Menstrual Poverty
Someone once said that a woman is more beautiful if she has good manners, decency, and a touch of modesty. And it is precisely these decent and modest women who, with the skill of a magician, have managed their needs for centuries, putting the essential or currently important ones in the foreground while pushing others aside, waiting for a better time in life. And so, for a while, a trend brings certain female needs to the forefront, only to be forgotten later, even if they are basic physiological needs. The most beautiful characteristic of a woman’s body is that it brings new life into the world. But this characteristic also comes with its own needs.
The menstrual cycle is a cycle of biological changes that occur in a woman’s or girl’s reproductive system to prepare her body for a potential pregnancy. A part of this cycle is menstruation. The changes are triggered by hormones, which regulate natural chemical processes in the body. This process begins when a girl reaches puberty and continues until she reaches the end of her fertility, a period known as menopause.
Although it is a cycle that repeats monthly and, in total, lasts about eight years for each woman, this issue or need has never been publicly addressed. On the contrary, health issues related to women’s bodies, including not just menstruation but also pregnancy, childbirth, and menopause, are often neglected by decision-makers, policymakers, medical institutions, and even educators. As a result, women and girls often know little about the changes they will experience throughout their lives. Many girls only learn about menstruation when they reach puberty, and it can be a frightening and confusing experience for them.
However, in recent years, the management of menstrual health and hygiene has become a topic of discussion among advocates of women’s issues, education experts, humanitarian professionals, human rights experts, and global development specialists. Thus, the challenges women face in managing their menstrual cycles have been encapsulated in the term “menstrual poverty.”
What is menstrual poverty? Menstrual poverty describes the struggle many low-income women and girls face when trying to afford menstrual products. The term also refers to the increased economic vulnerability that women and girls experience due to the financial burden of acquiring all the necessary products and creating the conditions required for the normal course of the menstrual cycle. The term “menstrual poverty” is relatively new in medical literature, while menstrual hygiene management has been discussed for decades in the context of the gender gap in education for young people living in low- and middle-income countries.
At the end of 2020, a study conducted in Croatia found that approximately 10 percent of women cannot afford sanitary pads at all, while more than 10 percent of women in Croatia cannot buy enough pads to change them regularly. A third of them are forced to save on pads because the price is too high. Some are forced to buy lower-quality menstrual products due to the high costs.
There is no public data indicating that such a study has been conducted in Serbia. However, if we refer to indirect indicators, such as the at-risk-of-poverty rate, which, according to the Republic Statistical Office, was 23.2 percent in 2019, and if we add the information provided by the *European Committee of Social Rights* that the amount of financial social assistance in Serbia is insufficient to cover basic costs such as rent for social housing and utility bills, amounting to around 9,000 dinars, we undoubtedly realize that both employed women and those receiving social assistance are left to fend for themselves in meeting their basic needs.
The extent of the problem’s invisibility is evident from the fact that it is not uncommon to see news articles about socially responsible companies donating essentials for mothers and babies to maternity wards, but instead of donating menstrual products, donors often choose to give nightgowns, and frequently donate help exclusively to babies.
Even in the world, this issue is still in its early stages, but civil societies, associations, humanitarian funds, and socially responsible companies are better organized and respond more quickly to demands. Together with their governments, they participate in the distribution of hygiene products and the education of women and girls, and self-initiated individual efforts are not uncommon either. An illustrative example is the Netherlands, where you can find packages of sanitary pads at certain public places designated for book exchanges. In New Zealand, free pads are available in all schools, while Scotland has taken it a step further, becoming the first country in the world to legally mandate that menstrual products be free of charge.
In Serbia, the readiness to highlight this issue has been demonstrated by one of the more vulnerable groups in our society—students. In October of last year, a group of female students from the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad succeeded in providing free sanitary pads for their colleagues. This was made possible thanks to the initiative of these students, who submitted a project titled “Women’s Initiative” under the “What’s Hard for Us?” competition, enabling this one-time aid. Unfortunately, this issue, which affects half of our population, received very little media attention.
Indeed, why is it so hard for us to come together, everywhere and at all times—in everyday conversations with neighbors, in the National Assembly, in the media—to advocate for policies that ensure broad access to menstrual products and help cover the costs of their distribution, making menstrual hygiene products and education more accessible to women and girls across all social groups? Why not create a system in which women are cared for without having to ask for help?
*European Committee of Social Rights, Conclusions 2017 – Serbia – Article 13, Paragraph 1 – Adequate Assistance for Every Person in Need, available at: [http://hudoc.esc.coe.int/eng?i=2017/def/SRB/13/1/EN](http://hudoc.esc.coe.int/eng?i=2017/def/SRB/13/1/EN). This amount has not significantly changed since then (in 2017 it was around €71, and in 2019 approximately €78).