Dead serious about menstruation
Abdominal cramps, poor concentration and not wanting to exercise. Adolescent girls sometimes struggle with their periods at school. Teachers don't always know how to deal with it either. "We are too spastic about it."
Picture: Nanne Meulendijks
The gym teacher was very clear at the start of last school year against sixteen-year-old Melissa and her classmates at their school in Hoofddorp. No discussion possible. Only if you are really injured and have a note from your parents or the doctor, a lesson should be skipped. But not if you have your period: you can just participate in gym. “Nobody was allowed to argue with him,” says Melissa. “While during my period, especially the first day, I have cramps continuously. Really hell. I'm not calling in sick, but running after a ball with a stomach ache is the other extreme. ”
Whining
Melissa wrote a blog about it on the Scholieren.com site, hoping to make other teachers - and fellow students - understand: take menstruating students seriously. “Too many teachers are quick to think: Don't whine so much. I find that outrageous. You can be really sick of it. And because they talk about it so sternly, I don't really feel very welcome to tell you honestly that it bothers me."
Too many teachers think quickly: Don't whine so much
She's not alone. The Menstruation Information Institute recently researched 15 girls between the ages of twelve and nineteen and asked them how their periods affect their school performance and what they need. 86 percent of girls think that their periods are not taken sufficiently into account at school. More than 90 percent say they suffer from abdominal pain, more than 70 percent say that school performance is negatively affected when they have their period.
A common complaint: not being allowed to go to the toilet during class. “Many girls are told not to adopt this attitude,” says Peter de Vroed, who founded the institute. "That's why they don't dare to talk about it openly." De Vroed visits many schools to provide information and sees girls encounter incomprehension. “It creates enormous tension if they are not allowed to go to the toilet during class. Their greatest fear is that they will leak. That is embarrassing, especially at that age. ”
Organic side
“When it comes to menstruation, the cycle is often mainly explained during biology lessons,” says Yuri Ohlrichs, sexologist at the Rutgers knowledge center. “Schools mainly focus on the biological side: how does it work, what happens in your body? But they forget to answer the question that girls, but also boys, often have: how do you deal with it? "
Ohlrichs sees that girls feel embarrassed to talk about it, and boys feel a form of discomfort. "And then they quickly joke about it, they laugh about it, because yes, they are adolescents."
This is partly because periods are often explained in a somewhat negative way. “Girls get their periods, boys get a wet dream. The latter is pleasant, but periods are bloody, difficult and painful. If you only look at it that way, you will naturally get discomfort and shame. ”
Male teachers
This does not only apply to students, but also to teachers. And not just the male. De Vroed: “Teachers are often even harder, I see in practice. Some are like, we don't want to be inferior to men. And teachers sometimes look at their own periods, which may be very light. While it is often very irregular in those adolescent girls and often more intense than in adult women. It can take twelve years from your first period before your stress-processing and hormonal systems are properly aligned. ”
In addition, according to Ohlrichs, there are many male teachers who do not associate the question 'Can I go to the toilet' with menstruation. "They just think: You can hold it up until the break."
You can hold it off for a while until the break
Dorien Schröder, biology teacher at a secondary school in Rotterdam, also sees at her school that menstruation is often not part of their perception of menstruation. "They just don't think about it, and those girls are ashamed to say it explicitly." Two girls from Schröder's vwo-6 class also ran into this. They decided to devote their profile paper to the effect of menstruation on school performance: they wanted to know if the boys in their class were slowing down their tests with those cramps. That is why Schröder and her students invited Peter de Vroed. He brought a special device with him: a band that can be tied around the stomach and mimics stomach cramps. Schröder: “That was a really nice way to break the taboo. The male teachers and students who got that bond about this at school said: I had no idea that it could distract you like that and that sometimes you can't stand upright. ” And her students' profile paper research showed that the boys in the class did indeed work slower with that band. “Those girls opened a lot of eyes at school. They gained a new kind of respect from the boys and their teachers. That's so much better than the shame surrounding the subject. ”
Experience
The taboo can also be broken through the way of providing information, says Rutgers' Ohlrichs. “I would rather see more about the experience in schools and less about the biological side. It would be good to discuss it with the girls and the boys. Let the girls tell the boys, let the boys ask questions. Some really think that girls lose liters of blood. ”
In addition, teachers should talk about it more positively, says the sexologist. “In certain cultures it is even celebrated as a rite of passage. The other extreme happens to us: we remain silent. Then it will become very big. ”
According to him, girls often think that the blood is dirty, and according to Ohlrichs it is up to the teacher to explain that it is actually very clean. “Moreover, as a teacher you can approach it as part of your body and another step towards adulthood. Your body does what it should. That is a good thing. There is a chance that you can become a mother if you want to, one day. ”
A very clear one no-go: ask personal questions. “Don't ask: How do you experience that? Or: What is bothering you? ” Ohlrich's advice: talk in general terms, such as "I've read that ..." Without focusing specifically on your student. “Then it doesn't get uncomfortable and you just pretend it's the most normal thing in the world. Whatever it is, of course. ”
Act like it's the most normal thing in the world. Whatever it is, of course
To concentrate
According to De Vroed, teachers should take into account that concentration is more difficult. “If a girl indicates during gym class that she is in pain, let her do nothing, just lie on those thick mats. Being on your period consumes energy. ” Schröder goes one step further: she thinks schools should start thinking about period leave. "That is something we could work towards."
And then there is the toilet rule. In Schröder's class, girls are always allowed to go to the toilet. “There are colleagues who are afraid that students will take advantage of it. That is bound to happen sometimes. But if you are going to ban it, then you will also have the period pupil with pain and leakage fear with it. So I give them that freedom. ”
See, and those teachers are chill mode, says XNUMX-year-old Melissa. “I also sometimes hear that teachers think that every week we say that we have our period. But I honestly don't know anyone who does such a thing. If a teacher is nice enough to let you go to the bathroom when you have your period, then you really aren't going to lie about it. ”
What about primary school?
There are not always good facilities in primary schools for girls who have their periods, says Rutgers, knowledge center for sexuality. Primary schools should provide lockable trash cans in the girls' toilets and supplies of sanitary towels. About one in ten girls already menstruate in group 7 or 8, says Elsbeth Reitzema of Rutgers. "That can be a difficult position: they are often the only one in the class, or one of the few, and then there is also nothing to be found at school when the need is great."
About one in ten girls already menstruate in group 7 or 8
That must change, the knowledge center stated. “Make a box of sanitary towels and tampons with the girls and discuss: where do we put it? Also involve the boys. Make it negotiable, get it out of the taboo sphere. ”
According to Peter de Vroed of the Menstruation Information Institute, many teachers find it difficult to estimate whether such a young student has already had their period or not. “If girls already have a little breast formation and are over 45 kilos, chances are that they already menstruate,” he always tells teachers. To which Reitzema would like to add: Turkish and Moroccan girls often start a little earlier. "So in primary schools with many immigrant students, good facilities are even more needed."
