Culture and menstruation

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There are many cultural aspects surrounding how societies view menstruation. Different cultures view menstruation in different ways. The basis of many conduct norms and communication about menstruation in western industrial societies is the belief that menstruation should remain hidden. By contrast, in some hunter gatherer societies, menstrual observances are viewed in a positive light, without any connotation of uncleanness. A menstrual taboo is any social taboo concerned with menstruation. In some societies it involves menstruation being perceived as unclean or embarrassing, inhibiting even the mention of menstruation whether in public (in the media and advertising) or in private (among friends, in the household, or with men). Many traditional religions consider menstruation ritually unclean, although anthropologists say that the concepts 'sacred' and 'unclean' may be intimately connected.

The terms menstruation and menses are derived from the Latin mensis ('month'), which in turn is cognate with the Greek mene ('moon') and the roots of the English words month and moon. According to anthropologists Thomas Buckley and Alma Gottlieb, cross cultural study shows that while taboos about menstruation are nearly universal, and while many of these involve notions of uncleanliness (ritual impurity), numerous menstrual traditions "bespeak quite different, even opposite, purposes and meanings." In some traditional societies, menstrual rituals are experienced by women as protective and empowering, offering women a space set apart from the male gaze and from unwanted sexual or domestic pressures and demands. In other words, the idea of the seclusion of the menstruation hut may be perceived as banishment of the woman seen to be impure and taboo, or as a welcome space and time free of the usual daily chores: isolation versus retreat. An instructive example is provided by the anthropologist Wynne Maggi, who spent years living in the peasant society of the Kalash people of the Chitral District in northwestern Pakistan. She describes the communal bashali (large menstrual house) as the village's 'most holy place', respected by men, and serving as women's all female organizing centre for establishing and maintaining gender solidarity and power. Also see the interview conducted in Period Matters

Metaformic Theory, as proposed by cultural theorist Judy Grahn and others, places menstruation as a central organizing idea in the creation of culture and the formation of humans' earliest rituals.

Menstruation in synchrony with the moon is widely assumed in myths and traditions as a ritual ideal. The idea that menstruation is—or ideally ought to be—in harmony with wider cosmic rhythms is one of the most tenacious ideas central to the myths and rituals of traditional communities across the world. One of the most thoroughgoing analyses of primitive mythology ever undertaken was that of the French anthropologist Claude Lévi Strauss, who concluded that, taken together, the indigenous myths of North and South America expressed men's worry that, unless women's periods were carefully monitored and synchronised, the universe might descend into chaos. In Aboriginal Australia, the supernatural being known as the 'Rainbow Snake' has been interpreted as, among other things, an indigenous way of conceptualising the ideal of synchronised tidal, lunar, menstrual and seasonal periodicities whose overall harmony (it is believed) confers spiritual power and fertility. To many, such cultural associations appear persuasive in view of the fact that in humans, the menstrual cycle quite closely approximates the moon's 29.5 day synodic cycle, unlike in chimpanzees (~36 days) or bonobos (~40 days). Statistical information from hunter gatherers is lacking, but where large scale western studies focus on women's peak reproductive years—removing outlier values—the cycle length gravitates around 29.1–29.5 days, while the figure for women in their thirties shortens toward 28 days. In no current human population has statistically significant lunar phase locking been demonstrated.

