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Reproductive health
This Week in AsiaSociety

Period drama: how Asian women broke the menstruation taboo

  • In many Asian societies, menstruation is a taboo topic – causing major gaps in knowledge about reproductive health
  • But thanks to new female-led products and approaches, a change in perspective is under way

Reading Time:5 minutes
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Misconceptions about menstruation are acute in conservative Asian societies. Photo: Alamy
Crystal Tai

When South Korean entrepreneur Gina Park launched her Eve Cup last July, she received 10 million won (US$8,800) worth of orders in the first 30 minutes of it being listed on a crowdfunding site. Six hours later, she had more than 880 orders, worth 20 million won, for the white silicone cups designed to collect menstrual fluid.

But then came the questions. “On our product page, so many people asked if the menstrual cup would result in them losing their virginity,” said the 26-year-old, who had heard similar concerns about tampons, which are also inserted into the vagina but absorb menstrual discharge rather than collecting it.

Misconceptions about menstrual products and menstruation are something women the world over have long grappled with, but the problem is especially acute in Asia’s conservative societies where education can be lacking and there is still gender discrimination.

Religious texts – including the Torah, Bible and Koran – refer to the “impurity” of menstrual discharge. There are also cultural taboos to contend with.

On the island of Sumba, in eastern Indonesia, a belief persists that sexually transmitted diseases are caused by menstruating women, while in some parts of Nepal they are banished to “menstruation huts”, where they are at risk of exposure to extreme temperatures and attacks by wild animals. There have been recorded instances of Nepalese women dying of smoke inhalation in such huts after lighting a fire to keep warm.
In India, where a factory-made sanitary pad can cost between 8 and 20 US cents, international NGO WaterAid said in 2017 that 88 per cent of women were using makeshift menstrual health products – made from such unhygienic materials as rags, hay and dried leaves – often because they could not afford to buy them from the shop.
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