Menstrual Hygiene Day 2022: Indian women speak out on their top period concerns

Menstrual Hygiene Day: This day is celebrated to abolish taboos surrounding menstruation and to focus on the importance of hygienic and accesible menstrual resources for women.

New Delhi: According to a survey, the top menstrual hygiene concerns for women during their periods are disturbed sleep, menstrual cramps and dirty public toilets. Out of the total number of women surveyed, more than half or 53.2 per cent, said they do not have sound sleep during the first two days of their periods. The survey revealed that 67.5 per cent women are still worried about the risk of spotting during periods when they are asleep at night.

The survey has said 57.3 per cent women experienced moderate to severe menstrual cramps, while 37.2 per cent had mild or occasional menstrual pain.

A whopping 62.2 per cent of women admitted that they have either never or only rarely changed a sanitary pad at a public place such as a toilet at office, mall or cinema hall.

However, 74.6 per cent women get uncomfortable if they need to change the sanitary pad at a public toilet. As much as 88.3 per cent women believe that dirty toilets can be a source of persistent urinary tract infection, according to the survey.

The menstrual hygiene survey received participation from nearly 6,000 menstruating women aged between 18 to 35 years from more than 35 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Patna, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Bhopal, Indore, Guwahati, Jaipur, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Kolkata.

The survey also underlined some facts about the average onset age and duration of periods.

While most of the women respondents (79.3 per cent) said they were 12 years or more when they got their first period, 63.1 per cent women said they knew girls who have just started their periods, of which as many as 37.5 per cent girls were aged 11 years or less.

The survey findings have also questioned the phrase 'those five days' with less than one-third women (30.3 per cent) having periods for five days in a month.

As many as 22.8 per cent women had periods lasting 3 days or less, while 1.8 per cent women had periods lasting more than eight days each month. The survey was conducted by a feminine hygiene brand.