The consequences of period poverty

Without suitable menstrual products, women and girls face discomfort and difficulties managing their periods with dignity. The consequences extend to their health, safety, education and future opportunities:

  • Infections: A lack of clean menstrual materials, soap and water can increase the risk of infection.

  • Unintended pregnancy and HIV: Girls who exchange sex for pads are vulnerable to sexual exploitation and violence, unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

  • Interrupted education: Without adequate products and facilities, girls miss school during their periods. Repeated absences leave them falling behind, and often leaving education altogether.

  • Early marriage: Poverty, limited educational opportunities and unintended pregnancy can increase girls’ vulnerability to early or forced marriage.

Coping strategies for lack of access to pads in areas where we work

Women and girls have shared with us the strategies they use when menstrual products are unaffordable or unavailable. They describe:

  • Cutting foam from the mattresses they sleep on to use as makeshift pads.

  • Collecting discarded sanitary pads from the ground and reusing them.

  • Exchanging sex for sanitary pads.

  • Using toilet paper when it is available.

  • Reusing cloth without enough soap to wash it properly, leading to deterioration and bad smells

  • Among women in the Batwa communities we support, using grass and mud to absorb menstrual blood.

The Girl Effect

The Girl Effect shows that better educated women tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labour market, earn higher incomes, have fewer children, marry at a later age, and enable better health care and education for their children, should they choose to become mothers. All these factors combined can help lift households, communities, and nations out of poverty.

  • Education expands girls’ choices. Staying in secondary school is associated with later marriage and a lower likelihood of becoming a mother during adolescence.
    Source: World Bank, 2018.

  • Education increases earning potential. World Bank analysis across 142 countries estimates that each additional year of schooling is associated with approximately 12% higher earnings for women, on average.
    Source: World Bank, 2021.

Changing the conversation about periods

Menstruation is a natural part of growing up and blesses women with the ability to reproduce –continuing the evolutionary journey of humanity. Half of humanity bleeds and yet for many, what should be a simple fact of life has untold consequences on their overall life chances. We believe that the key to unlocking the challenges faced by millions of women and girls globally starts with changing the conversation about menstruation and breaking the taboos around periods, which still exist in so many cultures. Loving Humanity’s micro-factories not only empower women and girls physically and financially but they help to anchor these conversations in the local community and bring awareness of the challenges faced by girls and women.