The High Cost of Menstruating in Cuba
Cuban Women spend up to 30 percent of their salary on buying personal hygiene products.
HAVANA TIMES – A video published this Friday by Girón, the Matanzas newspaper, aims to give a panoramic view of the cost of menstruating in Cuba, according to its title. The news for Matanzas women, and Cuban women in general, is not good: between 10% and 30% of their salary is spent each month on purchasing menstrual hygiene products, and that is if they can find them.
Girón is clear on this point and admits that, despite the fact that “so-called intimate hygiene products are as necessary as soap, deodorant and toothpaste, the problem in this matter lies in the fact that Cuban state production of sanitary pads has been dramatically reduced due to the impossibility of accessing imported inputs that allow them to be manufactured.”
The inability of the health industry to meet this need is an almost historic problem on the island. What is new, however, is that the official press offers concrete data – at least at the provincial level, as is the case here – to describe the situation. According to the media, a woman uses between five and seven sanitary pads a day during each period, up to 500 in one year and about 17,000 throughout her life.
With production running low, the Cuban pharmacy network is unable to meet the demand, which, given that Matanzas is home to some 82,000 menstruating women, amounts to 41 million pads per year. The current level of production is not even close to that figure. Last August, the province received just 15,000 packages of 10 units (150,000 pads).
Added to this are the high prices of the packets on the informal market – in the absence of their sale in pharmacies – which range from 300 pesos for a packet of 10 units of poor quality Cuban manufacture (Mariposa), up to 800 for a packet of 24 units of better manufacture, although also national (Angélica). If the product is imported, the value rises to two hundred pesos above national pads, taking into account the quantity.
The market for íntimas does not go much further, except for those who can afford to pay for them in dollars, something that, even for the Communist Party newspaper in Matanzas, escapes socialist logic. “The straw that broke the camel’s back is that, while the national pharmacy system cannot provide sanitary pads to the population, in the stores in freely convertible currency (MLC) the package of imported menstrual products is sold at a price equivalent to five dollars, 600 pesos at the official exchange rate and more than 1,500 at the informal exchange rate. This situation causes women in Matanzas to have to buy such an indispensable hygiene item by any means, at any price.”
The situation, Girón admits , forces women to seek cheaper solutions to the problem, ranging from making their own pads – from used fabrics – to buying other items, such as menstrual cups. The latter are somewhat popular on the island, especially among young girls, but those that end up on the black market are usually the least friendly options for women and of poorer quality.
Although it is a “recommended” article, the media regrets that the right to menstrual hygiene is not fulfilled in Cuba, which includes “that women can freely choose how to do it [face their cycle] and for this they must be guaranteed access to all products. Not to mention that when a group of people cannot access a product or service to satisfy a basic need, which is also a right, we are faced with a clear example of inequality,” it concludes
Hopes for a short-term solution to the situation are slim if we look at the path taken by the main sanitary pad manufacturers, such as Mathisa – located in Sancti Spíritus and responsible for supplying from Matanzas to Camagüey. In 2016, the factory closed with a debt of three million units due to logistics problems and, by 2021, the company’s debt, which was never paid off, was four million.
Since then, logistical obstacles have been compounded by a lack of fuel and the State’s growing inability to obtain raw materials, meaning that Mathisa’s production has been intermittent. The company was only able to restart production last April – after stopping it in February – when it received imported padding for its sanitary pads, and since then, despite the official silence, it is likely that another production stagnation has occurred.
Translated by Translating Cuba.
The more the Cuban population sinks, the more the government claims that they are making economic progress. Poor devils, those who try to show a face to the international community, those who create a completely fabled story to “prove” that Cuba is actually in a good place and that if it wasn’t for the embargo it would be much better off.
They are the ones who created the current situation.
Men are playing power and politics, women suffer. At the end they are the one’s to take care of the household, cooking, children, shopping, mental health and well being of family, stressed kids, doctors to sick, and now this trivial but huge problem!!! It is a story of every century in every country. Man play wars, killing, power, politics, woman always cleaning that mess, concentrating on family and many also working. No more comments. Conclusion for yourself.
There is a Greek play Lysistrata where the women deny men sex to resolve a peace treaty. The women of Cuba need to make a stand and say enough is enough. All you men created this mess from government, politics, supply chain, etc. No sex until men eliminate socialism, dump the government at the top, and build a country from the mess created by the dinosaur management. Band together women Viva La Mujeres!
Poor women around the world, the most poor, also face this problem. The reason that this is especially shocking in Cuba is because of the expectations set by the Castro dictatorship. Among the very poorest communities in Namibia, for example, the lack of feminine hygiene products is commonplace. However, there is little unrest among poor women who live in the bush about the the lack of the Kotex ‘light days’ tampons on village market shelves. But on the island of Cuba, where for generations, Cuban people have been told that Cuba has the finest public health care in the world, a surplus of medical professionals and leading medical scientists, there are weeks on end where sanitary napkins, let alone tampons are nowhere to be found or, if found, can cost a week’s average salary. That is where public consternation begins. The failed Castro dictatorship is a victim of their own lies.