May 28 is World Menstrual Hygiene Day, which aims to break taboos around menstruation: a subject still highly invisible, which leads menstruating people to undergo a form of social exclusion and which remains a burden. important financial, especially among the most precarious.
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The Elementary Rules association, which has been fighting against menstrual insecurity since 2015, unveiled a study with OpinionWay on May 28, revealing that 20% of women have already been confronted, directly or indirectly, with menstrual insecurity. Also according to this survey, 11% have experienced it personally and 10% say they know someone they know who has already been in this situation.
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In France, between 1.7 and 2 million women do not have the means to regularly obtain periodic protection. And for good reason, menstruation has a cost: in 2017, the BBC published a calculator of the cost of periodic protection, which established at 1,550 pounds, or 1,730 euros, the average cost for a person menstruating throughout his life.
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13% of students have already had to choose between hygienic protection and basic necessities
Menstrual insecurity primarily affects the most insecure, especially female students. In February 2021, the Federation of General Student Associations (FAGE) conducted a survey of female students and menstruating gender minorities, such as non-binary people or transgender men. In this survey, the FAGE revealed that a third of the people questioned declared that they needed financial assistance to obtain hygienic protection. Even more worrying: 13% said they had already had to choose between buying sanitary protection and another basic necessity.
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Still according to this FAGE survey, 46% of people questioned spend an average of 5 to 10 euros per month to meet this need. To this sizeable budget for precarious young people are added possible related expenses, such as painkillers, underwear or linen, which sometimes increase the bill to more than 20 euros per month.
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Following this investigation, the Minister of Higher Education, Frédérique Vidal, announced the establishment of distributors of hygienic protections in universities, from the start of the September in 2021. The objective set by the Minister is 1,500 accessible and free distribution points. She also promised that from March 2021, periodic protection would be made available in CROUS university residences and university health services (SSU).
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According to the survey carried out by OpinionWay for the Elementary Rules association, nearly nine out of ten French people (86%) are in favor of the provision of free intimate hygiene protection for people in need. To fight against this precariousness, three quarters of the people questioned (76%) want them to be accessible in all public structures, and 70% are in favor of installing distributors in the street and in transport.
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Until January 2016, the VAT (value added tax) on periodic protections was at 20%, as much as for luxury products. It has since dropped to 5.5%. Across the Channel, Scotland voted in November 2020 for free and universal access to periodic protection.
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Menstruation remains a taboo subject
Also according to this OpinionWay survey for Elementary Rules, the subject of rules remains taboo for nearly seven in ten French people. If feminist activists have been mediating the issue of periods and menstrual precariousness for several years, putting these issues on the political agenda, the subject still remains complex.
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In 2020, on the occasion of May 28, the Elementary Rules association, which collected more than five million intimate hygiene products that have benefited more than 115,000 women, launched an online campaign with several personalities to break taboos around rules. The singer Pomme, the creator of the Instagram account “I am bats the clit” Camille Aumont-Carnel, the professional handball player and creator of The V Box Estelle Nze Minko, or the author and founder of the newsletter Les Glorieuses Rebecca Amsellem participate to this campaign.
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Because making the rules visible also means making their physical and psychological effects visible, and allowing menstruating people to experience this period better. An Ifop study for Intimina, a brand of intimate health products, published on May 28, indicated that nearly one in two women (48%) suffers from a painful period. A figure which rises to 60% for the youngest (15-19 years) and to 52% for the 20-29 years.
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Ifop also notes in this survey “lack of medical management of these symptoms“pain: if diseases such as endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome are more publicized, their diagnosis remains long and their treatment difficult. In addition, for some health professionals, menstruation pain remains underestimated and minimized.
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In fact, the rules remain a factor of embarrassment, even of social exclusion. According to the Ifop study, 19% of women have already given up going to work, 31% to go on a date and 28% to go out with friends when they have their period. In addition, 33% of the women surveyed have already suffered mockery or derogatory remarks because of their menstruation.
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A problem still poorly understood or even denigrated by people who do not have menstruation: 46% of women questioned in this Ifop survey have already had the feeling that the discomfort or pain of their periods were minimized by their male friends, and 42% by male members of their family.
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Finally, the subject of menstruation and menstrual insecurity remains taboo in the workplace. According to the Ifop survey, 71% of workers ensure that there have never been personal hygiene products available in their workplace. Likewise, the question of menstrual leave is still debated in France: having the possibility of taking one or two days of leave because of painful periods is not yet fully accepted in many professional circles. A subject which therefore deserves more visibility, in order to hope to progress.
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