Combating menstrual insecurity

Providing free supplies to women in precarious situations, combating the taboo of menstruation, raising awareness of sexual and reproductive health issues among local players: an innovative project by Planning Familial de Montpellier.
Temps de lecture : 3 minutes

Menstrual precariousness: a public health issue

On average, a woman menstruates more than 500 times in her lifetime. That's how many tampons or pads she'll need to use. Hygienic protection is essential, but it's not free. In fact, they represent quite a budget! It's hard to estimate exactly how many sanitary pads women use in our lifetime, however, it's estimated that on average a woman will use between 10,000 and 15,000 sanitary pads in her lifetime.

In France, an estimated 1.7 million women cannot afford to buy sufficient sanitary protection, due to exogenous situations, financial situation, access to housing, access to drinking water, access to food... This is what we call menstrual precariousness.

Beyond these economic aspects, the ecological stakes surrounding protection, the lack of research into menstruation-related pathologies, the lack of information and the taboos surrounding menstruation are all factors that plunge all women into menstrual precariousness.

Or, menstrual precariousness has dramatic consequences in terms of hygiene and health. These women are sometimes forced to keep the same tampon or pad for several days, which considerably increases the risk of infection and toxic shock. They may also resort to unsuitable products such as newspaper sheets to replace periodical pads, which can lead to intimate health problems or absenteeism from school and work.

.

Family Planning's commitment to combating menstrual insecurity

For the Family Planning, combating menstrual precariousness is in line with the fight against violence against women. In this way, Planning wishes to contribute to free, local access to sanitary towels and to better management of menstrual precariousness issues and beyond to sexual and reproductive health for women in precarious situations from a perspective of equality and non-discrimination.

This innovative project is supported by the City of Montpellier, the French government (DGSC and DRDFE) and the Secours Populaire 34, which is in charge of storing the menstrual protection products at La Centrale, and welcoming and supplying the associations for the first and subsequent distributions.

It relies on an inter-associative Santé pour Toutes et Tous working group and has 2 components:

  • The provision of free access to 100% organic cotton sanitary protection from the French brand JHO for around 2,500 women, based on a network of some 20 partner associations in Montpellier;
  • Awareness-raising workshops for women in partner associations, and targeted training for professionals.le.s in order to integrate menstrual precariousness into their actions as a gateway to sexual and reproductive health prevention for the public.

The first distribution took place from December 6 to 9, 2021.

Contact: