Gillian Caliste
“Men, no laughing. Ask your wives, girlfriends or mothers for sanitary pads and tampons. Do you know what tampons are for? You stick it in a bullet wound. It swells and closes the wound.”
The advice came from a woman clad in a military hat and winter coat, over military fatigues in a cellphone video shown in an October 3 CNN report. Her back towards the camera in a room that appeared to be makeshift sleeping quarters, she was addressing a line-up of young male recruits. The woman was identified as a military doctor in Altai Krai, southern Russia and was part of the latest military draft by the country's leader Vladimir Putin to fuel his now-seven-month-long siege on neighbouring Ukraine.
The cellphone video had been making its rounds on social media. The uproar that followed on media sites across the globe was swift and loud.
Using such expressions as “fresh cannon fodder” to describe the new recruits, on September 27, the Daily Beast (USA) reported wide mockery on social media of Putin's most recent efforts to mobilise new troops. According to the publication, the UK's Ministry of Defence informed that amid dwindling food, weaponry and medical supplies, Russian recruits were being ordered to bring their own stocks and that female sanitary product were “a cost-effective solution” to plug the bleeding if soldiers got shot on the battlefield.
Russian troops again became the laughing stock, this time for not only running out of supplies but because the Russian army, considered the second most powerful in the world, now had to save their wounded men with a feminine product instead of special brands of gauze generally used by other military forces.
Using sanitary napkins or tampons as first aid is nothing new. One publication also said the military officer told the recruits Russia had been using feminine hygiene products as first aid since the 1990s and 2000 wars with Chechnya. Health sites and organisations like Orthopaedic Proceedings, UK and National Centre for Biotechnology Information, USA recommend the use of sanitary products to effectively dress surgical wounds.
In T&T, as in many other countries, school first aid kits stock the products for accidents or sports injuries of both girls and boys. And for women who have to compete with men at war for a scarce and costly resource crucial to their physical and mental health and well-being, this is no laughing matter.
Feminine hygiene products or sanitary products consist of supplies like sanitary napkins and tampons that non-pregnant women require to soak up the blood and tissue that is shed from the womb when they get their menstruation or period which usually occurs every month. Some women experience irregular periods, meaning their cycles (usually 28 days) or time between periods can be longer or shorter. This can be due to a medical issue, early pregnancy, or menopause or it may simply be a normal occurrence for them.
As crucial and as natural as feminine hygiene products are to a woman, many cannot afford to purchase them each month. According to a World Economic Forum March, 2021 article, World Bank estimates state that globally, 500 million women and girls do not have access to adequate facilities for menstrual hygiene management. This is known as period poverty. High-quality feminine hygiene products are costly, with more than two billion spent on menstrual products each year in the US.
Some governments have stepped up their policies in this area to help women. New Zealand has promised to provide sanitary products to students in the country for the next three years, in 2021, Britain removed its “tampon tax”, which classified sanitary products as non-essential, luxury items, and Scotland announced last November that it would make feminine hygiene products available for all who need them. There have been documentaries and projects to educate and assist women in even manufacturing their own feminine products in some countries.
In T&T, although classed as zero-rated items, feminine hygiene products are still expensive. Generally, a pack of 36 sanitary pads–the average number required for one period with light to normal flow–goes for about $48. For “Overnight” in a more expensive brand which claims to be three to five times more absorbent, women shell out more than $70 for a pack of 24. For tampons which are more expensive, a pack of 14 regular costs around $30. There are different options for sanitary products depending on flow, activity, age group etc.
Rising costs especially in the aftermath of the pandemic have caused a number of women to use toilet paper, or cloth, like women of older generations says founder and president of the Single Mothers' Association of Trinidad and Tobago (SMATT) Shermaine Wickham-Howe. She told Sunday Guardian that her recommendation is that feminine hygiene products be added to social welfare grants as long as the female recipients qualify. Wickham-Howe who runs the ten-year-old organisation aimed at empowering women, with the help of directors, said feminine hygiene products were not something donors usually think of packing when they send aid to the needy.
She pointed out that apart from help in accessing these items, women also needed to be actively taught how to take care of themselves, for instance, in terms of choosing and managing sanitary products in various stages of life such as the onset of menstruation, perimenopause and menopause, and when they have health conditions that cause heavy flows.
