Importance of Menstrual Education for Persons with Disabilities

Jessie Funk
·
January 31, 2025

Roughly 1 in 5 Canadians live with at least one form of disability (1). This means that roughly 10% of Canadians experience both disability and menstruation at some point. In spite of this, it’s common for disabled persons to receive less sexual and menstrual education, lower quality education, or education that does not apply to their experiences of disability (2, 3). However, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD) states that all persons, regardless of ability or disability have the right to access quality, age-appropriate sexual and menstrual education and to participate in intimate relationships (4). We need to ensure that a person’s basic rights are at the front of our minds when we consider how and what we teach about menstruation and sexuality. 

There are many complex stigmas surrounding both menstruation and disability. Both people who menstruate and people with disabilities are often viewed by society as “less than” their peers. The obstacles faced by people who are disabled, who menstruate, or both, are largely created by the society surrounding them, not by some perceived fault with their body. For example: 

  • A person who has challenges with mobility may be viewed as disabled because they struggle to access buildings with stairs. However, if all buildings were built with accessible entrances, this issue would not exist. 
  • A person who menstruates may experience shame about this experience. This shame exists because of society’s attitude towards menstruation as something dirty, rather than as the natural and healthy process that it is. 
  • Both people who menstruate and people who have disabilities may need to ask others for assistance in managing tasks associated with these experiences. Let’s consider, though, that we all receive assistance in some aspects of our lives, regardless of whether we have a disability or whether we menstruate. When we think of it this way, the need for assistance becomes a normal part of the human experience rather than a feature of disability or menstruation. 

These examples demonstrate how existing stigmas surrounding disability and menstruation are a function of cultural and social attitudes, rather than problems with the individual. 

One stigma people with disabilities frequently encounter is the false perception that they are not sexual beings, like their able-bodied peers. In reality, we know that people with disabilities are far more complex people than this harmful stereotype allows. Similarly, menstruation is viewed as only important as it relates to a woman’s sexuality and ability to reproduce. Once again, this is a harmful stereotype that fails to acknowledge the complexities of menstruation. It doesn’t allow space for the experiences of non-female menstruators, females who don’t menstruate and people who menstruate but have no desire to reproduce. As a result, these populations are frequently provided with less or lower quality menstrual and sexual education than their peers (5, 6). When people are not taught proper menstrual and sexual education, this can increase feelings of shame surrounding their experiences, and can increase their vulnerability to abuse (7, 8, 9). People with disabilities experience significantly higher rates of abuse and coersion than non-disabled persons. Ensuring people are fully informed about their biology and rights can reduce this vulnerability and promote independence (10, 11). If you’d like to learn more about this, please check out our article entitled “Disability & Gender Based Violence”. 

Some caregivers assume that people who have cognitive disabilities are incapable of learning menstrual care, and those with physical limitations are incapable of performing certain menstrual care skills. However, this is often a false assumption. Everyone has the right to be viewed as capable until proven otherwise, and provided education in a format that’s easy for them to understand (12, 13). Teaching a child or teen menstrual care skills can promote their independence and dignity. If you’d like to learn more about how to support a person with a cognitive disability to learn menstrual care skills, please visit our article entitled “Promoting Menstrual Independence for Persons with Cognitive Disability”. We also have a post about improving menstrual independence for people with physical disabilities entitled “Managing Menstruation with a Physical Disability”. 

Having a period is a normal experience for about half our population, and is one sign of a healthy body. We should be teaching youth, regardless of ability or disability, about why menstruation happens, how it will impact them, and how they can maintain their menstrual health as independently as possible.