KIT Blog

That time of the month

For several days each month, women may experience mood swings, cramps, general grumpiness and the need to spend a bit of additional time in the bathroom changing pads/tampons or washing to maintain good hygiene.  For many, menstruation may be seen as a slight inconvenience that women tolerate but does not stop them from going about their day, with no one the wiser that they are having their period.  When menstruation is viewed through this lens, it is often not seen as something important that warrants attention.

Unfortunately, this is often not the experience for millions of girls and women around the world.  In some of the countries that The Leprosy Mission Australia works, particularly in rural areas, menstruation is still seen as unclean and is stigmatized.   Each month, when having their period, women may be forced to live away from the rest of the community in unsafe or unhygienic conditions until her period is finished.  In some cultures, menstruation is seen as an embarrassing event where accidental soiling or showing of sanitary products in public is shameful and periods should never be discussed openly. 

In other parts of the world, where cultural stigmatization may not be a concern, there are often still many difficulties accessing sanitary products.  Purchasing sanitary products is not a priority for families living in poverty, where they may already be struggling to find enough food.  In addition, for people with leprosy and other disabilities, accessing sanitary products may be a problem if they are unable to travel to the shops themselves.  They may feel too embarrassed to ask someone to purchase these on their behalf or their husbands may even refuse to handle these products.  This is often referred to as period poverty.

Without access to sanitary products, girls may have to miss out on school and women may be unable to go to work.  They may resort to using rags, or scraps of cloth they can find.  These unhygienic practices can lead to infections such as reproductive tract infections.

In recent years, many of you may have seen the increased interest in using cloth sanitary pads.  These are easy to make and can be washed and reused over and over again, thus reducing waste and increases access for more women, particularly those who cannot afford to purchase disposal pads each month.

Our IMPACT project in Nepal also recognised the need to support women within our cooperatives to increase hygienic menstrual practices.  In Nepal, there are high numbers of reproductive tract infection due to poor menstrual hygiene.   Cloth sanitary pad making in addition to education on menstruation hygiene was taught to the women in all 9 cooperatives, so that they could make their own cloth pads as well as make them for other girls and women within their communities.  This provides opportunities for the women in the cooperatives to share the information they learnt and to speak openly with others about the importance of menstrual hygiene.  A few women were even able to create small businesses out of making cloth sanitary pads!

However, the difficulties around menstrual hygiene does not simply resolve with the provision of reusable sanitary pads.  In Australia, there are many small provisions that make the menstruation experience easier.  Things such as having a hook or a small ledge in our bathrooms and public toilets, that allow females to temporarily put down their clean sanitary pads in a clean, dry spot as they change pads.  Having clean water readily available to wash off any blood spots, a sanitary bin in each public toilet cubical or simply having a supply of toilet paper to wipe away any blood spots on the toilet, so that others would not see evidence of menstruation.  Often these small provisions may not be available in the toilet facilities found in other countries making it difficult to stay clean.

In addition, cloth pads need to be washed and dried before reuse.  However, in countries where menstruation is seen as shameful, women and girls may be too embarrassed to hang their cloth pads on the clothes lines where everyone can see them.  They may resort to drying them inside their houses and hide them under other clothes to dry.  This can increase the time it takes for the cloth pads to dry, which may result in the pad being worn damp.  This not only increases discomfort but risk of infections.

Therefore, it is important to create awareness and facilitate discussions around menstruatal hygiene in communities to both men and women to decrease the stigma surrounding the topic.  To complement the sanitary pad making training, the IMPACT project also provided training on the importance of menstrual hygiene to Self-Help Group and cooperative members.  A poster with information on menstruation is now also publicly displayed on the wall of the cooperative offices to generate open discussion on this topic.  At the end of these trainings and pad making event day, we were delighted to see the women boldly showing off the cloth pads they had learnt to make.


However, the dialogue must continue, on Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28th, we celebrate the boldness of the women in our cooperatives in Nepal, in starting the conversation on menstrual hygiene, but we also acknowledge that we need to continue to identify the challenges of period poverty and address these is our projects where possible.  After all, without the process of menstruation, none of us would have been born.



The Integrated Mobilisation of People for Active Community Transformation (IMPACT) Project in Nepal is supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) Thanks to ANCP, this project is able to help improve the well-being of people affected by leprosy, other neglected tropical diseases and disability in Nepal.


The Leprosy Mission seeks to bring about transformation; breaking the chains of leprosy, empowering people to attain healing, dignity, and life in all its fullness.

We are targeting a Triple Zero Leprosy strategy — Zero Leprosy Transmission, Zero Leprosy Disability, and Zero Leprosy Discrimination. We are working hard with our international project partners, and international government organisations, to make leprosy transmission a thing of the past by 2035.

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