When a girl reaches adolescence from childhood, her body experiences various transformations due to hormone change. Menstruation is one of those. After reaching puberty, in every month ovum is secreted from the two ovaries situated on the both side of the uterus of women. This is called ovulation. This ovum passes through the fallopian tube and gets into the uterus. The membrane inside the uterus is called endometrium. If zygote is not formed from the union of ovum and male sperm, then the endometrium has no further work for that month. Then it becomes disabled and falls form the uterus. This is called menstruation.

Usually for a woman, menstruation starts at the age of 10-16 years and continues up to the age of 46-51 years. In usual condition, menstruation occurs after every 28 days on an average, and remains for 3-7 days.

Although it is a natural process, unfortunately there is no open discussion in the society, or even in her family, regarding menstruation. If a girl knows about it earlier, then it becomes much easier for her to adjust with that change and to mange this period without any shame or fear. Otherwise they remain ignorant about these physical processes and hygiene they need to maintain.

Menstruation continues through a cycle. After puberty, it takes 2-3 years for the cycle to become regular. Before and during menstruation, 80% women experience some kind of difficulty like fatigue, weakness, body ache, headache, absence of attention, short temper, feeling heavy in abdomen and breast, secretion of white fluid, increase of blood sugar and blood pressure, increase of appetite, increase of metabolism, increase of weight up to 2 Kg due to the accumulation of water and salt, vomiting tendency. All these are normal.

Sanitary napkin, cotton or napkins made from cloth can be used so that the menstruation blood does not roll down through the legs and sticks to the clothing. Proper hygiene should be maintained in this regard to avoid any infection.

Advice for the adolescent girls:  if menstruation starts suddenly after going to school, college or outside and your cloth gets stained with blood, then take a sweater or jacket from any of your friends or known person and wrap it around your waist. Then that stain will not be seen. After that, take a napkin and go straight to the bathroom. If you don't want to be in such situation, then maintain a calendar for menstruation cycle. It is better to keep extra underwear, sanitary pad in the bag around the date.

During this period take normal food, because you would feel weak with an empty stomach. To prevent anaemia, take foods which contain iron. Eat sour fruits and green vegetables. Abstain from taking tea or coffee. Take calcium containing foods. Refrain from taking extra salt in the food before and during menstruation. The storage quantity of water and salt in the body will be less due to this.

During this time, a light pain can be felt in the abdomen. This pain can be removed by light exercise, at least one bath daily with light hot water and in some cases by taking pain killer medicine.

Using cotton under garments is preferable. Because it can easily absorb sweat and water contents, and there is a less possibility of infection. Change your under garments daily every after 3-4 hours.

Many people feel embarrassed to go to a shop and buy napkins. You can purchase napkin box during the monthly shopping from the market. So there will be no wastage of time or embarrassment due to the hasty shopping in the time of need. Usually the seller will wrap the napkin in a paper packet and give it to you. You can also take a separate bag to carry the napkins.

Many a times, you face difficulty regarding where and how you should dispose of the used napkins. Wash every used napkin with water, wrap it with old newspaper and throw it in the toilet bin. Do not ever flash it in the toilet.

There is a tendency among a large portion of adolescent girls to remain absent in the school during menstruation. A girl remains outside of the house for around 6-10 hours due to school and study. For this reason, the educational institutions should have facilities so that the female students can get, change and dispose of napkins easily when they require. Different toilet facility for the girls is also necessity. There should be a sanitary napkin store under the responsibility of any staff or teacher, who can provide the girls with it when they require.

There should be adequate supply of water in the toilet. Every toilet should contain a bin with cover, so that used napkins can be dumped there. There should be supply of paper for the wrapping of used napkins. Necessary measures should be taken for the final disposal of this wastage.

Our collective effort will ensure that our daughters are growing up as resources with possibilities.