Women’s charity, Menstrual Health Project, calls for local councils to take menstrual health seriously and teach kids about it in schools.
In 2020, it became compulsory to teach children about periods in schools in England as part of the Government’s ambitious ten year plan to improve the health and wellbeing of women and girls across the UK. The plan came after national acknowledgement that women spend a significantly greater proportion of their lives in ill health and that not enough focus is placed on women-specific issues like miscarriage, menopause and endometriosis.
The health strategy sets out the government’s aims to improve the country’s health and care systems to boost health outcomes for women and girls, yet a study by YouGov reported that period education in schools remains insufficient and young girls do not have the resources they need to adequately navigate their menstrual health.
Despite 13-years-old being the average age of menarche in the UK, further research by Plan International revealed that 1 in 4 girls felt unprepared for their first period with 1 in 7 not knowing what was happening when their period first started. These surprising statistics are proof that even with recent menstrual health introductions into the primary and secondary school curriculums, more thorough support and resources need to be made available for young girls in the UK.
Menstruation has always been a topic discussed quietly; a woman’s best kept secret, it’s embarrassing, shameful and a naughty taboo – or at least that’s what society enforced stigma likes to say. “I suffer with endometriosis and I have done so for the past 15 years – since I was 14-years-old.” Said Anna, co-founder of Menstrual Health Project, a women’s charity based in the UK that sets out to provide educational resources to help young women navigate their menstrual health.
“It’s been the bane of my life for a long time; I’ve come across an incredible amount of gaslighting, misunderstanding and misinformation. There’s too many gaps in the conversations about women’s menstrual health; there aren’t enough resources or support out there and that’s really disappointing.”
Anna and her co-founder Gabz founded the Menstrual Health Project in response to the frustration felt by the lack of education surrounding menstrual health and their own turbulent experiences. 30-year-old Gabz from West Sussex added: “After years of misdiagnosis, being told I had IBS and food intolerances, I was finally diagnosed with endometriosis, adenomyosis, chronic pain and most recently, fibromyalgia.”
“Like Anna, I noticed that something was missing – that there was a need for more resources and education surrounding, not just endometriosis, but menstrual health [as a whole]. And that’s how the Menstrual Health Project started.”
Gaining charity status in February of this year, Anna and Gabz embarked on a mission to provide accessible tools and resources that would help young women and girls to navigate their menstrual health through the Menstrual Health Project. “Although endometriosis is where our experiences [are] rooted, and where our journeys started, we [understand that] the bigger picture starts with menstrual health, like periods, so we [wanted to] bridge the gap.” Said Gabz.
Without thorough understanding of menstrual health, young girls become victims of poor self-esteem and internalised misinformation, and this results in them feeling ill-equipped when their first period arrives, unsure of the difference between normal and irregular menstrual symptoms and completely isolated when they wish to find answers to small or large complaints concerning their periods. But all of this, as the Menstrual Health Project works to action, could be avoided if time was spent to provide in-depth educational resources and implement insightful menstrual health lessons into the curriculum.
The shocking truth is that in the UK, young women and girls reported that getting their period was almost always accompanied by feelings of fear, embarrassment and shame – but why when periods are a normal part of female life? It boils down to awareness and unfortunately, many women – both children and adults – have very little awareness in regards to their own health. And this was reflected in a study by Eve Appeal which found that 44% of female participants couldn’t identify the vagina on an anatomical diagram and 60% couldn’t identify the vulva.
When asked if they thought the menstrual health lessons taught in school were effective, both Anna and Gabz said no. “It varies county to county but young women and girls are not taught enough in schools and because of this, turn to the internet to find out information – but there’s not enough out there and of that that is out there, a lot of it is misinformation.” Said Anna.
“Some schools are great at delivering menstrual health education but many others are completely buried by the poor quality of that education, and the information they’re actually given. They’re not told what they should do if they have certain symptoms; they’re not told what is normal and what is not – they just skim over [everything].”
And even though menstrual health lessons are a compulsory part of the curriculum for schools in England, the same study by Eve Appeal identified that the education young girls receive greatly depends on the school and the resources they can offer. Over 60% of students reported that these lessons were old fashioned and unrelatable and 76% thought that they were awkward and embarrassing. With these statistics in mind, the Menstrual Health Project calls for engaging and simple resources to be offered in schools.
Gabz reiterated that it’s not one of those subjects that you “should be able to pick or choose because you don’t have a choice whether you go through menstrual health or not. It’s just as important as your mental health or other parts of your physical health.”
The Menstrual Health Project has created free downloadable toolkits that they hope will improve menstrual health awareness and education. Available to educational institutions across the UK, Anna and Gabz are working with local councils to gain support for their charity and product offerings. “It’s a massive, massive job,” said Anna, “and it’s not something that’s going to change overnight. It’s going to take a lot of work but me, Gabz and our board of trustees don’t take no for an answer.”
Anna and Gabz said this isn’t just about menstrual health but it’s about bringing awareness to the chronic conditions and illnesses that can occur if a person has a lack of understanding about good menstrual health. Gabz said: “My periods were always horrific – but it was always brushed over – and now as a result, I have chronic illnesses and fertility issues. And some of these illnesses are incurable.”
“We want to give people the tools and the confidence to be able to maybe prevent some of these conditions or for it not be so severe; we want to help people understand the accurate information they’re entitled to know and what to say to health professionals to get it right.”
“Our toolkits help give women a voice and we want to show women how to become their biggest advocates.” Added Anna.
The Menstrual Health Project’s menstrual health toolkits are available to download online and they continue to be distributed in schools across the UK as they raise awareness of the importance of better education for young women and girls.
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