New essential norms must include reproductive health services, said health expert. Menstruation does not stop during pandemics.
Physical Intimacy during Menstruation
Is it safe to have sex during periods? Yes, it is safe and normal to have sex during periods, as long as both the partners are comfortable with that. It mainly depends upon the couple’s preferences, level of comfort and choices.
Is it safe to have sex during periods? Yes, it is safe and normal to have sex during periods, as long as both the partners are comfortable with that. It mainly depends upon the couple’s preferences, level of comfort and choices.
‘During the lockdown to contain COVID-19 pandemic in India, several local groups had to step up their efforts to address the need for sanitary napkins and contraceptives.’
Products related to menstrual hygiene, such as, sanitary napkins, tampons, etc are very important for ensuring women's menstrual hygiene. Hence, they ought to be considered as essential commodities. In many societies, openly talking about menstrual hygiene is still considered a taboo and many a young girls and women in countries like India still use unhygienic products (rags, paper, etc) during menstruation. Many organizations like Sustainable Health Enterprise (SHE), Goonj, Code Red, among others, are working towards providing women with proper affordable and accessible sanitary napkins. One such group is Asha Parivar led by Ramon Magsaysay Awardee Dr Sandeep Pandey.
While the world eagerly and desparately waits for scientific breakthroughs to prevent and cure COVID-19, we also need to review the reasons for not being able to fully translate earlier scientific breakthroughs into public health gains without delay.
Himachal Pradesh Moves to End Menstruation Taboo
Women in many remote parts of the mountain state are virtually ex-communicated when they are menstruating. They are forced to sleep outside the house.
Women in many remote parts of the mountain state are virtually ex-communicated when they are menstruating. They are forced to sleep outside the house.
When it comes to sexual and reproductive health, there are gender-specific barriers that aggravate the disparaties in access to options to prevent unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and HIV. In National Family Health Survey (NFHS-IV), the unmet need for family planning was 12.9% and contraceptive prevalence rate was 47.8%. Teenage marriages were 26.8% and teenage pregnancies were 7.9%.
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Menstruation Huts: Women in Nepal Still Forced to Sleep Outside during Periods
End menstrual taboo: Teenage girls and women in Nepal are still being forced to sleep outside in menstruation huts during their periods, despite a law banning this ancient custom.
End menstrual taboo: Teenage girls and women in Nepal are still being forced to sleep outside in menstruation huts during their periods, despite a law banning this ancient custom.
In these unprecedented times of COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes far more important to outline what actually are essential services for us as human beings. As said by Dr Jameel to Citizen News Service (CNS), some services which are essential in our day-to-day lives are being neglected because of excess demand and shortage of supply- such as availability of contraceptives and other essential reproductive health services have taken a backseat. Indeed it is important and rather quintessential to put the sexual and reproductive health services under the essential services' list, though these are swept away under the carpet many times as a non-essential service.
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Early-onset of Menstruation May Up Type 2 Diabetes Risk
Does early-onset of menstruation cause diabetes? Yes, starting periods at a young age may increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, reveals a new study.
Does early-onset of menstruation cause diabetes? Yes, starting periods at a young age may increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, reveals a new study.
"With the continuance of lockdown, the importance of midwives, nurses, and doctors who assist the birth of children is also highlighted. In a dire situation like this, infants and mothers can be at risk if not treated properly", said Dr Zamir.
The International Planned parenthood federation(IPPF) has constituted a task force for COVID-19, especially for 121 countries where sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services have been severely affected. This task force is working to strengthen community education and awareness about COVID-19, ensure continuity of essential SRH services, secure essential supplies of SRH related products and ensuring safety of suppliers and agents who provide these services.
In order to analyze the results, they did a survey in 121 countries. In 25 countries, across the East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific, shortage of SRH services was reported. Dr Zamir shared that IPPF, which is a federation of national family planning associations, has several member associations (like those in Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, China) which are finding solutions to advance rights-based access to sexual and reproductive healthcare in the pandemic situation.
Such innovations include tele-medicines and even home delivery of sexual and reproductive healthcare services/ products in Malaysia (such as contraceptives). The World Health Organization (WHO) has released multiple guidelines for the people to be aware of the problems they could face during the time of the pandemic and how to combat them.
One of the most important aspects of these guidelines is the act of self-care. Along with regular measures such as social distancing and respiratory hygiene, people are also advised to maintain proper sexual and reproductive health without the help of any external support- such as a health worker- in a pandemic related lockdown situation. These guideline address multiple issues such as family planning, pregnancy, childbirth, newborn care, safe abortion etc.
The WHO also highlights the importance of proper care and nutrition of pregnant women and new mothers, along with proper hygiene and precautions while breastfeeding. It also suggests the use of contraceptives to reduce unintended pregnancy, and other lifesaving measures to avert maternal mortality.
The COVID-19 related lockdown has also precipitated a deeply entrenched human rights violation in the form of sexual and other forms of gender-based violence. In the initial few weeks of the lockdown itself, the government of India's National Commission of Women (NCW) reported, "From February 27 to March 22, a total of 396 offences (including all types of abuses) related to women were reported to the NCW, while from March 23 to April 16, as many as 587 such complaints were received."
Dr Zamir rightly points out that those suffering due to sexual and gender-based violence struggle to report it. Reporting it during the lockdown becomes even more difficult. In such days of lockdown, which is implicitly a home quarantine, it becomes rather more difficult for women who face domestic violence to come out.
Healthcare for non-COVID-19 related problems has slipped down the priority. Routine immunization came to a halt and services for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) became more difficult to access. People living with HIV or those on anti-TB medicines were struggling to ensure uninterrrupted treatment during the lockdown.
Dr Zamir shared that "One of the biggest impacts of COVID-19 is that it has profoundly impacted on the accessory family planning information, services and sexual and reproductive health and rights."
The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be a test for not only the basic structures of society but also of the complex social and health networks that need to bear the brunt more than any other industry which have direct implications on people, especially women. Sexual and reproductive health services are always at the centre of health responses and become even more critical during crisis situations.
Source-Medindia
