a yeast infection or bacterial vaginosis.

Use unscented toilet paper, tampons, or pads. Scented hygiene products can irritate the skin and impact your natural pH balance.

Drink enough liquids. This can help wash out your urinary tract and help prevent infections, like vaginal candidiasis. Track and monitor your period. Your menstrual cycle is a valuable marker for your overall health. Irregular periods can be a sign of conditions like diabetes, thyroid dysfunction, and celiac disease.

You can track your period on a calendar or with an app on your phone designed for this purpose. Visit a healthcare provider for your annual check-up. An annual well-woman exam is a full check-up that includes a pap smear , a pelvic exam, and a breast exam.

These exams are essential for good reproductive health as they can catch early signs of cancer or other health issues. Menstrual Hygiene Day — May 28 Each year on May 28, Menstrual Hygiene Day is observed to highlight good menstrual hygiene practices during your period and to raise awareness about the importance of access to menstrual products, period education, and sanitation facilities.

What You Can Do Everyone can participate in Menstrual Hygiene Day by: Spreading awareness in your community about the importance of good menstrual hygiene habits. Joining a worldwide conversation on social media using MHDay

Talk to a doctor if you experience a change in odor, have extreme or unusual pain, or have more severe period symptoms than usual such as a heavier flow or longer period.

Each year on May 28, Menstrual Hygiene Day is observed to highlight good menstrual hygiene practices during your period and to raise awareness about the importance of access to menstrual products, period education, and sanitation facilities.

Share the social media graphics below to promote Menstrual Hygiene Day and use the MHDay hashtag. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to search. Español Other Languages. Menstrual Hygiene. Minus Related Pages. Practice Healthy Habits During Your Period Good menstrual health and hygiene practices can prevent infections, reduce odors, and help you stay comfortable during your period.

Menstrual Hygiene Is Key in Promoting Good Health These hygiene practices can help you stay healthy and comfortable during your period: Wear lightweight, breathable clothing such as cotton underwear.

Tight fabrics can trap moisture and heat, allowing germs to thrive. Change your menstrual products regularly. Trapped moisture provides a breeding ground for bacteria and fungi. Wearing a pad or period underwear for too long can lead to a rash or an infection.

Keep your genital area clean. Wash the outside of your vagina vulva and bottom every day. When you go to the bathroom, wipe from the front of your body toward the back, not the other way. Use only water to rinse your vulva. The vagina is a self-cleaning organ. Schools were perceived to assign priority to other subjects rather than health.

In contrast, the MVC program encouraged learning. As one mother explained:. But we've never really put much focus on it because our institutions are run by men. So I really like that it's saying we're not just expecting you to go through high school, just this being an inconvenience that you silently try and deal with.

That it is a conversation, and a lifestyle. Overall, participants agreed that OM health education had to date received insufficient priority in preparing girls to live future healthy lives. There was agreement that the cycle was an important enduring feature through life.

Whilst menstruation was usually taught around menarche, ovulation was omitted. In contrast, MVC prioritised ovulation and distinguished different bleeds. Regarding the current HPE curriculum, the girls agreed that they did not know how to personally apply information. As Charlotte explained:.

Furthermore, discussions in classes were not forthcoming. The girls also advised that common OM cycle difficulties were not taught.

In contrast, MVC covered dysmenorrhoea, abnormal bleeding and premenstrual syndrome, and its biopsychosocial approach connected the OM cycle with mental health. If you could recognise like where you have a lot of hormonal change and you found yourself like feeling really down, it would be helpful then say applying it to like later on where you have another big hormonal change, like if you get pregnant, or menopause, or something.

Like that awareness would help you talk to a doctor more. Furthermore, one mother commented how MVC initiated biopsychosocial conversations in Lessons 1 and Education is a really great priority. Have a career, and so on.

Whilst MVC promoted fertility care, it had overlooked other milestones. Overall, the girls reported that current menstrual health resources were unrelatable, irrelevant to their developmental stage or a repeat of previous years.

Although MVC was reported to be appropriately targeted to their developmental stage, incorporating interactive activities and visual media such as video clips was consistently recommended. The girls reported that the gender and expertise of teachers were important.

Indignance was expressed on rule enforcement prohibiting toilet breaks, as London reflected:. If a girl needs to go, a girl's got to go.

Do you want me to just sit in a pool of blood? Although mothers were the primary source of information, their own knowledge was lacking. Mobile applications were favoured for cycle tracking because of their convenience.

However, the majority of girls admitted that their apps inaccurately predicted their period due date, with concerns expressed for the use of their private data.

MVC presented charting as journal writing to personalise cycle theory. The discipline required received mixed views. The elements of face validity and suggestions for improvements in MVC are summarised in Table 5.

Using the HPS framework Sawyer et al. Participants considered this a commendable redress of poor knowledge and negative attitudes given that daughters turn to their mothers for guidance about an essentially female phenomenon that they both personally experience Afsari et al. Parental education may help address the prevalence of poor knowledge observed in Australia Hammarberg et al.

No fathers participated in this study, yet their role was raised. MVC offers a whole of OM cycle education, thereby avoiding a narrow fixation on menstruation and associated dysfunctions.

Participants consistently liked how MVC refocused the whole of the OM cycle as a sign of good health in and of itself. Both girls and mothers highlighted the current lack of HPE education around future fertility.

They valued the inclusion of fertility in MVC. Furthermore, MVC lessons 1 and 2 facilitated structured conversations about education and future plans including family formation Mackinnon, , which was interpreted as the balancing of careers with children.

This can facilitate informed decision-making Boivin et al. Inclusion of the complete reproductive lifespan was jointly and independently suggested by girls and mothers to refine MVC. Their reflections centred upon the extensive length of time in which women have OM cycles, and the milestones encountered such as pregnancy, lactation and menopause.

Similar to other studies, girls reported that some teachers obstructed their toilet access, which heightened their distress with uncontrollable leakages Li et al. A strong preference for female teachers was indicated. In addition, girls preferred lessons to be delivered by health professional experts Isguven et al.

They consistently expressed a desire to understand how their own bodies functioned both in the present time and for the long reproductive life ahead. In short, girls wanted to personalise their education. In the absence of reliable and relatable education from either their mothers or schools, girls resorted to mobile applications for information and to gain some semblance of control of their periods.

However, most found that their mobile applications were not useful in predicting periods. The variability of the follicular phase means it is impossible for calendar-based applications to predict periods accurately Johnson et al. The usefulness of applications using adaptive algorithms based on personal historical data remains limited, particularly for adolescents.

Nonetheless, charting cycles is recommended for adolescent girls ACOG, ; González, ; Vigil et al. MVC offered creative journaling to encourage interactive health literacy. Girls understood how this would enable them to compare their own cycles with normal parameters and thereby request timely medical care.

However, discipline is required to gain the requisite self-awareness. Data were collected through annotated booklets, interviews and FGDs. Multiple methods of data collection for the same phenomenon adds validity Cohen et al. In addition, anonymous writing enabled less assertive girls to record their opinions honestly.

It is however a limitation that first-hand experiences of the MVC program were not possible which would likely render richer perspectives. The range of ages adds validity.

The immediate experiences of girls whose ovulatory processes were likely just beginning are tempered with the comfortable reflections of older girls Schmitt et al.

Furthermore, government and non-government schools were represented, across different ICSEA scales. Face validation is an early-stage evaluation. For example, selection bias may be present as girls who were interested in OM health may have been more likely to participate and provide positive feedback on MVC.

Stratified sampling in future studies for similar proportions of girls who are and are not interested in the program may reduce the impact of this bias. Additionally, data was collected from metropolitan Western Australia and cannot be generalised. Robustness would be improved by extending research into different locations and populations.

Furthermore, the experiences and opinions of teachers and school healthcare providers merits further research, including how male teachers could improve their comfort in delivering OM health education.

Partnering with girls and mothers refined the validity of the MVC program in light of current gaps in OM health education. Its whole person perspective integrated biological and mental health. The adoption of the HPS framework to include parents, the school healthcare team and community healthcare providers further supported interactive and critical OM health literacy.

Fine-tuning of MVC would include adding milestones of the reproductive lifespan; creating additional group activities, videos and animations; developing a mobile application; and involving fathers.

Afsari, A. Article Google Scholar. Ålgars, M. Binge eating and menstrual dysfunction. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 76 1 , 19— Ambresin, A.

Body dissatisfaction on top of depressive mood among adolescents with severe dysmenorrhea. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Committee opinion No.

Armour, M. Menstrual health literacy and management strategies in young women in Australia: A national online survey of young women aged 13—25 years.

Evaluation of a web-based resource to improve menstrual health literacy and self-management in young women. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, , The prevalence and academic impact of dysmenorrhea in 21, young women: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. Guide to understanding Index of Community Socio-educational Advantage ICSEA values.

Health and physical education Version 8. Ayoola, A. Birth, 43 3 , — Biggerstaff, D. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis IPA : A qualitative methodology of choice in healthcare research.

Qualitative Research in Psychology, 5 3 , — Bisaga, K. Menstrual functioning and psychopathology in a county-wide population of high school girls. Boivin, J. Why we need to do more than just tell women. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 27 1 , 11— Braun, V.

Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. New York: Sage Publications Ltd. Google Scholar. Bulanda, J. Addressing mental health stigma among young adolescents: Evaluation of a youth-led approach.

Bunting, L. Fertility knowledge and beliefs about fertility treatment: Findings from the international fertility decision-making study. Human Reproduction, 28 2 , — Chrisler, J. Encyclopedia of Mental.

Health, 3 , 75— Cohen, L. Research methods in education 8th ed. Book Google Scholar. Corbin, J. Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory 3rd ed. New York: Sage Publications Inc.

Daniluk, J. Drosdzol-Cop, A. Assessment of the menstrual cycle, eating disorders and self-esteem of Polish adolescents. Drost, E. Validity and reliability in social science research. Education, Research and Perspectives, 38 1 , — Periods lasting more than 8 days?

