Awareness of the Menstrual Menace

Experiencing menstrual problems is something that I’ve always been upfront about with my boys and yet, I have a feeling that they will never, in fact, NO MAN will ever, understand the true shame, (guilt, even — for having it or complaining about it for fear of being shunned or being labelled as whinny).

But it IS a problem all women go through and we suffer not only monthly pains, everything else related to starting and raising a family is placed solely on the shoulders of women. And we’re not permitted to complain about it.

“For example, the homeless do not have access to menstrual products but for students, the school toilets may not be clean or have proper bins in the cubicles, which makes changing pads difficult,” she said. — The Painful Reality of Period Poverty in Malaysia

Sometimes, the periods get so bad that it reduces us to nothing more than puddles of misery. And yet, if a woman was to call in sick from work because she knows she is not able to fully function for the day, it is assumed that she’s merely using it as an excuse.

And that’s why we rarely do it.

The truth is this — it’s hard for us to walk into the Doctor’s office to ask for a Medical Certification (sick leave) while citing period pain. None of us really want to do that except for, maybe, a few.