In a discussion with members of the SMATT WhatsApp group, one woman with four dependants admitted to Sunday Guardian that she uses toilet paper because it was cheaper. Other women went on to talk about their experiences, issues and concerns with feminine hygiene products.
Some said they try to cope with the constantly rising prices of sanitary products by stocking up so as not to run out, but this was not always possible.
Rachel Walters an unemployed actor from Diego Martin who is between 40-45 years with one dependant said sanitary products are expensive for something that is necessary, and that although it would require a change of mindset, reusable sanitary pads available in other markets could be looked into. She said, in her experience, though many use the “Overnight” option which is designed to provide extra protection while women sleep, women preferred the less bulky “Thins” to feel more comfortable while out, but these were costly. She said that some women tended to hesitate to change the product on time due to financial constraints and warned about the health issues that could result from this practice.
JL who is employed, between 40 and 50 years and has three dependants, said she is the mother of five girls and finds the products “very costly” as she currently buys for three of her daughters and herself. She used to purchase the “Jumbo” of a particular brand. It would be enough for her alone for two or three months which would be two or three periods, but for four females, it never lasted long. She said some brands do not agree with her daughters' skin, gave them rashes, and she has had to test different brands to see how they cope.
LR, an occupational safety officer, 40-45 years, who lives in Barataria with three dependants stated,
“I have to purchase for me and my daughter. She is 10 and yes, she got her period already. I was blown away by it at her tender age but she's normal about it. She has learnt how to cope with it. I got my period at 11 or 12 and I literally thought something was wrong with me.
“Anyway, recently, I found that prices of these items have been getter higher and higher.”
LR said that there was a more expensive brand that made her feel more comfortable, but she sticks to a cheaper one that she can afford. She usually buys two packs of 16s each month for herself and two packs of “Teens” for her daughter, but recently the child has been asking her for extras. “I find these things should not be as expensive as they are for the mere fact that we can't help it that we see our period. That's a part of being a female,” she said.
Wickham-Howe had some strong opinions after viewing the video of the Russian military doctor instructing recruits. She said although the scenario of men directly competing for feminine hygiene products for war wounds is not likely to occur in T&T, some things that are sacred to women should remain so.
Apart from taking away scarce resources, the whole idea of large-scale use of women's sanitary products for purposes other than those for which they were intended takes away from women's femininity, she felt.
“I think that some of the things that are for women should be left for women. They could probably rename the product or make it in a different format if it has to be used by even different countries. I understand that it could be used for that purpose to save somebody's life, but instead of calling it a “tampon” they could call it something else, repackage the item and sell it specifically for that.
“It's not about us wanting to have a gender battle about it, but they are taking the femininity from it when they use it for that purpose. We need to keep some things sacred,” she said.
She pointed out that the female gender was already being erased on the world stage. She was also concerned that normalising the use of typical feminine items by men could confuse young males about their gender.
“Others may see the value of it and want to use it for the same purpose. So we really need to nip this in the bud,” she said.
She added that more specific to Trinidad, people who commit crimes may also want to follow suit.
“It may also teach the criminals how to take care of themselves at home. Normally when they get a bullet wound and they have to go to the hospital to stop the bleeding, they get caught for what they do most times, but if they copy that pattern (from Russia), they could prepare a first aid kit in advance,” she said.
Still, it highlighted the need to educate young men about women's issues like monthly periods because even in our society, some young men may be traumatised or have negative attitudes to finding out that a sanitary napkin could save their lives in an emergency, Wickham-Howe felt.
Members Wendy and Natalie, like Wickham-Howe, felt tampons were “designed for women” and should be repackaged if they are to be used to plug gunshot wounds.
The irony that something many in patriarchal societies deem taboo, sometimes separating, shunning or literally punishing women for is what Russian recruits have to depend on now was not lost on another woman who spoke to Sunday Guardian independently.
Forty-year-old LA from east Trinidad said,
“It's ironic that men now turn to something for which a lot of them normally show scorn or ignorance.”
She experiences heavy bleeding from uterine polyps (growths in the inner walls of the uterus) and questioned the efficacy of sanitary pads currently on the market.
“I'm not even sure those sanitary pads nowadays would benefit them much anyway. I myself don't even know whether taking the vaccine has affected me or whether it's just my medical issue, but I use “Overnight” from a more expensive brand round the clock and I have to double and triple the amount I use these days,” she said.
