The impact of menstrual cycles and periods on education is under researched.
This new HEPI report aims to understand students’ experiences of menstruation education and the day-to day impact of menstrual cycles and periods on students’ higher education studies. It makes recommendations to higher education providers and policymakers to mitigate these impacts.
A survey of over 1,500 UK higher education students and 13 semi-structured interviews were completed to inform this report.
Key findings
- Only one-third of female students (33%) describe the education they received at school and college about menstrual cycles and periods as ‘good’ or ‘very good’.
- Students state that social media is the source they use the most for information on periods and menstrual cycles. Some 72% of female students report learning ‘quite a bit’ / ‘a lot’ from social media, compared to 43% of male students.
- On average, students who menstruate miss 10 days of higher education study per year. If we extrapolate this over a three-year degree, students who menstruate miss six full weeks of academic study across a typical degree programme.
- This rises to 19 missed days of study per year for students who have been diagnosed with a menstruation-related illness, equating to over 11 missed academic weeks over a three-year degree course. One-in-10 students who menstruate state that they are in this group.
- Only one-quarter of respondents had not missed any study days in the last 12 months.
- The overwhelming majority of respondents (70%) state they sometimes cannot concentrate properly on their studies or assessments because of period pain and a further 45% state that they sometimes cannot concentrate due to experiencing heavy menstrual bleeding.
- Of students who menstruate, 16% had gone without period products in the previous 12 months because they could not afford them.
- Some groups of students who menstruate are much more likely to experience period poverty than other students. This includes students who have received Free School Meals (24% of whom are in period poverty), have been in care (35% of whom are in period poverty), or have been a young carer (27% of whom are in period poverty).
- Some 71% of respondents experiencing period poverty use alternatives such as toilet paper or cloths. Almost half (47%) of students in period poverty stay at home and miss classes.
- 85% of higher education providers from the sample surveyed in this report stated they do not have a specific menstruation policy. Where institutions did have menstruation policies or guidance, these only related to staff members, and not students.
Recommendations
Education:
- The Department for Education in England, the Department of Education in Northern Ireland, the Department for Education and Skills in Wales and Education Scotland should review their curricula to ensure they explicitly include
- teaching about menstruation beyond the biology – this should include information on managing physical and mental health symptoms of menstruation;
- teaching about the impacts (which can be both positive and negative) of all stages of the menstrual cycle; and
- teaching about menstruation-related illnesses, such as heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and when to seek help from healthcare professionals – this is included in the Draft Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex
Education and Health Education (RSHE) guidelines for England.
- Further, to combat the historical (and sometimes current) practice of only delivering menstrual education to girls, the guidelines should specifically outline the importance of teaching about menstrual cycles and periods to all pupils, regardless of gender.
- Policymakers should consider recommending that menstrual health, as part of a broader relationships, sex and health curriculum, should be made statutory for 16-to-18 education and that statutory guidance should be developed for this phase of education.
- For menstrual health and wellbeing to be taught effectively, teachers must be able to access specialist training on this topic. The Department for Education in England and the Department of Education in Northern Ireland, the Department for Education and Skills in Wales and Education
Scotland should make funding available for teachers who teach Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) lessons to attend high quality training, aimed at supporting them to develop an understanding of what constitutes best practice pedagogy within the context of PSHE and ensure that teachers have access to high-quality PSHE materials.
Period poverty:
- Higher education providers should ensure that period products are freely available in multiple venues across campus. It is imperative that students, particularly those from under-resourced backgrounds who have been in care or are young carers, know how to access these resources and feel confident in doing so. No one should miss out on their education because they cannot afford to buy period products.
- In the longer term, the Westminster Government (for England) and the Welsh Government should follow the lead of the Scottish Government and Northern Irish Executive by enshrining the right to access free period products for those who need them.
Assessments:
- The Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIAHE) should review its language in the Good Practice Framework for Additional Consideration to ensure that diagnosed women’s health conditions are explicitly included and the language is broad enough to take into account students who suffer from severe symptoms during their menstrual cycle but who do not have a medical diagnosis.
- Higher education institutions should review the language in their extenuating circumstances policies to ensure these are inclusive of diagnosed women’s health conditions and take into account students who suffer from severe symptoms during their menstrual cycle but who do not have a medical diagnosis.
- Higher education institutions should include references in their policies and guidelines on assessment extension to diagnosed women’s health conditions and take into account students who suffer from severe symptoms during their menstrual cycle but who do not have a medical
diagnosis. - Perhaps more radically, institutions may consider a more flexible approach to assessment deadlines. London South Bank University has recently changed its policy to allow students to submit their assessments up to five days later than the deadline with no marking penalty or cap.
- This initiative reported that there was no increase in the number of late submissions and a significant reduction in the number of extenuating circumstances claims to process (as a claim was not needed to submit an assessment within the five-day window). While this initiative was not designed to support students experiencing menstrual symptoms, an approach like this would offer some flexibility to students who had planned to complete their assessment on a particular date only to find themselves struggling with symptoms at that time.
Cultural Change:
- In the same way that campuses are raising awareness about the impact of menopause, institutions should develop policies, guidelines and / or action plans to raise awareness, reduce stigma, provide training and signpost support regarding menstruation and periods. This should cover both staff and students.
- More broadly, the Department for Health should fund a taboo-busting media campaign, ‘It’s okay to talk about periods’. This should include community leaders (teachers, sports coaches, doctors) giving the message ‘It’s okay to talk about periods’ and ‘It’s okay to talk about period pain / heavy menstrual bleeding / PMS’. This should specifically include male teachers, doctors and coaches to tackle the gendered nature of discussions about periods and the gendered nature of menstruation education. This campaign should include a link to a straightforward and informative resource for people who have missed out on their menstruation education – the ‘bloody brilliant’ website created by the Welsh Government is a great example of how to approach this.
Read the full report by clicking the link below: