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Environmenstrual Week, a week of action calling for healthy, eco-friendly period products for all Alt-text

BSMS medical students share their views and perspectives on sustainable menstrual health and education a one of the project team's context meetings

Young people, parents, teachers and menstrual health experts explore the gaps in knowledge and formulate concepts for a co-designed citizen science project during one of the project's community stakeholder meetings in Brighton, hosted by the project leads

Ugandan MPs and research colleagues from BSMS meet and discuss collaboration and routes to support policy-making for menstrual health in Uganda

Menstruation encompasses a multitude of complex but intertwined dimensions, including aspects related to health, societal taboos and shame, period poverty, and environmental impacts, amongst others. Addressing any of these in isolation is challenging, if not impossible. Widespread menstrual stigma and taboos further complicate efforts to tackle lack of education or drive equitable period health. 

In a bid to address the alarming environmental impact of period products, to shine light on the intersecting socio-economic aspects of menstrual health and to break the stigma surrounding menstruation, we would like to showcase a recent research initiative during Environmenstrual Week (16-20 October 2023). The project, led by Dr Chi Eziefula and Dr Anne Gatuguta from Brighton & Sussex Medical School (BSMS) and seed-funded through the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP), seeks to empower communities to actively participate in citizen science projects that promote good menstrual health, human rights, and environmental sustainability.

It also recognises the importance of involving a wide array of stakeholders including those who menstruate, their community, environmental experts and policy makers in identifying where the needs are and how to address them through co-created research activities. Through initial personal and public involvement in research (PPI) activities in East Sussex, the team has identified a lack of relevant and adequate menstrual health education among adolescents in schools as well as considerable but under-recognised menstrual health-related school absences, an issue that deserves further attention in the UK and their partner countries. Overall, the project aims to drive meaningful change by fostering dialogue and raising awareness about the educational, environmental, socio-economic and health implications of menstruation, with a particular focus on Sudan, Uganda, and the UK.

Another critical aspect of the project is shedding light on the economic consequences of school and workplace absences due to menstruation. Currently unmeasured, these consequences are partly due to the lack of acknowledgement of menstruation in the educational journey of adolescents. By raising awareness of these issues, the research team hopes to drive policy changes and improve support for menstruators facing economic challenges. However, with nearly 27,000 tonnes of waste generated annually from disposable period products, contributing to landfill and pollution in our rivers and seas, the initiative also acknowledges that many existing short-term solutions involve single-use plastic-containing products, which further exacerbate environmental challenges.

To combat these issues, the project draws on citizen science, an approach that encourages community participation throughout the research process. Lead researcher and co-Director of the Centre for Cultures of Reproduction, Technologies and Health (CORTH) Dr Chi Eziefula was invited to speak at various International Women’s Day events in the past year about the power of periods and importance of education across generations and genders: ’By involving adolescents, community stakeholders, parents, men, boys, and menstruators who do not identify as women in dialogues on menstrual health, we seek to break the stigma around menstruation and create a more inclusive and holistic approach to addressing this issue.’

The Women’s Environmental Network (Wen) raises awareness of the various facets of healthy and sustainable periods and launched Environmenstrual Week as a week of action calling for healthy, eco-friendly period products for all. Wen is also one of the partner organisations collaborating on Dr Chi Eziefula and Dr Anne Gatuguta’s project which recognises that the lack of attention to menstrual health perpetuates gender inequity, impacting areas such as health, education, work, and overall wellbeing. For Environmenstrual Week 2023 Wen is urgently calling for a ‘Menstrual Health, Dignity and Sustainability Act’ in the UK which must consider the health and waste impacts of menstruation, equity and dignity, period poverty, education and regulation while also challenging existing stigma and taboos. Join their webinar or workshop on 18 October 2023 to get involved and to find out more about environmenstrual activism.

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