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Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez writes in <Invisible Women>, "Half of the world's population is ignored, silenced, and the world seems designed by men. If women want to pursue equal rights, they must first strive to be 'seen' and 'heard'. Women around the world face menstruation every month, and menstrual poverty is experienced by 5 million people around the world. " Period poverty is a lack of access to menstrual products, education, hygiene facilities, waste management, or a combination of these." The first time I came across the term "menstrual poverty" was on a social media search, when a woman suggested "Why buy these unbranded bulk sanitary napkins when they were being sold on a shopping platform? A comment saying, "I have a hard time," brought the new term "menstrual poverty" into the public eye. Along with menstrual poverty comes menstrual shame. Menstrual poverty is the inability to financially afford the monthly consumption of sanitary napkin products, while menstrual shame refers to keeping one's mouth shut or covering up one's period. In my experience, in some economically backward places, women do not clearly understand menstruation. Therefore, it is important to "solve the poverty of menstruation and eliminate the shame of menstruation." This will enable women to look at their periods positively, have more knowledge about their physical health, achieve sanitary napkin freedom, and build gender confidence.

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When I volunteered to be a teacher inGuizhou, an economically impoverished mountainous region in China, to engage in a missionary project, I witnessed for the first time the humiliation and worry that menstruation can cause in young women. When a sixth-grade girl came to me pulling her garments to cover the blood on her pants, I immediately recognized this as a menstrual reaction and wrapped my jacket around her waist. With tears in her eyes, the girl asked me what was wrong, and I replied that they were not taught physiology in school. When I returned to school,I participated in an academic competition with my classmates on the topic of "period poverty. We initiated a fundraiser for the school's charity day and contacted social media bloggers to promote our campaign. We collected ¥8,888 and used the funds to purchase sufficient hygiene supplies. In addition, we developed a pamphlet collecting the menstrual and physical health information acquired online. We sent the sanitary napkins and brochures from these "Love Packs" to children in impoverished areas with the aid of a charitable organization. In numerous small, poor Chinese communities, women create sanitary napkins by sewing a long piece of cloth into a bag and stuffing it with grass and wood ash. It is a low-priced alternative to sanitary napkins, despite the fact that it may be difficult to accept. Many adolescent girls in isolated mountainous regions suffer from the embarrassment and shame associated with menstruation, yet are unable to tell their parents about the changes in their bodies. "How to reduce menstrual poverty and erase the stigma of menstruation" has emerged as the key issue in eradicating and resolving these issues.

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Menstrual poverty can result in physical, psychological, and emotional difficulties. People can experience embarrassment over their periods, and the stigma associated with menstruation prevents them from discussing it. Menstrual poverty has numerous effects on people's life. Inability to manage menstruation using suitable menstrual products can be frustrating, painful, and unpleasant. A study revealed that 68.1% of participants with menstrual poverty exhibited signs of moderate to severe depression. Another comparative study conducted in rural Uganda revealed that repetition use of sanitary napkins significantly reduced student attendance. In the culture in which I grew up, girls frequently needed pronouns to cover the term "menstruation. When they went to the bathroom during their periods, they were scared to pull out their sanitary napkins in front of others, so they hid them in a storage bag." In one small community in Ethiopia, the taboos about vaginal bleeding led not only to women and grills being exiled from the home during menstruation, but also during childbirth and postpartum bleeding." These anecdotes highlight the shame and dread associated with menstruation in most cultures. Persistent traditional customs, such as menstruation symbolizing feminine impurity, also bring them a great deal of misconceptions about menstruation and impact how women and girls approach menstrual products, which are the effects of menstrual poverty on people, and these phenomena are occurring everywhere. Monthly poverty should therefore be everyone's concern, and we may eliminate period poverty and reduce menstrual shame by: “Ensure a. Positive and supportive environment that allows menstruating people to participate in all aspects of life, going to school and work, sport. Employ zero tolerance to dirty jokers about menstruation.”

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Sanitary napkin freedom is the first step out of menstrual poverty and shame. If the government or the state is willing to provide free sanitary napkins and tampons, those who cannot afford menstrual products because of their finances can eliminate menstrual poverty. And just because there is state and government support, menstruation is becoming something that can be spoken about graciously, and people who face menstrual shame will downplay their embarrassment.Scotland became the first country in the world to provide free menstrual products for all when it implemented the Period Products Act on August 15, 2022, in a developed country where a quarter of women suffer from menstrual poverty. The bill was introduced by Labour MSP Monica Lennon, who has been campaigning to end period poverty since 2016.She said: "Local authorities and partner organizations have worked hard to make the legal right to access free period products a reality. In addition, the Scottish Government has given free period products to all schools and provided over £500,000 to the charity FreeShare to provide free period products to low-income groups. The Scottish Government's official website says, " As a part of wider work to tackle the stigma around menstruation and period products, responsible bodies should consider the importance of normalization and visibility." I think it's commendable that Scotland is calling on people to fight menstrual shame through official governmental efforts to encourage people to normalize menstruation and make it visible to the world instead of leaving women to suffer in silence. After I came to the United States for college, I observed free tampons and sanitary napkins in every bathroom at our school. These government supports are a best practice to encourage people to escape menstrual poverty and shame. In addition, Start and support initiatives that promote access to menstruation products and information about menstruation, changes,  and hygiene practices and accord women the opportunity to receive a diagnosis for menstrual cycle disorders and access  health care. Inviting people engaged in addressing period poverty to give talks and normalize menstruation is also effective in eliminating menstrual poverty.

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Women constitute half of the world's population, and it is likely that they have all experienced menstrual poverty and shame. Everyone should be concerned about menstrual poverty since a man's words or actions can have a significant influence on disadvantaged populations. The state and government should provide free menstrual supplies as a symbol of equality and dignity to allow women to live with dignity, rather than being veiled in menstrual shame, and to ensure that menstruation supplies are a fundamental right for all people. Sanitary napkin freedom and the freedom to use the word "menstruation" in public should be the first steps toward eradicating menstrual poverty and the stigma associated with it.

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1. Nwadike, Valinda  Riggins. “What Is Period Poverty?” Medical News Today, MediLexicon      International, 16 Sept. 2021, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/period-poverty.

2. Crichton, Joanna, et al. "Emotional and psychosocial aspects of menstrual poverty in resource-poor settings: a qualitative study of the experiences of adolescent girls in an informal settlement in Nairobi." Health care for women international 34.10 (2013): 891-916.

3. Michel, Janet, et al. “Period Poverty: Why It Should Be Everybody's Business: Published in Journal of Global Health Reports.” Journal of Global Health Reports, International Society of Global Health, 22 Feb. 2022, https://www.joghr.org/article/32436-period-poverty-why-it-should-be-everybody-s-business.

4. “Menstruation and Human Rights - Frequently Asked Questions.” United Nations Population Fund, https://www.unfpa.org/menstruationfaq.

5. Diamond, Claire. “Period Poverty: Scotland First in World to Make Period Products Free.” BBC News, BBC, 15 Aug. 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-51629880.

6. Video:
YouTube, 6 Nov. 2019, https://youtu.be/C2zd1x4e4ds. Accessed 14 Dec. 2022.