Female’s specifically adolescent girls in Pakistan are often unprepared or unaware for the onset of menstruation– mostly due to a culture of silence surrounding women’s reproductive health issues of which menstruation is a part.

This lack of knowledge, preparation and poor hygienic practices during menstruation presents creates negative impacts on girls’ self-esteem and personal development. It also affects their education as they often miss school because of shame or lack of adequate facilities to manage their menstrual cycle. In addition to schools lacking proper hygiene facilities, teachers are often not prepared to address girls’ queries about menstruation.

Although the past decade has seen growing awareness of menstrual-related challenges and menstruation is being talked about more openly in the public domain by means of various awareness campaigns. Moreover, menstrual hygiene is slowly emerging as a human rights issue, but still a lot of progress still has to be achieved. Menstrual health is integral to improve global population health, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and realizing gender equality. Therefore an increased multi-sector investment is needed to comprehensively address the needs of all female who menstruate.