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One Canadian company is making waves and helping half the population across the globe lead successful and healthy lives throughout each month.
"There are challenges and repercussions of not being able to, in a healthy and dignified way, manage your period," says Leisa Hirtz, the CEO and founder of Women's Global Health Innovations (WGHI). "There are millions who use old socks, mattress stuffing, or some tribes that sit in sand for five days. It is preventing them from living a dignified life."
To tackle this problem, Hirtz and her team developed a menstrual cup that doesn't have to be boiled, called Bfree Cup. With support from the Fund for Innovation and Transformation (FIT), a program of the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation (MCIC) and funded by Global Affairs Canada, WGHI partnered with grassroots organizations across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia to bring this solution directly into communities.
"We've also seen the mental health aspects, we take it personally when we can't manage our health and our periods for whatever reason. Because of the taboos and stigmas, we hold this weight as women that we've done something wrong. This is damaging. As far as missing school, we're seeing a huge drop-off from girls after they hit puberty."
Menstrual products such as pads or tampons, even reusable cloth pads, are messy and often wasteful. The main issue with getting girls in developing countries access to menstrual cups was the fact that they had to be boiled after each use.
"We heard menstrual cups were beginning to be adopted, particularly in Kenya. Because the cups require boiling, that's an issue if you have a lack of clean water or a lack of water in general. Or you don't have a pot, or you live in a one-bedroom house. When I heard this, I thought, what if we made one that doesn't require boiling? That's when I came up with the Bfree Cup."
This menstrual cup is physically antibacterial, which means a biofilm can't form on the surface. This means a wipe with a cloth will do. One of these cups can last up to a decade, cutting down on a ton of waste.
"We won an international award from UNFPA Innovation. Then we won a grant from Global Affairs Canada through the fund for innovation and transformation. That allowed us to go into the communities we'd already been in, delivering these cups to girls in schools, many in South Sudan. At first, it was a slow uptake because it is different than using a pad. But what we saw after 9 months was that 95 per cent of the girls adopted this as their primary means to manage their periods."
This week is Canadian Innovation Week, celebrating monumental and life-changing products like the Bfree Cup. On Wednesday, May 28, it was also International Menstrual Health Day.
"It's nice to see menstruation and periods recognized, hammering home that information that this is a normal, biological, and healthy experinece we have for 40-45 years."