Period Stigma Around the World Today

2 out of five people feel ashamed

The Always Puberty and Confidence Education Programme empowered girls and helped teachers and parents for more than 30 years by providing free educational resources and samples that help girls understand the changes they will go through during puberty and how to cope with them. Endorsed by UNESCO, and used by over 500 thousands education professionals, the programme reaches over 17 million girls annually in over 70 countries. 

Innovative teaching approaches ensure teachers are able to reach their students in a way that best suits their needs, whilst tailored materials in each country ensure the content is adapted for different contexts and varying cultural sensitives.

You can also help empower girls! Just download all [Always Puberty and Confidence Education material](/en-gb/about-us/campaigns-and-initiatives/) for free and share it with all girls and adults you know!

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Always Puberty & Confidence Education Programme

Despite increasing attention and advocacy, periods remain a taboo topic.  Always, WASH United and Glocalities surveyed adults and young people  from five countries to assess period stigma today

Period Stigma Around the World Today Article | Always

Period Stigma Around the World Today  | Always

Despite increasing attention and advocacy, periods remain a taboo topic.  Always, WASH United and Glocalities surveyed adults and young people  from five countries to assess period stigma today.

Chart-1-negative-feeling-about-period

Empowering Through Education

Always has partnered with over 60 organizations that serve girls in need around the world, including Save The Children, UN Women & UNICEF. In the past 10 years, our programs have reached over 50 countries and delivered over 100 million pads to girls who need them most.

Here’s a snapshot of just a few of our programmes:

CEYM03 - Helping Girls Across the World

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Help Girls Embrace Failure as Fuel to Build Their Confidence

Master Your Menstrual Cycle

Of the countries surveyed, __the UK is in the top 3 for 
having negative feelings towards their periods or hiding 
their periods__.4

Negative feeling towards period 

Learn more from leading confidence experts and be inspired by young girls from around the world.

On July 7, 2015, the Always #LikeAGirl Confidence Summit series kicked off across 10 cities around the world. During the conferences, we unveiled the new Always Confidence Teaching Curriculum, which was created in partnership with TED and leading confidence and education experts. The event featured thought leaders, educators and inspiring young girls.

Check out our YouTube channel to watch the amazing speakers' performances: [https://www.youtube.com/user/AlwaysBrand](https://www.youtube.com/c/AlwaysUK/featured).

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Hiding period icon 2 

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Help Keep Girls in Sport

In a unique partnership, TED joined the Always #LikeAGirl mission as a Confidence Teaching Partner to help empower girls.

TED & ALWAYS teamed up to develop TED-Ed educational videos, sharing with educators, students and young girls the latest knowledge on how girls can retain confidence at puberty. Learn more about TED-Ed on [ed.ted.com](http://ed.ted.com/).

3 tips to boost your confidence [here](https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/l_NYrWqUR40)
 How menstruation works [here](https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ayzN5f3qN8g)
 How sport impact confidence [here](https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/hmFQqjMF_f0)

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Empowering Girl Through Education

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Always LikeAGirl Confidence Summit

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Teaching confidence with TED

Worried feelings

__lose confidence at puberty__2 and starting their period marks their lowest point
in confidence during their teenage years3.

Helping Girls Across the World

Many girls lose confidence during puberty. Discover how we help empower girls with Always Puberty and Confidence Education Programme!

Empowering Girl Through Education with Always

CEYM03 - T01 - Always donates over 14 million pads and uses the power of poetry to highlight the damaging effects of period poverty.

Always donates over 14 million pads and uses the power of poetry to highlight the damaging effects of period poverty.

Through our commitment to empowering girls, Always has partnered with over 30 organizations to help girls around the world. Take a look at what we did!

Get Educated

You Can Help End Period Stigma!

1. SurveyMonkey, 2020. Quantitative survey of young people 13–21 yrs in Canada, UK, US. n=4,147.
2. Research Now, 2017. Quantitative survey of females 16–24 yrs in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, Russia, Turkey, UK, US. n=9,289.
3. Research Now, 2014. Quantitative survey of females 16–24 yrs in US. n=1,300.
4. Glocalities, 2020. Quantitative survey of adults 18–70 yrs in Canada, China, Russia, UK, US. n=5,139.
5. Glocalities, 2019. Quantitative survey of adults 18–70 yrs, Global. n=30,057. 

*For both Glocalities studies: Data is nationally representative with respect to age (18–70) by gender, region and education (low & mid-levels of education are combined for China only)*

References list

References

Percentage 

More than half of girls lose confidence during puberty, with the onset of menstruation marking the lowest point of their confidence. One of the key reasons for this is a lack of information. Two out of every three girls who enter puberty don’t know enough about what is happening to their bodies. Always wants to change that.

Read the full article below

News & FAQs

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Get Educated About Periods

Chart-1 Negative feelings about periods

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Always End Period Stigma 

CEYM03 - T05 - Always + UNESCO: Girl’s Literacy Programme

Always + UNESCO: Girl’s Literacy Programme

In the UK, whilst __nearly 1 in 3 believe period jokes 
are harmless fun__, young people say they make them 
feel self-conscious (42%), embarrassed (33%) and 
less confident (28%).1

Period  Blood Chart 4

Chart-2-talking-about-periods

News & FAQs - landing

CEYM03 - T03 - Always Keeping Girls in School: Africa

Always Keeping Girls in School: Africa

Despite increasing attention and advocacy

 __Despite increasing attention and advocacy, periods remain a taboo topic. Always, WASH United and Glocalities surveyed adults and young people from five countries to assess period stigma today.__


Committed to empower young women

At puberty, 50% of girls feel paralyzed by the fear of failure*. This leads to girls avoiding trying new things because they’re too afraid to fail. But the truth is, failing is a good thing! It helps us learn, grow and ultimately build confidence.

