MENSTRUAL HYGIENE DAY – 28th MAY 2023.

THEME: MAKING MENSTRUATION A NORMAL FACT OF LIFE BY 2030.

The word menstruation is said to have originated from the Latin word “Mensis” which means month and also from the Greek word “Mene” which refers to the moon. It is believed that the menstrual cycle was sort of related to the moon because the moon’s cycle also lasted 29 days. Researchers say menstruation is also called Period because the word period is from the Latin word “Periodus” which means a recurring cycle.

The day and month of world menstrual hygiene is a symbolic one as May is the 5th month of the year, which symbolizes the average length of menstruation which is five days, while the number 28 symbolizes the menstrual cycle which lasts averagely 28 days

Menstrual Hygiene Day is an annual awareness day that takes place on May 28th to promote good menstrual hygiene management. The day aims to break the taboo around menstruation and raise awareness about the importance of menstrual hygiene for women and girls worldwide.

The theme for Menstrual Hygiene Day 2023 is “Making menstruation a normal fact of life by 2030”. This theme emphasizes the need to normalize menstruation and ensure that every woman and girl has access to safe and hygienic menstrual products and facilities.

Currently, many women and girls around the world face challenges related to menstruation, including lack of access to menstrual products, inadequate sanitation facilities, and social stigma and taboo surrounding menstruation. These challenges can have significant impacts on their health, education, and overall well-being.

SPORTS AND MENSTRUAL HEALTH

Monitoring menstrual phases among professional athletes is becoming increasingly popular, and many elite sport organizations often use smartphone apps to track their athletes’ periods, providing the support staff with crucial information to promptly identify disruptions and offer timely nutritional, training-based or medical interventions. The most well-known health-related threat to female athletes is the loss of the menstrual cycle, which endocrinologists and gynecologists mainly refer to as functional amenorrhea.

Because Menstruation has been enveloped in secrecy due to the many stigma around it as well as cultural and religious beliefs that surrounding it, many active women in sports find it difficult to open up about their period and issues around it. Affirmed on issues around balancing training sessions and period cramps, lack of changing facilities in many football grounds for women, lack of access to clean water & sanitary pads and the most pressing one among many women sports – many coaches / technical team are male and more often than not misunderstanding of the physical and psychological happenings of the athlete.

To achieve this goal Kenya Footballers Welfare Association(KEFWA) head of Communication Terry Ouko noted that it is important to prioritize menstrual hygiene management in global policies and programs, increase access to menstrual products and facilities, and raise awareness about menstrual hygiene and its importance. By working together, we can ensure that every woman and girl can manage their periods safely, hygienically, and with dignity.
“On this day we join many others in commemorating this day with intentional effort to seek out partnership and collaboration to; Break the taboos and end the stigma surrounding menstruation,Raise awareness about the challenges regarding access to menstrual products, education about menstruation and period-friendly sanitation facilities and Mobilize the funding required for action at scale.” Noted Terry.

All of this contributes to our overarching goal to build a world where no one is held back because they menstruate by 2030.