Why millions of girls and women cannot afford their periods
Millions of women and girls worldwide still cannot afford menstrual products or access water and sanitation facilities to manage their menstrual health and hygiene. Periods make them miss school, work, and negatively impact their health, but it does not have to be that way.
What is period poverty?
Every month, more than 2 billion people around the world menstruate. Menstruation – or period – is a natural and healthy process, yet millions of women and girls cannot afford menstrual products or access to safe water and sanitation to manage their menstrual health and hygiene. This interrupts their lives, rights, and freedoms.
Period poverty refers to the inability to afford and access menstrual products, sanitation and hygiene facilities and education and awareness to manage menstrual health. Simply put, period poverty costs women and girls too much and it doesn’t have to be this way.
What causes period poverty?
Stigma, the high cost of menstrual products, and lack of water and sanitation facilities drive period poverty around the world.
Menstrual products are prohibitively expensive for millions of people worldwide. Gender-blind policies and tax laws – for example, the “pink tax” on feminine products – are in part to blame, but such policy decisions go together with the stigma and taboo attached to menstruation. For example, in many states within the United States, Viagra (for erectile dysfunction) is classified as a tax-exempt health product, while sanitary products are classified as luxury goods and taxed at the highest rate.
Additionally, more than 1.5 billion people still lack basic sanitation services, such as private toilets. Not having access to safely managed toilets keeps many girls away from school and women away from work during their period. At least 1 in 10 women and girls in rural areas across 12 countries did not have a private place to wash and change during their last period.
Period poverty is also perpetuated by stigma and the lack of information and education – not only do many girls and young women lack awareness and are unprepared for their periods, but policymakers and adults with decision-making power in schools and workplaces also lack comprehensive menstrual education.
In Bangladesh and Egypt, only 32% and 66% of girls respectively, said they were aware of menstruation before they got their first period, many were shocked and afraid.
Stigma and discrimination are heightened in communities where there are harmful social and cultural norms around period. In some parts of the world, even today, menstruating girls and women are seen as dirty or untouchable, restricting their movement and access to spaces. Pervasive myths include that menstruating women and girls should not touch certain food or it would rot, or enter places of worship, and that they should be isolated.
Who is affected by period poverty?
Period poverty is a global health issue affecting women and girls in both rich and poor countries. What women and girls can use to manage their menstrual health and hygiene varies widely, based on their income and whether they live in urban or rural areas.
In Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Madagascar and Zimbabwe, for example, adolescent girls and women in urban areas are more likely to use sanitary pads to those in rural areas, who are more likely to use cloth. 1 in 5 adolescent girls and women in rural Ethiopia used no materials, compared with 1 in 20 in urban areas, according to WHO and UNICEF data.
In the United States of America, 1 in 4 teens and 1 in 3 adults struggle to afford period products, especially teens of colour and lower-income households.
A 2020 survey by Plan International showed that 3 in 10 girls in the United Kingdom struggled to afford or access menstrual products and more than half of them used toilet paper instead.
Challenges for menstrual health and hygiene management during crisis
There is growing consensus that managing menstruation is a health rather than a hygiene issue, and above all a human rights and gender equality issue. Today, 614 million women and girls are living in conflict-affected areas, and the number of women and girls fleeing conflict, crises and disasters is rising. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimated in 2023 that women and girls accounted for 51% of all refugees. Menstruation does not stop during crisis. Yet, menstrual hygiene management and women’s and girls’ health and dignity are low priorities during crisis response.
During transit and in camps, displaced women and girls often lack privacy to change and wash. Internally displaced women and girls in Myanmar preferred disposable sanitary pads to cloths once they learned how to use and dispose them.
In UN Women’s recent report from Gaza, more than 540,000 women and girls of reproductive age lack access to items to support their hygiene, health and dignity. They are resorting to using cloth or sponges because they cannot access menstrual products. UN Women estimates that 10 million disposable menstrual pads are needed each month to cover the needs and preserve the dignity of women and girls in Gaza.
In Lebanon, during the economic crisis, the prices of menstrual pads and other hygiene items made within the country increased by 98% – 234%. In April 2020, 66% of girls said they could not afford to buy menstrual products and, since menstruation is a taboo topic, most girls and women did not talk about it.
Period poverty undermines education of girls and young women
Period poverty has steep opportunity costs. Girls and young women around the world are missing school days, because they lack the resources to adequately manage their menstrual health and hygiene.
Nearly 2 million girls aged 14-21 yrs in the United Kingdom have missed a part day or full day of school per term because of their period – missing more school days because of their period than any other reason. In the Gambia, some girls skip school for five days every month because they cannot afford or access menstrual products and sanitary facilities – this equals to missing out on a month and a half of learning every year. In many countries, girls fall so far behind in schoolwork that they drop out of school entirely.
When girls and women lose their chance at education, they lose life-long opportunities for employment, to fulfill their potential and to contribute to our world on an equal footing to men.
Period poverty also has dangerous and immediate health consequences for girls and young women, pushing them into early and forced marriages, sexual abuse, or female genital mutilation (FGM) – because their period is seen as their “coming of age”. Studies in Kenya have shown that some schoolgirls engaged in transactional sex to pay for menstrual products, increasing their risk of HIV infection.
Ending period poverty is possible – and urgent
Period poverty is a policy and budget issue. By making menstrual products free or affordable, ensuring wider access to safe sanitation facilities in schools and workplaces, and changing social norms to reverse stigma, we can put a stop to period poverty.
In Niger, UN Women and partners supported the Government in integrating menstrual hygiene management in the National Gender Policy and Sectoral Programme for Water, Hygiene and Sanitation. Since then, 14 local water, hygiene and sanitation plans have been adopted and 500 million XOF (over USD 82,000) was allocated for addressing menstrual hygiene in the national budget. These policies and actions have finally broken the silence around menstrual health in Niger.
Advocacy to end period poverty, led by women and girls themselves, is showing promising results in many parts of the world. In 2020, Scotland became the first country to provide period products free of charge, including reusable options. Kenya began removing taxes on menstrual products as well as on the raw materials for their production in 2004, and by 2017 started distributing free sanitary pads in public schools. South Africa has delivered free disposable sanitary pads to poor women and girls since 2019, and Botswana has made free sanitary pads available in public and private schools.
Other countries like Australia, Canada, Colombia, India, Jamaica, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago and Uganda have also lowered or scrapped taxes on menstrual products.
Five actions to end period poverty
- Support advocacy efforts in your country and community to remove the taxation on menstrual products and to increase access to menstrual products.
- Fund feminist women and girl-led movements and organisations fighting period poverty.
- Invest in improving data on menstrual health and hygiene.
- Make menstrual health and hygiene education compulsory in school curriculums, for example, through comprehensive sexuality education.
- Join the conversation online and in community spaces, schools and places of work, to raise awareness, bust the myths and erase the stigma.
(Data and inputs taken from UN News)
