Hygiene is the practice of cleansing parts of the body and is related to good health. Hygiene is often mentioned in relation to health and hygiene; oral hygiene, food hygiene and personal hygiene.
The onset of menstruation is one of the most important physiological changes in girls during adolescent years. Menstruation heralds the onset of psychological maturity in girls. It becomes the part of their lives, and thus the need to understand menstrual hygiene. Apart from personal importance, this phenomenon also has social significance.
Women have emerged to be strong decision-makers; however, the state of women sanitization and hygiene is still under darkness. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 500 million people lack access to menstrual products and adequate facilities for menstrual hygiene management.
Taking care of yourself during menstruation period is as essential as taking care of your day-to-day activities. A little negligence in menstrual hygiene management can cause your body grievous harm. Menstruation hygiene prevents women from infections in reproductive and urinary tract.
According to the World Health Organization, 2 billion people still lack access to proper sanitization facilities.
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Myths & Misconceptions
Menstruation is surrounded by myths and misconceptions, with a long list of dos and don’ts for women. Menstruation and menstruation practices are still clouded by taboos and social-cultural restrictions. Girls lacking knowledge and remaining ignorant of the scientific facts of hygienic health practices, which sometimes results into adverse health outcome.
Cleanliness of genital area and access to safe menstrual hygiene products can reduce the incidents of infection up to 97%. The proper use of sanitary napkins is important to reduce risk associated with periods. Changing sanitary napkins after 4 hours and washing hands every time are small but significant steps towards ensuring good hygiene during menstrual periods.
Lack of sufficient menstrual awareness are contributors to lower prevalence of women using sanitary napkins for periods. Women are forced to use unsafe means of collecting menstrual waste, which is mostly contaminated.
Importance Of A Good Menstrual Hygiene
Reduced risk of urinary tract infections.
Using a sanitary napkin for so long can act as a perfect environment for growth and multiplication of harmful bacteria or yeasts. These bacteria’s can invade your urinary bladder resulting in lower abdominal pain, back pain and fever. These complications can be avoided by using sun-dries and clean sanitary towels or hygienic sanitary napkins for periods.
Minimize risk of cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer is a cancer of the opening of the uterus which is caused by human papillomavirus, unhygienic handling of menstrual waste can spread the infection easily.
Ensure good reproductive health.
Improper hygiene during periods can result in reproductive tract infection. RTIs can result in reproductive health comorbidities since bacteria responsible for those infections can invade the mucosal layer of the reproductive tract and cause serious damage to the uterine wall, ovaries and fallopian tube.
Follow This Healthy Practices
- Change your sanitary napkins frequently after 4–6 hrs.
- Wash yourself properly.
- Discard the sanitary napkins properly
- Stick to one method of sanitization.