In some historic cultures, a menstruating woman was considered sacred and powerful, with increased psychic abilities, and strong enough to heal the sick. According to the Cherokee, menstrual blood was a source of feminine strength and had the power to destroy enemies. In Ancient Rome, Pliny the Elder wrote that a menstruating woman who uncovers her body can scare away hailstorms, whirlwinds and lightning. If she strips naked and walks around the field, caterpillars, worms and beetles fall off the ears of corn. Menstrual blood is viewed as especially dangerous to men's power. In Africa, menstrual blood is used in the most powerful magic charms in order to both purify and destroy. Mayan mythology explains the origin of menstruation as a punishment for violating the social rules governing marital alliance. The menstrual blood turns into snakes and insects used in black sorcery, before the Maya moon goddess is reborn from it. Where women's blood is considered sacred, the belief is that it should be ritually set apart. According to this logic, it is when sacred blood comes into contact with profane things that it becomes experienced as ritually dangerous or 'unclean'. An example of this is Indian Artist Lyla FreeChild who internalised this belief and harvested her menstrual blood to paint an image inspired by a dream where she saw herself as the powerful, bleeding goddess Lajja Gauri. In an essay accompanying her art she explains her belief in the creative and healing power of menstrual blood. Illnesses and problems were understood as being caused by dyscrasia, or an imbalance in the four humours. Treatments for disease had the aim of restoring a balance, curing the patient. The humoral model was a continuity during the early modern period, despite the fact that new medical theories began to arise in the second half of the eighteenth century, because these new ideas which used different treatments involving new chemicals were not as trusted since they were not properly established. In this way medical and popular beliefs about menstrual problems such as irregular menstruation, amenorrhea (absence of periods whilst fertile) or dysmenorrhea (painful periods) were thought of in relation to the four humours. In early modern western Europe, physicians believed that the womb could not be too cold, hot, moist or dry and that an excess in any of these could impact a woman's fertility. Significantly, people believed that warmth encouraged sexual pleasure and increased the probability of conceiving a child, meaning that the womb had to be warm during intercourse. If a woman was found to be having problems menstruating which would then impact their fertility, remedies which aimed to alter the humoral state of the body were used. Aphrodisiacs were a common remedy given to women with menstrual problems, since they were believed to have internal heating effects, stimulating menstruation by redressing the constitutional balance of a womb that was too cold.

The sociological theorist Emile Durkheim argued that human religion in its entirety emerged originally in connection with menstruation. His argument was that a certain kind of action—collective ritual action—could establish simultaneously totemism, law, exogamy and kinship in addition to distinctively human language and thought. Everything began, according to Durkheim, when a flow of blood periodically ruptured relations between the sexes. 'All blood is terrible', he observed, 'and all sorts of taboos are instituted to prevent contact with it'. During menstruation, females would exercise a 'type of repulsing action which keeps the other sex far from them'. This same blood was thought to run through the veins of women and animals alike, suggesting the blood's ultimate origin in 'totemic'—part human, part animal—ancestral beings. Once menstrual blood had been linked with the blood of the hunt, it became logically possible for a hunter to respect certain animals as if they were his kin, this being the essence of 'totemism'. Within the group's shared blood resided its 'god' or 'totem', 'from which it follows that the blood is a divine thing. When it runs out, the god is spilling over'.

In Judaism, a woman during menstruation is called niddah and may be banned from certain actions. For example, the Jewish Torah prohibits sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman. The ritual exclusion of niddah applies to a woman while menstruating and for about a week thereafter, until she immerses herself in a mikvah (ritual bath) which is basically intended only for married women. During this time, a married couple must avoid sexual intercourse and physical intimacy. Orthodox Judaism forbids women and men from even touching or passing things to each other during this period. While Orthodox Jews follow this exclusion, many Jews in other branches of the religion do not. In the Torah (Leviticus 15:19 30), a menstruating female is considered ritually unclean: "anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening" (New International Version). Touching a menstruating female, touching an object she had sat on or lain on, or having intercourse with her also makes a person ritually unclean. The extent to which these rules are observed in modern Judaism varies depending on the degree of conservatism/orthodoxy. In Genesis 31:34 35, menstruation is referenced in a story, where Rachel was, or pretended to be in her menstrual period:Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, and put them in the saddle of the camel, and sat upon them. And Laban felt about all the tent, but found them not. And she said to her father: 'Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise up before thee; for the manner of women is upon me.' And he searched, but found not the teraphim.

Most Christian denominations do not follow any specific rituals or rules related to menstruation. Other denominations, such as those of Oriental Orthodox Christianity, follow rules similar to those laid out in the Holiness Code section of Leviticus, somewhat similar to the Jewish ritual of niddah. Pope Dionysius of Alexandria held with regard to menstruating women that "not even they themselves, being faithful and pious, would dare when in this state either to approach the Holy Table or to touch the body and blood of Christ." Others held that purity laws should be discarded as part of the Old Covenant. The 4th century text Apostolic Constitutions says:For neither lawful mixture, nor child bearing, nor the menstrual purgation, nor nocturnal pollution, can defile the nature of a man, or separate the Holy Spirit from him. Nothing but impiety and unlawful practice can do that. Some Christian churches, including many authorities of the Eastern Orthodox Church and some parts of the Oriental Orthodox Church advise women not to receive communion during their menstrual period, not because menstruation is considered to be sinful, but for more intense preparation to approach Christ and due to the physical difficulties faced by women. This is a fairly common practice throughout Greece and Russia and other historically Orthodox Christian countries, as well as by Orthodox Christians in countries where they are in the minority, including Egypt, Kerala and Syria. In 735 the Latin Church decided that women must be allowed to attend liturgies and receive Holy Communion during their menstruation.

Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, in the Kitáb i Aqdas abolished all forms of ritual impurity of people and things and stressed the importance of cleanliness and spiritual purity. Menstruating women are encouraged to pray and are not required to fast; they have the (voluntary) alternative of reciting a verse instead.

In Jainism, the bleeding that occurs in menstruation is thought to kill micro organisms in the body, making the female body exhausted, causing cramps, and producing stress. Hence, women are expected to rest and not perform any religious duties for a duration of four days. In this time, the man of the house may take up the duties of the woman.

In Japan, the religion of Shinto did and still does play a part in their society. The Kami, the spirits they worshiped, would not grant wishes to those who had traces of blood, dirt, or death on them. While menstruation is not entirely blood, the ancient Japanese did not know that. As a result, women who were menstruating were not allowed to visit any of the Kami shrines for the duration of their menstrual period. Even today, women are not allowed to enter Shinto shrines and temples during menstruation, and in some instances, women are completely banned from climbing the tops of sacred mountains due to their 'impurity'. Furthermore, the tradition is kept somewhat alive in the belief that the shedding of the endometrial lining is a kind of death. The tradition relates to the thought that any death in the family brings impurity and those experiencing this must wait a certain amount of time before being able to return to shrines and other holy areas.

In Chinese belief systems, women are not supposed to touch sacred statues, make offerings, or pray to sacred statues on their menstrual cycle. Before the revolution some temples only permitted men, and women who were very old or very young, to attend. Chinese views of menstruation are still deeply influenced by Confucianism values of virtue and chastity. Many women feel empowered and feminine in their early years of starting their menstrual cycles.

Menstruation is mentioned in some Wiccan and pagan texts. There are collected books and material on Witchcraft and menstruation at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. In the 2010s public Wiccan and pagan practitioners began sharing rituals, spells and histories of menstruation in these belief systems. Pagan rituals and histories of menstruation is also discussed in books such as Penelope Shuttle and Peter Redgrove's The Wise Wound: Menstruation and Everywoman.

Across the continent of Africa, a wide variety of menstruation related customs have been recorded. In 2014 UNESCO reported that an estimated 10% of girls in Sub Saharan Africa do not go to school while menstruating. This is likely due to a lack of resources rather than cultural customs of exclusion, but it depends on context and country and tribe and customs.

Religious taboos and social stigma concerning menstruation contribute to a lack of access to school for girls in Ghana. In rural areas of the country 95% of girls have reported missing school during their periods. The World Bank estimates that 11.5 million women in Ghana do not have access to adequate hygiene and sanitation. Menarche (the first menstrual cycle at puberty) is traditionally treated as a sign that the girl is probably ready for sex and marriage, as well as for adult duties in the household. Initiation rites on menarche include instruction on sex and marital relations as well as on menstrual management. This is conducted by older women. It is taboo to talk about menstruation with men, or to learn from one's own mother.

In some portions of South Asia, there is a menstrual taboo, with it frequently being considered impure. Restrictions on movement, behaviour and eating are frequently placed. According to a 2018 study, more than one third of girls across South Asia do not go to school during menstruation. This creates difficulties in sharing knowledge at school and at home. Also, there is a low level of menstrual hygiene management. This has a negative effect on social opportunities in achieving good health, moving around freely and going to school. In some traditional homes in India, girls and women face restrictive taboos relative to menstruation, such as being denied entry to the kitchen. In areas around the Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh, the belief is that "menstruation is a disease and not a normal biological process", and therefore women who are menstruating are not allowed to sleep on beds, enter kitchens, touch male members of their family or eat spicy foods. In a 2014 study conducted in India, the researchers found that as many as 42% of women who participated in the study did not know about sanitary pads or the anatomical origin of their menstruation. The researchers noted that women reused old rags to deal with their menstrual discharge, and that "Most of them were scared or worried on first menstruation." A study conducted in six villages Uttar Pradesh in 2018 found that 87% of women had no knowledge of what a period was until their first menstruation experience and most men also did not have any idea what it involved until they got married.

