The ever ruining occasion of all occasions: The first time I bleed ruined the marriage of my uncle and I was too innocent to tackle the sensitivity of the situation. You feel like bars have been put around the temples, kitchens and every holy occasions. When you are ready to enjoy or celebrate, there is always something inside you that doesn’t want you to be happy.
The Mental, Physical and Social Shock: Now, here comes another part, whenever you just put on more pressure mentally, get tensed of something tragedic in your life, another tragedy is always ready knocking at your door. Being tensed every time can make you bleed weeks before it actually have to.
Here comes the main part, the PMS, mood swings and menstrual cramps which actually leave you with frustration, dullness, sleepless nights and many more. The struggle of holding the hot water bag every time to ease yourself especially during summer are something horrific. The trauma of holding yourself straight and walk when usually your cramps don’t let you do so, pain killer are your best friend. Changing your sanitary napkins often is totally a hazard. The horrifying part is, it would leave you to have sleepless night and frustrated mind, and you feel like killing the person in front of you who may not be irritating you even. Throughout your periods, you won’t get any stability in your mood, sometimes getting emotional, angry, getting dumb are normal. Those days you would feel yourself like a tank to store food, food cravings for sugars, chocolates, carbohydrates are like some spirit is inside you. Now the absurd of all, the social struggle not to talk about period openly, discussing it with your father is a shame, not to be close with men, not to get pregnant, not to touch foods without taking shower, not to enter kitchen. If you start listing, you will get only the don’ts than do’s.
Image for representation
The postdated period is again a tension. Not having period for a month or two is a disaster for you. Again, the rashes, the irritation that a comes hand in hand with the sanitary napkins which are actually not made of cotton and nightmarish odours. And again, buying pads with fresh smell is a nightmare nowadays and again the headache of making it decompose. Tension of Girl like me from urban area are limited to cramps, food cravings etc. But over the total population, only 12% of menstruating women has come across to the awareness of sanitary napkins. Why these companies do not give it a look? And again the headaches of making it decompose. The government need to understand the vitality, its not a fashion, its requirements. The women’s in villages still uses piece of cloth as napkins which actually cause severe bacterial infection into the vagina when you actually have to be very hygienic during these period of the month because of the sky reaching price of the sanitary napkins.
Some Steps required to take: If the government is looking forward for the free education for women, they actually have to look into this serious issue. There are many more alternatives of sanitary napkins like menstrual cup , tampons, and reusable alternative of piece of cloth in modern way which can be implemented in school and colleges to help us. Though these are also high priced but menstrual cups lasts for 10 years which is actually compensation to the price if used properly. The problems that we suffer from are because of the poor capitalism and systemic failures.
So participating in campaigns like #HappytoBleed, #GreentheRed, as we look to the evidences and innovations, we have lot to change and take necessary measures for!
#IAmNotDown