Menstrual Discrimination is underlying factor for Mental Health Challenge among Young People: Access to Education, Participation in Society, Employment Opportunities, and Protection from Discrimination and Exclusion

Human Rights Council Resolution 57/30- Mental Health Challenge; Young People’s Human Rights

GSCDM defined that the `Menstrual discrimination is an umbrella term that includes silence, taboos, shame, stigma, shyness, restrictions, abuses, violence, and deprivation from services and resources associated with menstruation throughout the life cycle of menstruators (2019). Menstruation is not merely a periodic biological event but constitutes a continuous, life-cycle experience that profoundly shapes the lives of approximately 4.06 billion individuals, representing 49.72% of the global population as of 2024. 2 While an estimated 1.9 billion people are of reproductive age and actively menstruating, menstrual discrimination transcends the act of menstruating itself, impacting individuals across the entirety of their lives. Menstrual experiences are not confined to cisgender women and girls; they also affect transgender men, non-binary individuals, and all those born with ovaries and uteri, collectively referred to here as menstruators. These individuals exist in all their diversity and are found across every sector of society: from corporate boardrooms to agricultural fields, from academic institutions to refugee camps, and from densely populated urban centers to climate-vulnerable and conflict-affected regions.