Gyn Chronicles
Menstrual Hygiene
By Dr. Maureen Owiti
Wonders will never cease but in Kenya anything is possible. This 3rd week of May saw Senate Speaker Hon. Amason Kingi ratify the decision of UDA disciplinary committee and expelled Gloria Orwoba as a nominated Senator. However, in typical Kenyan soap opera fashion the courts had a say and Justice Lawrence Mugambi suspended her expulsion and I quote:“… a conservatory order is issued suspending the decision of the UDA Party Disciplinary Committee dated 16th May, 2025, expelling the petitioner as a member of the UDA Party or a nominated Senator.”
From the title of the column, it is obvious we are not discussing the intrigues in Kenyan politics but rather what Gloria Orwoba has been a champion for: destigmatization of women for a wellknown physiological process known as menstruation and access by all women and girls in Kenya to menstrual hygiene products.
I don’ t know why people get fidgety when they see blood in the wrong place. I can assure you for the survivor of such an ordeal it is not their wish to display or show-off that the moon has once again knocked at their doorstep or as we say visitors have arrived. Asked, majority of women would gladly opt not to have menstruation. For fear of sounding blasphemous, however, it is one of the questions I would like to ask Our Maker on that fateful day prior to judgement, I have no issue with labor pains as this was our punishment for the original sin, lakini hii story ya periods what was the deal???
Anyway, back to the story: like her or hate her Hon Gloria Orwoba has done a lot to highlight the plight of women and girls. For those with normal periods it is a minor discomfort and requires nothing more than a few pads for maybe 2-3 days in a 28-30 day cycle.
For others the thought of menstruation can bring out a full blown post-traumatic stress disorder( PTSD) attack. Not a laughing matter at all, but some women have crazy periods and it can range from prolonged periods more than two weeks or heavy bleeding sometimes necessitating admission for blood transfusion. For others
I don’ t know why people get fidgety when they see blood in the wrong place. I can assure you for the survivor of such an ordeal it is not their wish to display or show-off that the moon has once again knocked at their doorstep or as we say visitors have arrived. Asked, majority of women would gladly opt not to have menstruation.
it is the horror of severe debilitating pain during the periods that completely make them unable to work or go about their normal activities like school and so on.
I seem to be focusing a lot on periods but let us continue. June( as usual not her real name) a 48year old mitumba seller is brought into my clinic one day. You can obviously see she is pale what we clinicians call paper white. She has slight trouble walking but fortunately is escorted by a friend. I tell her friend, Gaudencia( also not her real name) to take her straight to the examination couch and enquire what the matter is. The friend recounts that they were going about their normal daily business when they noticed June had fainted. They were not surprised as she had been complaining of severe fatigue in the last few days. They quickly rushed to her aid. When she came to, she confided to them that she was bleeding quite a bit so they decided to seek the services of a gynaecologist. Gaudencia had had a similar issue previously hence recommended they come and see me.
As fate would have it June had 2 children that she got quite early, currently widowed but with no plans of remarrying. She was quite happy as the first born was working and with a fairly stable career and the second born was following suite, just about to graduate from campus. She had a very rapid and weak pulse and on her abdomen the uterus was quite enlarged corresponding to the size of about 20 weeks gestation, what in lay man terms would equate to a five-month pregnancy. Her periods were initially normal but over time gradually got longer with presence of clots. She normally used about 3-4 pads per day but now could go through a whole packet of pads and even had to add cotton wool to contain her periods. She erroneously attributed the change to
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