Sabarimala Temple is situated at the place of that name in Pathanamthitta District, Kerala. Women of reproductive age were not permitted to worship there; the ban was said to be out of respect to the celibate nature of the deity to whom it is dedicated, Shasta, an underage teenage male. A Kerala high court judgement had legalized this interpretation, and forbade women from entering the temple since 1991. In September 2018, a judgement of the Supreme Court of India ruled that all Hindu pilgrims regardless of gender can enter. The Constitution bench of the Supreme Court held that any exception placed on women because of biological differences violates the Constitution – that the ban violates the right to equality under Article 14. This verdict led to protests, demonstrations and violence by millions of Ayyappa devotees (both male and female) supported by the Hindu right wing Bharatiya Janata Party and opposed by the LDF led state government. About ten women attempted to enter Sabarimala, despite threats of physical assault, but failed to reach the sanctum sanctorum. Defying such protests, two women activists belonging to the previously barred age group associated with the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) finally entered the temple through the rear gate, on the early hours of 2 January 2019, with the help of police and local administration. When this alleged action was brought to the notice of the temple priests and authorities, the temple was closed for ritual purification. Controversy regarding the implementation of this verdict continues.

Assamese and Bengali Hindus adhering to Shaktism celebrate the menstruation of the goddess Kamakhya during the Ambubachi Mela (অম্বুবাচী), an annual fertility festival held in June, in Kamakhya Temple, Guwahati, Assam, India. The temple stays closed for three days and then reopens to receive pilgrims and worshippers. It is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in India, attracting millions of visitors each year, particularly for Ambubachi Mela which draws upwards of 100,000 pilgrims per day during the four day festival. Before the temple is closed for Ambubachi, a white cloth is placed over the yoni (vulva) shaped stone in which the goddess Kamakhya is worshipped in the temple. At the end of Ambubachi, when the temple is reopened and Ambubachi Mela is held, the assembled devotees are provided with fragments of that cloth, now reddened to signify menstrual blood. This cloth, known as Raktobostro (रक्तवस्त्र), is considered especially holy by Hindus since it has been stained by the 'menstrual blood' of Kamakhya, the Mother of the Universe.

In Bali, a woman is not allowed to enter the kitchen to perform her usual duties, nor is she allowed to have sex with her husband while menstruating. She is to sleep apart from the family and has to keep her clothes that she wears while menstruating away from any clothes that she could wear to the temple. One of the most important regulations is that a woman is not allowed to attend temple while menstruating. In Sumba, women keep their cycles secret, which makes men see them as deceitful. Women from Sumba believe that because of their secrecy, they will always have control of the men. "Men will never know how much we really can do to control these things. We have all kinds of secrets, and they should always believe that we can control even more than we really can". Women are supposed to avoid intercourse while menstruating. It is believed that sexually transmitted diseases are the results of women deceiving men and having intercourse while they are menstruating. Gonorrhea translates as 'disease you get from women' in Sumba; it has become a social problem. When a man gets this disease, the only way it is believed he can rid himself of the painful sores is to pass it to a woman. The reasoning is that a woman's body can absorb infection and purge it during a cycle.

Hindus in Nepal traditionally keep women isolated during menstruation; women who are menstruating are not allowed in the household for a period of three nights. This practise was banned by the Nepalese Supreme Court in 2005 but still continues. Community and organizational actions exist to combat the practice. In January 2019, local authorities demanded the destruction of chhaupadi huts in Bajura, the municipality in which a woman and her two young sons died in a hut. This resulted in the removal of 60 sheds, and the deployment of law enforcement to patrol for further removal.

In 2017, Scottish MSP Monica Lennon began work to present an 'Ending Period Poverty' bill to government. In 2019 it was officially lodged and debated in Holyrood. It was approved in November 2020 and made Scotland the first country in the world to make it a legal requirement for period products to be available for free to anyone who needs them. In 2019, the Government Equalities Office launched a Period Poverty Taskforce to research and end the problem of people who cannot afford menstrual products.

