The good, bad, and ugly – report seeks to normalise conversations around periods
‘The Red Report’ – A Stree Search on Periods is a report based on a survey conducted by Vitamin Stree by talking to 5,896 women to understand their relationship with periods.
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Based on the inputs and insights from a survey, Vitamin Stree aims to normalise conversations around periods, menstrual hygiene, and access to menstrual hygiene products, complications linked to periods, and most importantly, period positivity.
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Conducted online among 5,896 women between 18 and 24 years of age among mostly English-speaking women, the survey threw up a number of interesting responses. The survey was in the form of a questionnaire, where 90 percent of the questions were close-ended, or with multiple choices. Twenty percent were open-ended questions.
Around 50 percent of respondents learned about periods thought the Internet. Only 9.49 percent of the respondents' family celebrated when they got their periods. Over 55.2 percent of respondents have faced period irregularity and a lot of them waited for almost a year to reach out for help.
53.2 percent of respondents have missed schools/college and office due to period pain. 63.06 percent of respondents suffer from PMS. 85.6 percent still prefer sanitary napkins over menstrual cups, and tampons.
42 percent of respondents feel they should not have to spend so much on the products. 96 percent are not allowed to enter religious places. 83.8 percent are restricted to touching others during periods. 39.4 percent have never tried nor in favour of sex during periods.
84.4 percent women knew what PCOD and PCOS were, while 24.9 percent had been diagnosed with it. The symptoms that the respondents used to describe PCOD and PCOS ranged from irregular periods and weight gain to hirsutism, acne, and extreme mood swings.
Why periods? Why not?
“It’s not like there haven’t been conversations and debates around periods before. Neither are concepts like period poverty new. The direct relationship between dropout rates amongst girls from schools when they hit puberty, the taboo and stigma attached to a perfectly normal, biological process and the adverse effect of all this on the potential and growth of millions of girls around the world, these have all been written and talked about.
But, have there been significant changes in the lives of women because of these conversations, and has the relationship between a woman and her periods evolved in the last many years? These are the questions we had in our minds when we started creating this survey,” says a spokesperson for Vitamin Stree.
The question, Vitamin Stree realised, is not just about the taboo and the lack of menstrual hygiene management, but a larger question surrounding women’s reproductive health. The stigma blindly associated with periods leads to not just lack of information but also misinformation.
If women don’t have access to the right information, they will not have the power to make an informed choice about their own bodies. A simple example is the pain and cramps associated with periods. For centuries, women have been told pain is normal, and one must just bear it and carry on.
But as seen in the survey, the average intensity of pain experienced by women is on the higher side of the scale, and often could be indicative of more serious health problems. The pain and other period-related complications are also leading causes why women are often left behind in the education and economic systems, the other big reason being lack of access to menstrual hygiene management.
In the larger scheme of things, “period positivity” is most important. And this can only be achieved by continued conversations and menstruation that involve both women and men.
This long-held culture of “no-talking” around periods should stop. From a young age, women should be encouraged to be open about any problem they face during menstruation. There is nothing called a “perfect” period or a “happy” period. If young girls can get out of the shame and taboo associated with it and live life knowing that it is a normal body process, the battle is won.
(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)
