Why Product Variety is Important for Menstrual Equity & Accessibility
Authored by | Simply the Basics team
Access to safe and dignified menstrual supplies and facilities is a fundamental need for people who menstruate. Meeting the hygiene needs of everyone is significant for human rights, dignity, the economy, and public health.
Many people cannot practice good menstrual health and hygiene at home, at school, at work or in other public settings, due to a combination discriminatory social environments, poor facilities, and limited choice of absorbent materials.
In order to best serve people who menstrual, as hygiene suppliers, we must provide a variety of options and considerations so that the distribution is equitable, accessible, and meets the needs of people in the ways that they will feel most comfortable and safe.
Some key terms to note:
A menstruator is a person who menstruates and therefore has menstrual health and hygiene needs – including girls, women, transgender, and non-binary persons.
Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) refers to management of hygiene associated with the menstrual process. This includes use of clean menstrual management material to absorb or collect menstrual blood that can be changed in privacy as often as necessary for the duration of a menstrual period, using soap and water for washing the body as required, and having access to safe and convenient facilities to dispose of used menstrual management materials.
Menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) encompasses both MHM and the broader systemic factors that link menstruation with health, well-being, gender equality, education, equity, empowerment, and rights.
Menstrual hygiene materials are the products used to catch menstrual flow, such as pads, cloths, tampons or cups.
Menstrual supplies are other supportive items needed for MHH, such as body and laundry soap, underwear and pain relief items.
Menstrual facilities are those facilities most associated with a safe and dignified menstruation, such as toilets and water infrastructure.
Product Choices
Menstrual hygiene materials are those used to catch menstrual flow, such as cloths, reusable and disposable pads, menstrual cups and tampons. Menstrual supplies are other supportive items for menstrual hygiene and health more broadly, such as soap, underwear, and pain relief.
A wide range of menstrual hygiene materials are available around the world. As with all aspects of menstrual health and hygiene programming, consultations with menstruators is essential to understand the range of materials that are available, which ones are currently used, and which are preferred in a specific context, along with what common practices exist around their use.
There is no one menstrual material or product that suits every person in all settings. People have different needs and preferences for MHH materials, and these may change further depending on whether they are at school, at home, at work, or in other public settings. Someone with different types of disabilities may also have specific preferences depending on their situation. There is need to increase efforts to increase availability and choice of menstrual hygiene materials, considering affordability, sustainability, disposal, and local market considerations.
Expanding access to a range of materials, rather than offering or promoting only one option, ensures freedom of choice and dignity, enabling someone to decide based on their own preferences and individual needs. Preferences over what type of menstrual product to use is incredibly personal, and important, for a person to feel safe and stable in their hygiene needs.
The following are only some of the reasons why a person might have a particular preference:
Declining Products that are Inserted:
Many people will decline use of tampons of menstrual cups because of the need to insert them into the vagina for proper use. The most common reasons for this are the following:
The products are physically uncomfortable, or their physical structure does not easily allow for products to be inserted.
Due to sexual trauma, they are not comfortable inserting products.
They do not have easy access to bathroom facilities, and therefore menstrual cups are specifically not a viable option.
Declining Products that require Facility Access (such as menstrual cups, Period Underwear, etc):
Many people will decline items that must be rinsed in a sink or require the accessible use of laundry facilities due to limited access to a safe and clean bathroom or laundry.
Public bathrooms do not make for a safe, private, and/or sanitary environment for cleaning
Laundry facilities are expensive and not always accessible
Adapted from Phillips-Howard, P. A., Caruso, B., Torondel, B., Zulaika, G., Sahin, M., & Sommer, M. (2016). ‘Menstrual hygiene management among adolescent schoolgirls in low-and middle-income countries: research priorities.’ In Global Health Action, 9(1), 33032.