Menstruation education is frequently taught in combination with sex education in the US, although one study suggests that girls would prefer their mothers to be the primary source of information about menstruation and puberty. A Nigerian study showed the following breakdown in menstruation education: "parents of 56%, friends of 53%, books of 46%, teachers of 44%, internet of 45%, and health centers of 54%" held the most influence in terms of menstruation education. The quality of menstrual education in a society determines the accuracy of people's understanding of the process. This is in part due to the segregation of male and female peers during educational sessions. Failure to teach an accurate understanding of menstruation to students of all genders has social implications for gendered relationships and the objectification of women's bodies. Discomfort arises when students do not have access to the same information, reinforcing the belief "that menstruation is gross and should be kept hidden". Girls are encouraged to conceal the fact that they may be menstruating in order to be considered desirable. Sexual harassment and teasing about menstruation cause girls anxiety as they must struggle to ensure that they give no sign of menstruation. Other experts argue that programs led by peers or third party agencies are more effective than those taught in the school classroom. This may be due to the use of small group interactions, the ability of these programs to target specific populations, or the possibility that many teenagers choose to participate voluntarily in these programs, rather than being mandated to attend school programs. Early ads included print magazine campaigns from Tambrands Inc (Tampax), Kimberly Clark (Kotex) and brands that have since been discontinued. Advertising for menstrual products outside the US began somewhat later. In Norway, SABA began openly advertising after the Second World War, driving a brightly colored bus around the country to provide information to consumers. Historically, menstrual product advertising has had to balance frankness and information with taboos and censorship laws against discussing or showing menstrual themes. Educational pamphlets and school outreach has been an important way of marketing to young consumers during the twentieth century. One common way that sanitary product advertising avoids depicting menstruation is by pouring a blue, rather than red, liquid on the sanitary product to demonstrate its absorption. Historically, this has been due to strict censorship rules regarding menstrual product advertising. In 2010, the Always feminine hygiene brand created the first feminine hygiene ad to ever feature a tiny red spot, representing blood. The ad was created by intern and artist William Chyr who was working at Always' advertising agency, Leo Burnett. Originally the ad was created for the intern's personal portfolio, but then it caught the attention of the chief creative officer at Leo Burnett, and was subsequently published as an actual ad. There was some controversy when the ad was first released. In June 2016 the presence of red blood in a UK Bodyform commercial was greeted with approval in social media for its attempt to challenge the stereotypical menstruation ad, by showing women who struggle despite bleeding from cuts, blows and bruises they receive while playing various sports. Later, Bodyform's owner, Essity, launched campaigns featuring blood like liquid in the campaign "Blood Normal".

Menstrual art engages with menstrual themes, including blood, pain, menopause and menstrual stigma. Although not new in the twentieth century, a noted increase in artistic engagement began in the late 1960s, at the time of second wave feminism, with artists including Shigeko Kubota, Carolee Schneemann, Judy Clark, Judy Chicago, Catherine Elwes, Marina Abramović, Gina Pane, Ana Mendieta, and later Orlan. Since the 1960s, artists have continued to take an interest in menstrual art. Menstrual art highlights different issues regarding activism around shame, menstrual creativity, feminine power, taboos and pain. Several South Asian artists including Anish Kapoor, Rah Naqvi and Lyla FreeChild have been working in different mediums such as acrylics, embroidery and menstrual blood. Kaur critiqued Instagram's position, writing: "Thank you Instagram for providing me with the exact response my work was created to critique I will not apologize for not feeding the ego and pride of misogynist society that will have my body in an underwear but not be okay with a small leak, when your pages are filled with countless photos/accounts where women are objectified, pornified, and treated [as] less than human". Kathy Battista, and Bee Hughes. In 2022 through a QR code in a book, Indian classical dance was explored as a form of menstrual art, where the dancer Amna Mawaz Khan expressed the feminine power she felt during menstruation while also rejecting period shaming and patriarchy through strong, gestural movements based on traditional dance steps to raag music, and red paint on her feet.

