Shahida Aroby: Menstruation or period is a normal part of women`s health or the structure of uterus and ovaries of the female reproduction system. That`s make their pregnancy possible. It makes women`s body perfect for motherhood.  Regular Menstruation shows manifestation of one`s proper reproductive health. Though its an common part of life, but still there are some misconceptions about it. That makes the menstruation journey more hard and sometimes this is the cause of their premature death. Beacuse still women`s are not free enough to discuss about their menstruation.

 The first period is called menarche. In our country  It begins normally at the age of 12 to 15. Basically  the age of begins the menstruation is earlier in the developed country than the developing country.Normall this menstruation is a continues process and it stops when menopose occurs. It normally occurs one time in a month if there is no problem in menstruation cycle. But menstruation  stops during pregnancy. That time, stoping ones periods, refers that the women is pregnant.   The gaps between the first period and the next period is 21 to 40 days for adults. Their bleeding continues around 2 to 7 days. This process will continue untill menopose occurs.

The experience of first menstruation is not pretty well for everyone. As menstruation begins at the age of 12 to 15, most of women experience their fist period in their younger age. Some of them begins their period without any syntom and they became very afraid to see the blood in their clothes suddenly. They were not mentally prepared for this.  Because Teachers in school are not enough interested to teach them well, most of the time they just skip the chapter of menstruation. But in some cases, there are some pre menstrual  syntomes are noticed, like acne, abdominal bloating, clear or white vaginal discharge etc. These pre syntoms helps to prepare ownself for the first period and remove the unexpected situation.

For every women The journey of experience is different. Some womes feel painful cramps during this time. This term is known as dysmenorrhea. Womens feel pain in the pelvis or lower abdomen. Not only this, many of them experience also back pain, nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, fainting and fatigue.  Though this physical problems normally  last less than three days during menstruation but these problems are sufficient to stop their daily activities.but our fighters women try to maintain life with these problem. Menstruation cycle also changes many kinds of hormon production in body. As a result, this time many kinds of mental problems also occurs. Like mental tension, irritability, mood swings etc. They cant concentrate in their work and feel unknown anxiety. Like physical problems, these mental problems also affec their work, study or household activities.

In rural area, still people are not aware about hygiene. On the  contrary, to maintain a clean menstruation, hygiene is most important. A few decades ago, menstruation was considered as a diseases or something very dirty. Womes, when they were on their period, thery were banned for many social programs and households activities. They shifted for another rooms for those days because menstruation was the sighn of impurity. Though the scenario is quite different now. But village womens still dont get enough menstruation hygienic product like sanitary napkins, menstruation cups, towel, sea sponges ets to scqure their menstruation. As a result they use unhygenic clothes for long time. Even if they face any kind of problems like irregular menstruation,  heavy bleeding they dont share these problems with anybody. Because from the social perspective, they are learned that this is too much private. By doing this, they make their problems more complex like cancer.

People`s awarness is growing day by day. But menstruation is still a matter of gossip for some people. Even they dont think that, they would not exist in the world without women`s menstruation.just for those people, women`s dont discuss their menstrual problem openly and experience many occurred situation. So this is the time to creat more awarness. Firstly, menstruation occurs at age of around 15, so menstruation must be add in primary level syllabus. So that their teache can teach them about it and they will get enough time to prepare mentally. Secondly, many womes faces problems if their period occurs suddenly. So by making a `Pad box` In restuarents, office and many other places can remove the problems. Women`s can easily get those and protect herself. Thirdly, even in city, this is a common problem that if a girl go to the pharmacy to bye pads, the people around the shop make fun on her. So mentality should be changed. Because, menstruation is not any thing of laugh. Women`s suffer endless pain, mental problems in every months during this menstruation. but they continue their role as a mother, sister, wife etc. They deserve a lot of respect.

Women`s are the real fighter. Carrying a lot of physical and mental changes, they dont keep them away from households activities, social beliefs and working outside. It should be reminded that, our every single fetus gets satiety in menstrual blood clots. Menstruation is normal and its a natural process. We should accpet this and try to make the support that they actually need. this support can make their journey smooth. Our women`s actually deserve a lot. So we should stand by them as a cofighter in their lifetime struggle. Lets respect the menstruation , respet the women.

Author: Shahida Aroby is a Student of department of English and Modern language at North south university, Dhaka. She can be reached at  shahidansu202@gmail.com