Health Organisations commit to meeting menstrual health needs

World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Special Programme on Human Reproduction (HRP) have begun to work together to address menstrual health issues.

The organisations have made significant progress in bringing menstruation onto the global health agenda by taking a strategic approach based on research that incorporates what adolescents want and need.

The WHO says it remains committed to supporting a strong health sector response to the wide-ranging issues that menstruation brings.

Recently, WHO and HRP made commitments on menstrual health to the Water Action Agenda at the UN Water Summit in March 2023, in collaboration with UNFPA, UNICEF, UNESCO, Global Menstrual Health Collective, and Columbia University, to advocate for countries to include promotive, preventative, and curative health services, as well as access to adequate water supply and sanitation, in their national universal health coverage policies and strategies.

According to the World Health Organisation on the website, this was a logical follow-up to call for action and a commitment WHO and HRP made at the Human Rights Council in 2022.

Research shows adolescent girls continue to be uninformed and unprepared for menstruation, with feelings of exclusion and shame leading to misconceptions.

This common lack of knowledge becomes a barrier to education and can negatively impact self-confidence and personal development.

This understanding has led to a set of five action points for WHO’s work in menstrual health.

The organisation has pledged to educate girls about menstruation, create norms that see menstruation as healthy and positive, improve access to sanitary products, running water, functional toilets and privacy, improve care for and support by girls’ families, improve access to competent and caring health workers.

WHO states that a research article reviewing progress made in low- and middle-income countries in the 25 years since the International Conference on Population and Development found that menstruation-related needs have been helped by girls and women sharing their experiences of the ongoing barriers they face to managing their period.

To develop tools for health workers and caregivers and respond to the needs and asks of adolescents, HRP and WHO developed desk reference tools for health workers to provide effective and empathic care and support at the primary level to adolescents and their caregivers, answering questions around pain associated with menstruation, irregularity, and more.

The call to use the term menstrual health, rather than menstrual hygiene, is a result of work with a broad range of partners committed to bringing menstrual health into the global health agenda through a consistent, self-contained definition developed by the Terminology Action Group of the Global Menstrual Collective.

HRP and WHO also worked with partners to review the state of the menstrual health field in order to map the next ten years, and what it will take to achieve the vision of health for all. The review covered the cross-sectoral nature of menstrual health and indicated WHO’s role in strengthening the health sector response.

The work to bring menstruation into sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender, education and humanitarian settings continues ahead of Menstrual Health Day (May 28 ) at the Africa Menstrual Health Symposium: Achieving Menstrual Justice through a Grassroots and Multisectoral Approach.