Movies and television also reflect the taboo nature of menstruation. Typically menstruation as a topic is avoided, except for scenes involving menarche, a girl's first period. For example, as Elizabeth Arveda Kissling explains in her article, "On the Rag on Screen: Menarche in Film and Television", the 1991 film My Girl contains a scene where the main character, Vada, experiences her first period. The explanation given to her by a female role model of what is happening to her is done off camera and the subject is never mentioned again, save when Vada pushes Thomas across the porch telling him, "Don't come back for five to seven days." In an article for Vulture examining the history of menstruation depictions on screen, critic Tina Charisma wrote, "Periods have traditionally been used as symbols in storytelling, usually to signal a character’s coming of age and often accompanied by disgust, fear, or shame. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that narrative, over time it’s built a subconscious image of how menstruation should be orchestrated and perceived. Very rarely is a period portrayed as what it is like for almost everyone who experiences it — mundane." In the 1991 Japanese animated film Only Yesterday, one of the girls is found to be going through menstruation and is later teased about it, especially when a group of boys tell the others not to touch a ball she had touched by saying, "You'll catch her period". Clueless, the 1995 cult classic teen movie, contains an oft cited line about periods. Protagonist Cher, when receiving a second tardy for being late to class, uses the euphemism of "riding the crimson wave" as her reason for receiving her second tardy. In the 2007 movie Superbad, Seth discovers menstrual blood on his jeans after dancing with a woman. He reacts with disgust, as do other men in the scene. The scene has been described by critics as "[encapsulating] the attitudes of disgust and shame associated with periods." Netflix's Big Mouth features Jessi Glaser, played by Jessi Klein, getting her period for the first time on a school trip to the Statue of Liberty in season one episode two. As Jessi frets in the bathroom her male friend, Andrew Glouberman, played by comedian John Mulaney, finds her a menstrual product. The 2020 film Borat Subsequent Moviefilm features a scene that uses humor and irony to subvert taboos surrounding menstruation. In the scene, Borat and his daughter Tutar do a "fertility dance" at a debutante ball, and the audience is enthusiastic about the dance until Tutar lifts her dress to reveal she is menstruating, which prompts disgust and walkouts amongst the crowds. The scene was praised by writers for its satirization of common menstruation stigmas. As said by Lindsay Wolf of Scary Mommy, since society has "been conditioned to basically pretend that periods don't exist, putting them in the spotlight like [the film] did forces us to confront that 1) they happen, and 2) we need to get over it and stop treating girls like dainty little prizes who secretly have them." and Turning Red, and the TV series Broad City, Yellowjackets, a series which involves a group of female characters who must learn to survive while stranded in the wilderness, received praise for not ignoring the subject of periods in comparison to other survival dramas. The essay "Menstruation in Fiction" in the 2022 book Period Matters: Menstruation in South Asia examines the male and female authorial gaze on menstruation and how more than twenty writers from different cultures have depicted it in their writing, including Philip Roth, Milan Kundera, Stephen King, and Nurudeen Farah. According to the essay, male authors have tended to objectify and dehumanize their female protagonists when depicting them on their periods. In contrast, female authors such as Shashi Deshpande, Doris Lessing, Petinah Gappah and Bapsi Sidwa are shown to be more sympathetic in their portrayal of menstruation in their fiction, highlighting cultural, religious and socioeconomic constraints. Anthropologists Lock and Nguyen (2010) have noted that the heavy medicalization of the reproductive life stages of women in the West mimic power structures that are deemed, in other cultural practices, to function as a form of "social control". Medicalization of the stages of women's lives, such as birth and menstruation, has enlivened a feminist perspective that investigates the social implications of biomedicine's practice. "[C]ultural analysis of reproduction attempts to show how women exhibit resistance and create dominant alternative meanings about the body and reproduction to those dominant among the medical profession." Overcoming this taboo is a point of contention amongst feminists. The primary argument behind this movement is that if menstruation is normal, there is no reason why the topic should be avoided: "After a while it becomes psychologically disorienting for women to look out at a world where their reality doesn't exist." The prominent rise of menstrual activism began with the rise of feminist spiritualist menstrual activists in the late 1960s. In 1973, a "Bleed In" was held by Janice Delaney, Mary Jane Lupton, and Emily Toth, who believed that their shared menstruation experience merited discussion. Feminist scholars extend this theory to explain negative attitudes towards women's bodily functions. Such stigmatization occurs when menstrual blood is viewed as one of the "abominations" of the body and reflects a gendered identity among women, which leads to consequences for women's psychological and sexual well being. She created a zine, Adventures in Menstruating, to "help alter the visibility of menstruation, so that it's at least normal to talk about it. Because, right now, it's not". Other menstrual activists include Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, who published My Little Red Book; filmmaker and academic Giovanna Chesler, who created the documentary Period: The End of Menstruation; and artist Ingrid Berthon Moine, who exhibited a video and series of photographs at the Venice Biennale. the movement features the wider discussion sparked by the hashtag "package free sanitary pads" on social media platform Weibo in September 2021 and reveals the unspeakable pain of period poverty to the public. Following the campaign by the advocacy group Stand By Her on social media, university students set up "sanitary pad help boxes" and provide free sanitary pads at over 250 campuses in China. At 16 years old, Nadya Okamoto founded the organization PERIOD, and wrote the book Period Power: a Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement. New York Congresswoman Grace Meng has been a longstanding advocate for menstrual equity, and proposed the Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2021 to Congress. Many women's rights organizations have endorsed this bill, including the Alliance for Period Supplies, Plan, Girls Inc., Human Rights Watch, and I Support the Girls in addition to their various campaigns that fight for destigmatization, free menstrual products, and more. Activism roles have also been taken on by young Black women like the Brown sisters, who founded the organization 601 For Period Equity in response to the "white washed" nature of many other organizations. In India and Pakistan, grass roots activism is taking place with young people coming together to break the stigma around menstruation using art workshops, murals and street theatre. For example in Jharkhand young people painted a mural on a wall outside a post office to raise awareness in the village, many social enterprises have been established to help increase access to refugee populations, people with disabilities and other marginalised groups. The substance was taken by the Ming dynasty Jiajing Emperor and the abuses inflicted on the palace women to ensure the blood's purity led to the Renyin palace rebellion.

