Don’t be embarrassed to accept the fact that not everybody knows and cares about their vaginal hygiene. Maintaining your vaginal health is the most essential and effortless practice. You don’t require any high-end luxury products or the commercial product where your favourite celebrity is recommending it.
Myth 1: “Use expensive products or cleansing products for your vagina.“
Your vagina has a self-cleaning trait. It contains healthy bacteria which help in cleaning the vagina by itself. Usage of appealing and commercial products unnecessarily alters the pH level of the vagina, which was supposed to be around 3.8 to 4.5.
Myth 2: “Tampons get lost in your body. “
The tampon is placed into the vagina. It shall be further instilled inside based on the user’s comfort and activity, but it cannot pass through the cervix and get inside your body. The diameter of the cervix is small enough, to not let the tampon go inside your body.
Myth 3: “Yeast infections were caused by using scented cleaning products.”
Vaginal yeast infection is a fungal infection characterized by thickness, intense itchiness, and inflammatory discharge fluid from the vagina. Generally, these were caused by using products that imbalances the pH of the vagina.
Myth 4: “Don’t use scented products. “
It is okay if you love to choose your fragrance. Some women might not show negative symptoms while using a scented cleaning product. But on prolonged usage, if the user gets an irritation, it is advised to stop using the product to prevent further damage to the vaginal health.
Myth 5: “STD always shows symptoms. “
Well, it depends on the person. But STD or an STI may or may not show the symptoms for a person. Hence frequent testing is advised.
Clean your vagina with lukewarm water once every day. That is enough. It is healthy if it has a clear, whitish discharge with no foul scent. But, if you feel itchiness or sticky discharge fluid, consult your gynecologist and take precautions as advised.
Annually 1.23 billion menstrual waste needs to be dealt with, as many women and girls are discarding their sanitary napkins and tampons by burying or burning, or throwing in latrines. These poor disposable practices are embedded in menstrual taboo and socio-cultural norms related to menstrual blood and menstruation. But menstruation isn’t a taboo. PERIOD.
SHIFTING TO SUSTAINABLE MENSTRUATION;
Sanitary pads and other menstrual products available in the market contain plastic as the vital constituent. Yes, you read that right. A sanitary napkin consists of 90 percent plastic, while the tampon consists of 6 percent plastic. The absorbent core is made of wood pulp, the ‘absorbing gel’ is made of super absorbent polymers, the ‘wings’ have non-biodegradable adhesives to keep them in place, and other materials such as polypropylene and polyethylene are also added. The primary component in all ‘DSN’ is plastic. Thereby, a sanitary napkin takes approximately 500-800 years to fully disintegrate after disposal. Now shall we reconsider our disposal practices and our menstrual health from the use of these conventional menstrual hygiene products.
Nowadays, people are opting for tote bags or cloth bags that are easily reusable and biodegradable, and are safe for the environment. But what do you think we should do about our menstrual products? How can we change and choose non-plastic menstrual products over the ones which are simply available in the market?
This is where sustainable menstrual products come to light. Sustainable menstrual products are those which are reused and easily compostable. Various environment advocacy groups have recognized the problems related to disposable sanitary napkins and tilting towards reusable products. Reusable cloth pads, menstrual cups, cotton tampons, biodegradable pads are some of the products available in this category. You may be wondering how a menstrual cup is sustainable and good for menstrual health. Most of its benefits and advantages are covered underneath the myths spread across. But do you know the fact, that one menstrual cup can be reused more than ten times. No, it doesn’t affect your menstrual health but, if you’re worried, you can search for medical-grade silicone menstrual cups in the market. Menstrual cups are safe to use and more hygienic compared to sanitary pads, don’t let the haters get through you.
Plastic tampon applicators are in use excessively by tampon users. After the utilization of these applicators, they were being flushed through even though they were stated explicitly on the packaging itself. This affects the sewer and also disturbs the total drain flow. On that account, Cotton tampon applicators have been produced but, the awareness regarding this is unfortunately low.
ARE YOU DUMPING YOU’RE MENSTRUAL WASTE PROPERLY?
There is ambiguity among the Solid Waste Management (SWM), to consider the menstrual waste a medical waste or plastic waste. SWH in 2016 laid the rules for both consumers and producers regarding the sanitary pad disposal method. It states that the Sanitary napkin waste must be wrapped in a suitable cover or paper during disposal, provided by the brands or the companies involved in the production of menstrual hygiene products. SWH also categorized the menstrual waste as “Dry waste” meaning the waste other than biodegradable products.
In Pune, the cleaning staff (safai-karmacharis) takes part in the segregation of the non-biodegradable waste by hand from a mass of the compostable waste which also includes division of sanitary pads. Eventually, they have complained about the incomplete wrappings of menstrual products and disclosed how the smell and sight of the menstrual waste make them feel nauseous and cause relatable health problems. To combat this, the Pune Municipal Corporation joined with the SWaCH waste picker cooperative to start the Red Dot Campaign. In this campaign, all households should wrap the used menstrual hygiene products completely and mark a red dot on the wrap indicating that this is a menstrual waste. As per studies, 30 percent of households have been following this campaign compared with 0 percent before the campaign. Campaigns like this give waste pickers self-advocacy and return their dignity of labour.
SWH 2016, suggests that all the menstrual waste should be incinerated in one of the 215 large-scale common bio-degradable medical waste incinerators available. However, this requires segregating, transporting the menstrual waste, which adds on a lot of physical effort. The Rules also put the responsibility of managing the waste on producers through the creation of necessary infrastructure or financial support for the same — which are not in place yet. Thereby, this is a solution that holds potential for the future but does not exist currently. The change will not happen overnight. However, it’s not impossible. The battle starts by destroying the menstrual taboo itself and bringing awareness to women and girls in third-party countries.
