Do Women Have Bodies with Problems? Menstrual Health, Period Poverty, and the Deprivation of Dignity

This study seeks to provide insight into the comprehensive efforts aimed at advancing gender justice, eliminating period poverty, and exposing stigmatizing views toward women’s bodies, specifically in relation to menstrual health. Menstruation is a normal bodily process for all women and girls, but the availability of menstrual products, dignity, and justice during menstruation remains a worrying concern. Menstruators still suffer from adverse circumstances when they menstruate, adding to their sufferings of experiencing pain and distress on a monthly basis. Menstrual hygiene requires the use of standardized menstrual products to maintain cleanliness during menses. However, women experiencing economic hardship and women who are marginalized bear the burden of inadequate hygiene amenities, basic hygiene services, and affordable menstrual products; they are victims of period poverty. The failure to recognize and effectively address menstrual issues perpetuates the idea that menstruation is a burden unique to women. In other words, government inaction on menstrual issues strengthens the perception that menstruation is an individual problem that women must manage independently. This study argues that when menstruation is identified as a bodily problem or a neglected subject, it perpetuates gender inequities and restricts access to well-suited hygiene material, which is known to cause urogenital infections. Given these challenges, the study recommends recognizing menstrual health as a serious health challenge. The absence of robust legal and international norms that specifically address menstrual health perpetuates neglect and the ongoing failure to meet the needs of menstruating women.