Join Me In Making Menstrual Health Acknowledged

Have you ever noticed the fact that most health related items you buy in the shops include a health warning statement advising to see the doctor if your symptoms are unusual? Have you ever had problems with your periods, or even had a diagnosis that could have been changed drastically if only you realised that painful, heavy periods were not normal and actually a sign of multiple different underlying causes?

It is about time that menstrual health for exactly that - a status of health. Our periods are markers of underlying diseases and health status, but yet this is not reflected in the packaging laws. No period product manufacturer (no brands) include health warning information on their packaging or products. How many lives could be changed or even saved if they did?

The woman who begins bleeding 14 months into menopause and has no idea it could be a red flag for cancer. Countless women going undiagnosed for incurable, organ-damaging diseases like endometriosis. Women in their 20's and 30's having hysterectomies because of late diagnosed endometriosis. Women suffering thinking their heavy painful periods are normal, when they could be a sign of adenomyosis or fibroids.

Where is the health information that every other product is required to display?

I have started a petition to challenge Parliament to see that all menstrual health products should be required to include health information on their packaging. How many lives would this change or even save? 

As a doctor I know too well that people are not aware of the right information and the fact that our periods are a marker of our physical health. Period products need to reflect this. As a woman who lost all her gynaecological organs at 30 because of advanced, late diagnosed endometriosis and suffering multiple organ damage, so much of my own journey could have been avoided had I read anything on those boxes in my teenage years.