Learning menstrual hygiene not just periods

My late mother didn't have the opportunity to teach me how to wear a pad.  

My aunt was the one who scolded me the night my first period came.  

It was 2 AM. A sharp pain clawed at my belly, I thought it would fade, that I’d drift back to sleep. But it only grew worse, twisting deeper until my whimpers turned to tears.  

She heard me from the other room and called me over.  

"Let me check your underwear," she said.  

Lo and behold, blood.  

Unlike some girls, I wasn’t shocked. I’d heard whispers in school, giggles in the hallway, classmates swapping stories. I knew it would happen just not HOW it would happen.  

That night, my aunt listed the do’s and don’ts

Don’t touch salt. Don’t enter a shrine. Don’t tell the boys.

But she left out the most important lesson: Menstrual Hygiene.

No one told me I had to change my pad regularly.  

No one taught me how to dispose of it safely.  

No one said it was okay/necessary, even to carry pads in my bag.  

I learned those things much later, through awkward trial and error.  

We’re taught to count our cycles, track the days, endure the pain.  

But why aren’t we taught to care for our bodies with dignity?  

This Menstrual Hygiene Day , let’s do more than count periods.  

Let’s normalize hygiene, safety, and freedom from shame.  

Here’s to a world where no girl has to learn the hard way.  No girl has to suffer because of periods.

Let's normalise menstruation and talk about it with no fear of stigma or discrimination. Just like Larissa, who learnt it on her own, many girls oyt there are not given the necessary information about menstrual hygiene management. Girls battle with all sorts of infections and at times skip school because of shame. No to period poverty, no to stigma, yes to menstrual dignity.

🥂 Cheers to a period-friendly world.