Menstrual synchrony is an alleged process whereby women who begin living together in close proximity experience their menstrual cycle onsets (the onset of menstruation or menses) becoming more synchronized together in time than when previously living apart. A 2013 review concluded that menstrual synchrony likely does not exist. In an interview with a woman who was incarcerated for many years in Pakistan, she claimed that her cycle was always in sync with her fellow inmates. As an alternative, companies are manufacturing reusable period panties, cloth menstrual pads, menstrual cups, biodegradable sanitary napkins and other eco friendly products. Not all cultures use menstrual products, opting instead for natural materials or homemade options.

Research has shown that access to sanitation and hygiene arrangements for menstruating allotment holders in the UK limits access to these spaces.

The term menstrual inequity refers to the disparities in affordability, accessibility, destigmatization, and safety of menstrual products. Furthermore, calls for menstrual equity expand into demands for reproductive justice, which includes the subtopics of education, support systems, and healthcare. Menstruation is a highly stigmatized biological process, to the extent that most women feel uncomfortable discussing their experiences. In the CBSN documentary "Period", New York Congresswoman Grace Meng discussed the complex feelings of shame that come with menstruation and how it contributes to gender inequality. Beyond the perpetuation of gender inequality, the inclination to hide menstruation experiences contributes to the phenomenon of period poverty. Period poverty is defined as "a lack of access to menstrual products, education, hygiene facilities, waste management, or a combination of these", according to Medical News Today. In fact, 25% of women cannot purchase period products due to income limitations. Furthermore, period products cannot be purchased with government subsidies like food stamps, health spending allowances, Medicaid, or health insurance.

