An MHH Intervention in Bangladesh Health Systems

Over 50% of Bangladeshi women and girls use old cloths as menstrual absorbents due to cost, comfort, and familiarity. A substantial proportion, comprising 52% of adolescent girls and 62% of women washed the cloths with soap and water. However, more than 60% dried it in hiding instead of drying openly under the sun and over 40% of adolescent and women stored the cloths in a secret place for reuse rather than with regular clothes. Nevertheless, the minimal alternatives often necessitate the use of locally available disposable sanitary pads despite the cost. Still there are some factors which jeopardize the proper menstrual health and hygiene. These include lack of suitable sanitation facilities, availability and accessibility to affordable quality hygienic menstrual products for adolescent girls and women at home, educational institutions and at workplaces, insufficient water, sanitation facilities with proper disposal methods for used products and prevailing taboos and misconception surrounding menstruation and menstrual health hygiene. Consequently, women and girls in Bangladesh adopt unsafe and unhygienic practices to manage menstruation and face significant challenges and health problems that impact various aspects of lives. There are limited options for menstrual hygiene management. Menstrual hygiene management product which is low-cost, comfortable, easy to use and made can be the sustainable option and also align with strategic directions of national menstrual hygiene management strategy-2021. This proposal addresses lack of a proper solution for menstrual hygiene management as a barrier to a quality life for a woman. Rather than trying to shift over 50% of menstruating women and girls into an environmentally unfriendly and high-cost method of using single-use disposable pads, the investigators will develop and trial a low-cost intervention to improve MHH practices among the women and girls in Bangladesh. Improving MHH facilities at household level through the