User:Broa0399/sandbox

Youtube Creators

Precious Star Vlogs is the most popular youtube channel that focuses on alternative menstrual products(AMPs). Precious Star Vlogs creator Bryony, started her channel on April 30, 2013, and has over 137 thousand subscribers. She has over 618 videos about menstruation, menstrual cups, and cloth menstrual pads including how to make your own. Her channel has raised awareness of alternative menstrual products.

Bryony has started her own company called Precious Star where she sells cloth menstrual pads ranging from liners to overnight pads. Her company is based in the United Kingdom, but ships all over the world.

Men's Role in Menstruation

In some developing countries, menstruation is not a topic spoken in households. Menstruation is considered taboo because of the lack of conversation around menstruation and the inequalities present in the country. Due to the patriarchal prevalent in some developing countries, women are not given money for menstrual products forcing them to utilize cheap alternatives such as reusable cloth menstrual products.

Menstruation women are considered dirty in some countries due to cultural norms and stigmas. In extreme cases, men exclude women from the house due to them being considered impure. Boys are taught not to talk about menstruation because it is a topic that will not be relevant in their future. Lack of conversation leads to boys searching for information online or through friends furthering the inaccuracy or incompletion of information.

Developing countries[edit source]

In developing countries, reusable or makeshift pads are still used to collect menstrual blood. Women in these countries most often resort to either staying in their rooms during menstruation or using pieces of old cloth/ rags, old mattress foam and even infection-causing items such as leaves, husks, disposed cement bags, etc. Lack of access to feminine hygiene products affects women and adolescent girls around the world. This lack is directly tied to exploitation, school drop out rates, infection, early marriage and even child trafficking. Quality washable menstrual pads are now helping as worldwide awareness is growing - also evidenced by the global initiative of "Menstrual Hygiene Day". Many NGOs are coordinating volunteers to sew effective washable pads with moisture barriers that, unlike disposables, can be used month after month.

Effective management of menstruation is an under-recognized challenge for girls in low-income communities. A study in Uganda showed the effects of menstruation and education in communities of poor education, welfare, and health. Girls who received high-quality menstrual pads were less likely to miss school. The girls reported better concentration and participation due to not having to worry about staining their clothes.

Studies have found that between 43% and 88% of girls and women wash and reuse cotton pads in India, rather than utilizing disposable pads. These numbers are particularly dominant in rural areas and low socioeconomic regions. The cotton pads are sometimes not sanitized properly due to washing with soap and unclean water. Due to menstruation's taboo nature, women and girls dry their cotton pads indoors rather than in the sunlight, which may lead girls to reuse improperly sanitized pads leading to infection.

In Somalia, where girls may be absent from school for a week each month due to menstruation, a charity has trained victims of gender based violence to sew re-usable sanitary pads, which are then purchased for distribution to schools in Mogadishu.

Days for Girls is a global movement based in the United States which supplies girls with kits including reusable cloth pads, sewn by volunteers around the world. Each kit is in a draw-string cloth bag with zip closure plastic bags for clean and used pads and other hygiene needs, and enables the girls to continue their schooling with dignity.

Cloth menstrual pads ranging from liners to overnight pads.

• Washing reusable pads requires water and detergents, and also electrical power if not hand-washed. Bloody cleaning water must be disposed of safely.
• Cloth menstrual pads need to be washed with soap, properly dried, and cared for.
• Special care may need to be taken if the user has a candidiasis (yeast) infection. Pads can cause reinfection if not sterilized.
• Initial cost for reusable menstrual products is typically higher per pad than for disposables, although total cost of usage is much less.
• Blood-borne pathogens such as hepatitis C are present in the menstrual pads of infected patients, and pose risk of infection if not sealed in leak-proof containers.

• Cloth menstrual pads are environmentally friendly and do not contribute to landfill as they are reusable and do not come in or contain plastic packaging. When cloth menstrual pads wear out (after years of use), those made from natural materials can be composted whereas disposable sanitary napkins made from synthetic materials cannot be recycled or composted. An estimated 500-800 years are needed to biodegrade a pad, while tampons take six months to biodegrade.

• Fewer chemicals are used by cloth menstrual products than by disposable products. They create less overall waste compared to disposable menstrual products as they can be made from reused materials, including old pillow-cases, old clothes and towels. Some cloth pads use hemp as the absorbent core which is more environmentally friendly to grow when compared with cotton or wood pulp. Organic options, such as pads made of organic cotton grown without pesticides and chemicals, are available.
• The average cloth menstrual pad cost about $10 and can last for years depending on care and use, saving money.