Menstruating is an expensive process, and thus difficulty in accessing period products disproportionately impacts low income people. Especially with laws like the tampon tax and the lack of free menstrual products in most bathrooms, many are forced to miss school or work due to lack of access. One in five low income women have reported missing work, school or similar events due to lack of access to period supplies. With regards to mental health, 68.1% of women experiencing monthly period poverty expressed that they were experiencing moderate or severe depression compared to 43.4% of women who experienced no period poverty. In 2021, 51% of female students wore period products for longer than recommended. In a different study with low income women, 64% of participants explained that they could not afford menstrual products in the previous year. Of these women, around one third expressed that they resorted to other products like rags, toilet paper, and children's diapers. The COVID 19 pandemic has only exacerbated these concerns in a time when unemployment and financial insecurity has risen. Efforts are now being made to reduce period poverty in Scotland, as it became the first country in the world to make period products free in August 2022. The Period Products Act made it a legal duty for local authorities to provide free period products such as tampons and sanitary pads to "anyone who needs them." A study performed through a series of interviews highlighted that for black and Latina women, all the women in the study reported a normalization of pain by medical professionals. This was not surprising to the author of the study, given that women are proven to be less likely to report their pain when they are shot down in their attempts to seek out help. Women in the study expressed atypical symptoms such as 47 day long periods, excruciating cramps, and unrelenting constipation—and still were dismissed by medical professionals. These women, up to multiple decades later, were diagnosed with severe illnesses like pituitary tumors and polycystic ovary syndrome. The denial of pain for women of color does not stop at delayed diagnoses and daily pain, and rather has larger implications for mental health. A strong case has been made by some Marxist feminists for including period leave in the work place citing pain as one of the reasons while many other feminists are against it. Black women also face higher rates of adverse symptoms, like extreme pain and heavy menstrual bleeding. Impacts on black women are further worsened by the fact that 42 percent of black women wait four years or more before seeking out treatment for fibroids, compared to 29 percent of white women. Fibroids have immense consequences in terms of cancer risk, as black women who have fibroids have shown to be 40 percent more likely to have some form of endometrial cancer. Analogously, it has been demonstrated that black women are equally as likely to have endometriosis, but are significantly less likely to be diagnosed with the disease compared to white women. All of the aforementioned health risks result in what physicians and activists alike label as "period trauma". Dr. Charis Chambers, a board certified OB/GYN, explains that "I would define period trauma as any sustained psychological, social, or emotional injury/distress related to or caused by menstruation". Almost half of black school attending women reported that they are not able to do their best on school work because of their periods. Correspondingly, 66% of transgender men thought people felt negative or very negative about masculine presenting people who menstruate. Menstruating on its own is difficult, when accounting for period stigma and period pain, but the added burden of gender dysphoria can be traumatizing While some feminists have argued that Western patriarchy has used the inability for women to control their menstruation as evidence of the female body suffering from limitations, others have focused on historical works that deem menstrual blood 'dirtier' than other blood, because it results from the failed reproductive cycle. One focus of activism has been to challenge high taxes on menstrual products, otherwise known as period tax. In recent years, activists around the world have turned their attention to lowering or abolishing the higher taxes placed on menstrual products, because some states and countries consider them "luxury items". In 2020, Hungary had one of the largest, taxing up to 27% on menstrual products. Still, the movement to lower period tax has persisted, and has been deeply connected to another movement against period poverty. Period poverty is a recent phrase and refers to anything dealing with an impoverished menstruation experience, including the shame and stigma associated with the lack of a dignified experience Apps, devices and other technologies under the category of Femtech provide services such as tracking menstruation, fertility, pregnancy or other reproductive health issues. In regards to menstruation and fertility apps, these services often collect data about a person's period, symptoms, sexual activity or fertility. These apps provide predictions and health observations by analyzing user's data. However, the collection and access of sensitive menstrual and fertility data from users isn't regulated and serves many people across different countries who have differing cultural views about topics such as menstruation and abortion which can put users at risk. However, many consumer health apps which only make general wellness claims do not need to comply with the HIPAA Privacy Act and may share or sell consumer data. These consumer health apps include ones that track menstruation, fertility and sexual information. Acquisition of data from either a primary collector or sold from another entity can be acquired by law enforcement to enforce local abortion laws.

Data from menstrual apps poses a new area of study in Women's Health research. Menstrual apps collect data on various period metrics such as bleeding, pain patterns, energy levels, mood and sexual activity. This poses as a new source of data for researchers to better understand women's health, who have historically been underrepresented in medical research. Clue also suggests that by analyzing user data it can create suggestions for users to check for health issues such as polycystic ovary syndrome if symptoms arise in user's inputted data.

Criticisms note that many menstrual tracking apps such as Clue, Flo, and Period Tracker reinforce prejudices by catering their designs towards cisgender, sexually active, heterosexual women through the designs of their applications, using colors, pictures or symbols that are typically associated with femininity. These apps do not account for individuals who identify with other genders and make assumptions that the user wishes to procreate or isn't infertile, providing features such as ovulation tracking, pregnancy avoidance and fertility treatment which don't account for queer, infertile or unpartnered women. Users have also complained of a lack of representation of other women's health issues in menstruation apps such as irregular cycles or menopause where predictive algorithms or features may be less precise or absent all together.