By Kellie Scott.
Hiding a pack of tampons at the bottom of your shopping basket or popping a used pad in your handbag when there is no bin in your boyfriend’s bathroom are some of the signs a taboo around menstruation still exists in Australia.
But the biggest indicator according to University of Melbourne research fellow Dr Carla Pascoe is that money can still be made from promising women a more effective way to conceal their period.
This Saturday is Menstrual Hygiene Day which aims to “create a world in which every woman and girl can manage her menstruation in a hygienic way — wherever she is — in privacy, safety and with dignity”.
But while managing “that time of the month” hygienically may not be an issue for the majority of Australian women, managing the embarrassment is.
Dr Pascoe has studied the attitudes around menstruation over the past 100 years and said the taboo has become “subtle and complex”.
“The major way we can tell there is still a menstruational taboo is that you can still make money from it,” she said.
“If you analyse the advertisements from sanitary product companies, most of them are ‘buy our product because we can offer you a more effective way to conceal menstruation’.”
‘Women hide used tampons in their handbags’
Interviews with women of different ages by Dr Pascoe revealed the many lengths women go to “hide” their period.
“Women told me if they go to someone’s house and there is no bin in the bathroom, they would bundle up a pad or tampon into toilet paper and stick it in their bag and take it home — these are grown women,” she said.
“Even with adolescent girls — one girl was wrapping them up and putting them in a bag under her bed because she didn’t want to be seen using the family bin.”
She also said women hid their sanitary product purchases at the supermarket and struggled to talk about their period, even with people they were intimate with.
Top Comments
I've never understood what is so gross about menstruation and it's a most crucial issue in regards to health and wellbeing,a lot of people don't realise that it's a most naturally recurring biological function of the female reproductive system and the very reason why we all exist in the first place
Being open about periods is an important step towards opening up more about women's health in general. I don't mean going out and shouting about it from rooftops, but being able to comfortably and casually ask talk about it with friends and family, with your doctor, or even ask a stranger in a public toilet if they have a spare tampon or pad because you've been caught without one.
At 35, I'm only now having open conversations about this with my mother and sister, because my eldest daughter is having some issues with her periods and we need some family history for her doctor. Turns out what I thought was normal for everyone, isn't even normal in my own family.
Certainly in your situation being open is the right thing to do. I'm not so sure talking about menstruation needs to be 'open' at all times, but definitely not 'private' either.
Maybe discreet is a better word?
Discreet still gives the connotation that it's something to be hidden, and therefore something to be ashamed of.
I'm not saying we all go out and run marathons with blood streaming down our leg, like Kiran Gandhi did last year, but I believe it's an important step women's health, especially in regards to gynaecological issues, to be able to identify when something just isn't right and push to get a proper diagnosis instead of being brushed aside.
It could save lives, since so many issues share symptoms we often brush off as normal, such as bloating, cramping/pain and heavy/light flow. All of which are symptoms of various gynaecological cancers as well as being common menstrual symptoms.
Using the definition of 'intentionally unobtrusive' for discreet I think it still fits, though I understand other definitions include terms such as hidden and confidential.
Of course talking to a doctor is totally different, things should be very open there.
So talking to people who can help you is quite normal, including family and friends, that can still be discreet.