To help you encourage girls you know to embrace failure as fuel, check out these <a href="/Always_EN_UK/Empowering-Through-Education/ALWAYS-Embrace-TipSheet-UK.pdf" target="_blank">tips from Rachel Simmons</a> - New York Times best-selling author and conﬁdence expert.

*Based on a 2017 study among US girls aged 16-24

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Empowering through education

Always, with the help of Save the Children, has helped empower over 10,000 girls in Nepal, Ethiopia and Mexico.

“Puberty can be a scary time for girls when they, their families and their communities don’t have the facts. In many of the places where Save the Children works, a lack of information or misinformation, along with no access to bathrooms or sanitary products, contributes to girls missing days of school or dropping out of school altogether. Save the Children values our partnership with P&G and our shared vision of making sure girls have the knowledge and confidence to navigate the challenging journey of puberty, so they can stay in school and shine."

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Period conversations are a challenge

### Period conversations are a challenge.

  Period Stigma Cards

CEYM03 - T04 - Puberty, Health & Hygiene Education with Save the Children

Puberty, Health & Hygiene Education with Save the Children

Breaking Period Stigma with New Report from Always

Period education is key 

__54% of adults feel they have enough knowledge__ to talk to their children about puberty and periods.

Always End Period Stigma

 ABOUT US C03 - News & FAQs

Period blood Chart 3

In the UK, __1 in 3 people have referred to period blood as gross or disgusting__.4

The higher the % of society that talks

The higher __the % of society that talks openly__ about periods, __the more prepared people feel__ to talk about periods with their children (correlation 0.4).

Teachers Corner

People icon 1 

__2 in 5 have felt ashamed
or embarrassed__ by their
own period.4

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Read

N&F - HSC01 - Breaking Period Stigma with New Report from Always®

Breaking Period Stigma with New Report from Always®

Breaking period stigma with Always

Show Your Support

Young people learn about period from mums

Talking about sensitive topics table across countries

Talking about period Chart2

__Less than half of adults__ say they support talking about periods5 and far less actually do talk about them4.

Get Comfortable

For more information, please visit <a href="https://www.always.co.uk/en-gb/">always.co.uk</a> or contact Kiran Behal <a href="mailto:behal.kk@pg.com">(behal.kk@pg.com)</a>.

For more information

The Syrian Crisis is one of the biggest challenges of our generation. It has had a significant negative impact not only on Syrian refugees, but on Jordanian host communities, and among those most affected are refugee girls and young women.

Many Syrian refugee girls are no longer able to attend school and many young women are unable to work and provide income for their families, lacking access to training and facing gender-based barriers that keep them at home.

P&G and Always are working to stop this, rooted in the belief that education is key to empowering Syrian refugee girls and young women so they are confident, skilled, strong and equipped to take charge of their future even in the most challenging circumstances. That’s why we’ve partnered with UNESCO and Save the Children, to help refugees by empowering over 1000 young girls & women living in Jordan through education, life skills and work readiness training.

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Logo Glocalities

CEYM03 - T02 - Changing the World of Refugee Girls with UNESCO and Save the Children

Changing the World of Refugee Girls with UNESCO and Save the Children

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GET COMFORTABLE  TALKING about periods.

Sport is critical to build and maintain girls’ confidence and yet, many girls quit sport at puberty.

To help them feel they belong in sport and empower them to stay in sport, Always has developed ready-to-use tools for teachers, coaches, organizations and parents. <a href="https://assets.ctfassets.net/aqfuj2z95p5p/5MaliCWZKdKehJBU6sZiuN/20f15f572cb5a6e6f35ae18be5072f79/KeepPlaying-LikeAGirl-Flyer-UK.pdf" download="download">Download here.</a>

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Periods are associated with negative feelings

__Periods are associated with negative feelings from an early age, despite being a normal bodily function.__

CEYM03 - T02 - SUB01 - Changing the World of Refugee Girls with UNESCO & Save the Children

Always believes that nothing should hold girls back from being their amazing, unstoppable selves. And what’s the single biggest opportunity for girl empowerment? Education. In 2011, around 500 million adult women around the world were lacking basic literacy skills. In Senegal alone, more than 4 out of 10 girls dropped out of primary school in 2010. Always wanted to change this. So in 2011, Always and UNESCO teamed up to give thousands of girls access to literacy education in Africa.We have committed to reach a total of 110,000 girls across Nigeria & Senegal with literacy and education programmes by the end of 2019, giving them the access to the education they need to make their dreams come true.

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Find essential feminine care and puberty answers along with information on a news in a wide selection of Always pads and hygiene products for women.

News & FAQs | Always

What we promise

CEYM03 - T01 - SUB01 - Always donates over 14 million pads and uses the power of poetry to highlight the damaging effects of period poverty.

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Wash United

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Advocate

Helping End Period Poverty

When people talk about periods

### When people talk about periods, it’s often done in a negative way.

__3 in 5 have tried to hide the
fact they’re on their period__
from those around them.4

People icon 2

In sub-Saharan Africa, many girls miss school during their period and might even drop out. Research shows that providing education on puberty and menstrual hygiene, giving access to period products and discussing taboos around menstruation can alleviate this issue.

Together with governments and local associations we work hard to make sure schools have proper sanitary facilities and have the tools to educate girls on feminine hygiene.

Since it started in 2006, the “Always Keeping Girls in School programme” helped 170 000 girls and donated 11 million pads to keep them in school.

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Period education paragraph

### Period education is key, and mums and teachers are the most influential resources.1 But not everyone is prepared to teach their kids about periods.4

Empowering-Through-Education

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