Poor menstrual health and hygiene is a crisis that most of us are unaware of with over 200 million women in India who are not adequately informed about safe menstrual hygiene practices and what constitutes a safe and normal period. Poor menstrual practices have serious detrimental effects on education and health for girls and women. The culture of silence around menstruation is so complete that most of the girls have no knowledge on menstruation before their first period. Societal taboos and neglect of menstrual health and hygiene results in girls and women being prone to diseases and illness. The culture of silence means that menstrual dysfunctions is accepted as a regular and necessary part of the monthly period. This acceptance significantly affects well being and reproductive health of women. The extremely targeted marketing of sanitary products has given rise to a boom in India with further predictions of sales figure. Yet, most are unaware of the composition of the sanitary products.
My personal experience with sustainable menstrual products are worth mentioning here. In the year 2017, I got an opportunity to be a part of this amazing workshop on sustainable menstruation in Kerala where a dedicated team was organizing awareness drives in and around Kerala. This workshop changed my entire perspective on disposable sanitary napkins and made me realize why switching to sustainable options is the need of the hour. Modern day pads are 90% plastic and loaded with toxic chemicals which comes in extreme close contact with girls/women every month. These chemicals have been affecting them and putting them at the risk of many deadly diseases. So, switching to sustainable menstrual product was my first step which I instantly did after coming back. I purchased menstrual cups online and started using them. Initially to be honest I did face a lot of issue inserting and managing menstrual cups and I did think at one point of time to give up on them. However, with much research and youtube tutorials, I finally succeed in learning how to use a menstrual cup. Today it has been 3 years that I have been using menstrual cups and it has worked wonders for me and not even given me a single reason to look back. I personally feel that this is the best decision I have made as I do not have to face the guilt of throwing away the used disposable pads every month knowing its ill effects on environment and health. All I need now is just one menstrual cup to manage my periods rather than 2 packets of disposable pads every time I menstruate. I feel much more healthier and hygienic as I also do not face the problem of rashes that I used to get earlier when I was using disposables. I strongly recommend using menstrual cups to all menstruators to experience the comfort and achieve a plastic free period.