82.8% women struggle to focus on work due to menstrual periods or pain associated with it

India’s leading feminine hygiene brand, Everteen, has released findings of its 8th Annual Everteen Menstrual Hygiene Survey 2023. Everteen is one of the partners for #MHDay2023, which is also supported by UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank, France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other organizations.

Nearly 10000 menstruating women in the age group 18 to 35 years participated from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Patna, and other Indian cities.

While 73% women want companies to allow women to take menstrual leaves, 71.7% women do not want these to be paid menstrual leaves, and fear that they may make companies reluctant to hire female employees. As an alternative, 86.6% women are in favor of the concept of a menstrual friendly workplace, where females are not hesitant in discussing the subject openly, and menstrual hygiene methods and support infrastructure is made available to women. 68.9% women have taken a leave of absence from work during menstrual periods, and 51.2% women have taken it twice or more times.

Mr. Chirag Pan, CEO, PAN Healthcare, says, “As a pioneer in feminine intimate hygiene, everteen is committed to create accurate awareness about menstrual hygiene. Since 2014, the Everteen Menstrual Hygiene Surveys have played a crucial role in unravelling emerging trends and highlighting the top menstrual concerns of women in India. Corporates need to make it a priority to adopt practices for a menstrual friendly workplace. Ironically, our Everteen Menstrual Hygiene Survey shows that only 5.2% women feel comfortable discussing menstrual periods with their manager, while 39.9% women do not prefer to discuss menstrual periods at the workplace, even with their female colleagues.”

Says Mr. Hariom Tyagi, CEO, Wet & Dry Personal Care, the Maker of Everteen, “Like in our 2022 everteen survey, this year too shows that more than 50% of the women are not able to sleep well during the first two days of their periods. 63.6% women experienced moderate to severe menstrual cramps. In fact, menstrual cramps emerged as the biggest concern for 30% women when going out during periods, trailing marginally behind the worry of changing sanitary pads, which was the top concern for 33% women. As many as 82.8% women said they struggled to focus on work due to menstrual periods or pain associated with it. We are happy to see that more and more women are adopting relatively newer products to manage period pain. Our survey shows that 18.3% women are already using menstrual cramps roll-on.”

However, the survey findings continue to highlight the need for making awareness on feminine and menstrual hygiene a national priority. One-fourth of the women (25.8%) women still do not know what to do about white discharge, even though 83.4% women have suffered from white discharge at some point. Only 18.9% women use daily panty liners as a protection against white discharge. While 69.3% women said they have experienced irregular periods at some point in their menstruating life, yet nearly 60% of those women did not consult a doctor.

The Everteen Menstrual Hygiene Survey 2023 shows that 80% women get uncomfortable if they need to change sanitary pads at a public toilet. In fact, 62.9% women said they have never or only rarely used a public toilet at offices, malls, or cinema halls for changing sanitary pads. 92.3% women surveyed were aware that dirty toilets can be a major cause for urinary tract infections (UTI).