Who Manages Menstrual Health? The Untapped Potential of the Right to Health to Support a Comprehensive Right to Menstrual Health beyond Menstrual Hygiene Management

Abstract

For the 1.8 billion people who menstruate every month globally, menstruation is not always just synonymous with blood loss. As such, many also experience premenstrual conditions such as dysmenorrhea (period pain), limited access to health care and/or menstrual stigma. Yet, so far, laws have mostly focused on menstrual hygiene management (MHM), particularly menstrual products provision. Despite MHM’s success, scholars have criticized its narrow focus on products at the expense of a more comprehensive definition of menstrual health, which recognises the menstrual cycle, and includes menarche and menopause. Meanwhile, global institutions have been shifting their focus from menstrual hygiene to menstrual health, and have framed the latter as a health and human rights issue. However, so far, the Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights and the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health have mostly remained silent on the topic of menstrual health. The article argues that these mechanisms should conceptualize a right to menstrual health, which promotes menstruators’ rights to health literacy, agency, participation, culture and increased scrutiny of the menstrual products industry.