AID agencies and governments must tackle the taboos surrounding menstruation as sidelining the issue undermines the quality of life of women and girls, chiefly in poor nations, a UN body says.
Poor education about menstruation, lack of access to sanitary napkins and painkillers for cramps, and inadequate washing and disposal facilities had a far-reaching impact on schooling, work and health, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council said.
"From the moment a girl has her first period, she then menstruates for almost 3,500 days throughout her lifetime, every month," program manager Archana Patkar said.
"This is the unspoken, silent hygiene and sanitation issue," she told reporters.
A major concern is that a lack of sanitary napkins and washing facilities meant girls miss school due to their bleeding, she said.
"This has a huge fall-out, and many implications. Not only for schools, but also in the workplace, in markets," she said.
"This is an issue that cuts across health, education, livelihoods and all development outcomes. It's centre-stage."
The council pointed to research in India showing only 12 per cent of girls and women have access to and use sanitary napkins, that many have a poor understanding of menstrual hygiene, and 23 per cent of girls drop out of school after puberty.
"There are two billion women worldwide in the menstruating age group, between 12 and 50. At any given moment, 340 million women and girls are menstruating. So the scale of this is pretty huge," Patkar said.
She criticised beliefs in some societies - notably male-dominated ones - that menstruation is "impure".
"Menstruation is a biological phenomenon which is responsible for future generations. We wouldn't be here without it. So it's really strange that we have all this silence, shame, secrecy and taboos around it," she said.
"This has huge psychosocial implications for a young girl which carry right through to old age. It's part of the disempowerment and disenfranchisement of women and girls."
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