Recorded panels and PERIOD. Spotlights are great to learn more, and to showcase in any of your upcoming gatherings. Panels with menstrual health advocates spotlight how menstrual equity affects various communities!

PERIOD TALK is an education program that strives to facilitate conversations around periods and empower menstruators and non-menstruators to advocate for period health.

By delving into period health, activism, and self-advocacy, this program will guide your first steps in becoming the best menstrual equity activist you can be!

Here you can find the links to Toolkit, Script for the presentation, a draft presentation for the workshop or event and more resources to promote your event! Check out these incredible materials put together by our PERIOD Guatemala chapter! If you have any other materials in another language you would like to share with the rest of the network, send them in to chapters period.

In order to get your community involved in period health and education, you can host educational events either in person or virtually:.

Inspire monetary and product donations with a panel of period related speakers! PLAN : Find speakers to come and talk to your chapter! Ideally, these speakers will volunteer their time. Finding speakers from community organizations, healthcare professionals, and OBGYN is ideal.

Some interesting panel ideas could be: sustainable periods, period health, menstrual disorders endometriosis, uterine fibroids, etc. ADVERTISE : Spread the word! The great thing about speakers is that they draw many different communities to your event.

EXECUTE : Have your event! Be proud of yourself for engaging your community and successfully linking service and education. SHARE : Send photos of your event to PERIOD National! We love to see chapters working in their communities. Spend the first 30 minutes of your chapter meeting talking about your own experiences with periods.

This is a great team-building and icebreaker exercise! You can use the PERIOD Talk materials to run in depth workshops about all things periods!

Or build your own! The Rag Blog is a publication of PERIOD. that hopes to provide menstruators and non-menstruators with a platform to contribute to the menstrual movement through personal narratives and essays.

We believe the most powerful forms of advocacy include stories.

When girls understand menstrual health, they are prepared to advocate for their own health and recognize troubling health conditions, leading to earlier treatment and better outcomes.

Learn more about What We Do or Get in Touch. girls in the U. The few number of states requiring medically accurate reproductive health education. the average number of YEARS a woman has symptoms before being diagnosed with endometriosis.

of low income women and girls do not have access to adequate period products. Period Education Project. What we do. The Period Education Project is the leading movement helping young people access medically-accurate menstrual health education.

Melisa Holmes, MD, FACOG, Period Education Project Co-Founder. Identify collaborative efforts across multiple disciplines to increase recognition of disparities related to MHH practices.

CDC WD Menstrual Health and Hygiene. Low Resolution Video. Program Agenda Sessions. Welcome and Opening Remarks. Session 1: Menstrual Health and Hygiene. Menstrual Health and Hygiene: An Agenda for Research and Action Describe the history of the global movement on MHH.

Frame MHH as a public health issue. Discuss the gaps and opportunities for addressing MHH in the USA. Understanding Bleeding Disorders in Women Define bleeding disorders including types and causes.

Describe risk factors and health implications related to excessive bleeding. Recommend approaches to prevent and reduce morbidity associated with bleeding disorders. Moderator: Dana Williams, JD Dispute Resolution Manager Office of Equal Employment Opportunity CDC Marni Sommer, DrPH, MSN, RN Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences Mailman School of Public Health Columbia University Vanessa Byams, DrPH, MPH Lead Health Scientist Division of Blood Disorders CDC.

Session 2: Menstrual Matters: Charting the Life Course Panelists discuss the life course of menstruation from menarche to menopause. Address period poverty as it relates to school-aged menstruators. Describe menstrual health and hygiene education and resources as key components to addressing period poverty for school-aged menstruators.

Highlight evidence-based approaches to help schools and communities increase sustainable access to menstrual products and normalize reproductive health education. Addressing Disparities in Period Poverty for Black Women Illustrate how risk and protective factors impact the ability for girls, women, and individuals to safely manage menstrual hygiene.

Describe approaches and programs to improve menstrual health knowledge and increase access to menstrual products. Explore cultural dynamics that influence how societies view menopause.

Describe disparities in symptoms for women of color. Highlight approaches to manage menopausal symptoms. Address the social and mental health implications of the menopause transition.

Session 3: Menstrual Management: Facing the Challenge Panelists provide a broad range of topic considerations related to menstrual health and hygiene.

Menstrual Health and Management — A US Disasters Context Ensure adequate menstrual hygiene planning as an integral component of emergency response practices. Provide public health approaches, recommendations, and resources for safe and healthy period management practices during and after emergency response.

Menstruation and Menopause at Work Explain the salient issues at the intersection of menstruation, menopause and employment.

Describe the current federal laws that can address menstruation and menopause at work. Christina Grant. To develop the new Menstrual Health Education Standards, OSSE collaborated with various governmental and non-governmental partners on model practices and approaches to drafting standards for menstrual health education at all grade levels— beginning in upper elementary and across the various strands identified by the DC Health Education Standards.

In Fall , OSSE developed draft standards and sought feedback from local and national governmental and non-governmental partners. In January , OSSE presented the draft standards to the State Board of Education SBOE and released the standards for public comment.

SBOE approved the new standards in March.