Every day more than 300 million people are menstruating across the world,1 yet so many are living with the stigma that still surrounds this completely natural bodily function. From Uganda to the UK, our lives are shaped by period shame. It holds women and other people who menstruate back from exercising, socialising, and going to school or work, with profound repercussions for people’s mental health and wellbeing.2 Perhaps if we could celebrate, not feel shame, around periods, this would no longer be the case.
Period shaming is evident wherever we live in the world. Growing up in a British Pakistani family in rural Buckinghamshire, UK, periods were a taboo topic at school and home. The first time I got my period, I was mortified. I didn’t have the words to explain to my mum that I was bleeding “down below.” While my mum could quickly run upstairs to fetch me one of her huge panty liners, I didn’t know how to manage my period or about the products available to suit my needs.
Without the proper support, information, and guidance, periods, especially the first, can be an incredibly isolating and lonely experience—one fraught with stigma. Periods are seen as dirty or shameful, something to hide—just think of all the euphemisms we use to describe periods without referencing bleeding: time of the month, the blob, having the painters in. Many of us remember that flush of embarrassment when you realise you’ve “come on” in the middle of a class at school and search for a pad hidden inside your pocket or bag. We fear teasing if someone were to catch us with a tampon in hand, or if, God forbid, we were to leak into our clothes. Society teaches us to be discreet and that periods are private, despite being experienced by 50% of the population.
The older I got and the more passionate I became about women’s health, the more I realised that I wasn’t alone—period shaming prevents people from living a happy, healthy life. An ActionAid poll for World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2023 found that 39% of women and other people who menstruate in the UK avoided or missed exercising or sport when they had their periods.3 For 18-24 year olds, this amounted to 48%, almost half.
The same poll found that an estimated 1.7 million people (13%) have missed school, university, or college because of their period, and 14% said that they have avoided or missed working from the office.3 People who menstruate are missing the mental and physical health benefits of exercising, education, and the value of working in the office for career development.
Missing school, in particular, could be detrimental to the wellbeing of millions of young people. In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of school absences is even starker than in the UK: some girls miss as much as 20% of their school year because they stay at home during their periods4 and some drop out of school altogether, often after being forced into child marriage or early pregnancy.5 ActionAid sees many girls missing school for up to seven days during their period in refugee camps in Kiryandondo in northern Uganda. Activists like Razia Yazid in Uganda are fighting back against period stigma and smashing damaging misconceptions about menstruation. Alongside other women in her community and with support from ActionAid, Yazid runs workshops that normalise periods, providing a forum to discuss shared side effects and how to manage periods safely and hygienically.
As Yazid believes, tackling period shaming is key to preventing school absences. In the UK today, 22% of young women and other people who menstruate feel embarrassed during their period.3 Of those, 12% said that it was because of jokes made about their period and 30% said that it was because people would see them taking sanitary products to the toilet. Again, we’re made to feel that we should be discreet when managing our menstruation. Instead, we should be embracing our periods with pride.
From Uganda to the UK, so many girls, women, and other people who menstruate are told to look at their periods—the most natural of bodily functions—with a deep sense of shame. I’m inspired by Yazid and other women who provide information and a sense of shared solidarity for others by talking openly about how to manage periods safely and comfortably. Let’s stop using euphemisms—a period is a period—be comfortable saying it. Normalise our monthly bleeds by talking about periods with friends and family in schools and homes, engaging everyone in the conversation. Talking openly about our periods would rebut the societal norm that it’s something to be embarrassed about. It’s time for us to stand together, to smash the stigma, and to ensure that no one misses school, work, or exercise because they feel embarrassed about their period.
Footnotes
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Provenance and peer review: Commissioned, not externally peer reviewed.
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Competing interests: I make regular TV appearances. I am the author of a new book, The Knowledge, discussing and sharing experiences that will help to shatter stigma.
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