I woke up so confused, my body kinda felt weird. How they had explained it in the ‘girls only session’ was not what it felt like. Thinking back to it now, I am not sure if anyone could have actually explained how it would feel like. It was a school day and sooner or later I had to explain to my parents why I was taking so long to get ready for school. I took a bath and started psyching up to how I would be say it. I secretly hoped one of my parents would leave the bedroom so that I could have my mother alone, after all men were not supposed to know about periods right?
noone left the bedroom and I also did not want to be late for school so I just had to break the news, ‘if I die I die’ kind of moment. I walked in and headed to my mum’s side of the bed and whispered ‘mama ndiri kubuda ropa’ (mum I am bleeding) and you can imagine what her next question was; not even in a whispering voice #palmface. I whispered again, I don’t even know why I was whispering because my dad had obviously heard already. After mentioning that I had been bleeding ‘down there’ my mum quickly got out of bed and brought some pads to my room.
As the years went by I found it embarrassing to walk into a shop and only purchase pads, it was a constant reminder that no-one had to know that you were on your period. The other difficult bit was disposing off sanitary wear when at school or in public places. I was in boarding school at a mission school for form one and I remember we had a duty roaster to go and throw out the used sanitary for the whole hostel in the school incinerator; this was one of the worst duty days you could have, ever! Something that I found different and fascinating was how we all disposed our sanitary wear differently and also how different women used different sanitary products.
My period was always irregular from then on, I also had no period pain or signs that my period was coming, it would just arrive. I could never estimate my days and on many occasions I would only discover when I went to the toilet that Aunty Rose had arrived. Whilst my friends called this lucky (which I appreciate that I was blessed) but what I lacked in period pain, I received in 7 days of heavy bleeding. I have managed to use the period tracker for a few years now which has helped with predictions but I won’t even talk how this is a real form of data harvesting by companies. The connection between my app and my social media platforms is also unbelievable. If I forget to log in my period, I begin to be shown more baby adverts on social media, lol.
My heavy bleeding has over the years made it a big stretch on the pocket every month when purchasing sanitary wear because it means I need more packets than average. Imagine life on days you cannot afford, or on days in this pandemic where women have lost their income during this pandemic. Somethings got to give in some instances; women will forgo sanitary wear for the upkeep of the family and choose food over pads. How are women that already could not afford sanitary wear doing in this period? They are once again led to using unconventional products which in turn result in negative health effects in the long run.
The World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2020 theme is ‘Periods in Pandemic’ and the idea behind choosing this theme is to highlight how the challenges faced by women during menstruation have worsened due to the ongoing pandemic. The main idea behind marking this day is to change the social stigma associated with menstruation. The date May 28 was chosen to observe the day because on an average the menstrual cycle for most women is 28 days and the menstruation period for most women is for five days. Hence, the date was kept as 28/5.
What challenges have you been facing during your menstruation both before and during the pandemic? What challenges do you face with your period in general?
Munhukadzi 