Every product Lily & Fi makes, every recommendation we offer, every piece of content we publish is grounded in one framework: the six evidence-based pillars that form the complete picture of menstrual health. This is not wellness marketing. This is the science.
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You cannot manage what you were never taught. Menstrual health literacy is a right — and in the Caribbean, it remains a significant gap.
2 hrs
The estimated total formal reproductive health education the average person receives across their entire school life — despite spending up to 40 years menstruating.
Menstrual Health Hub Global Analysis, 2021
Menstrual health literacy refers to a person’s capacity to understand, interpret, and act on information about their menstrual cycle in ways that support their physical, emotional, and social wellbeing. In 2021, a landmark international consensus paper published in Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters formally defined menstrual health as a state requiring not only physical hygiene but access to accurate information, freedom from stigma, and the ability to make informed decisions about one’s body.[1]
The global picture on menstrual health education is unambiguous. Research consistently shows that adolescents, particularly in low- and middle-income contexts, receive inadequate, inaccurate, or shame-laden information about menstruation. A multi-country study published in PLOS ONE (2020) found that a significant proportion of girls experienced menarche — their first period — without any prior knowledge that it would happen.[2]
Every other pillar — pain management, nutrition, sleep, mood — depends on a woman knowing her body well enough to recognise when something is wrong and feel entitled to address it. Without the foundation of education, the other five pillars are inaccessible. A woman who has been taught that severe period pain is “normal” will not seek care for endometriosis. A woman who has never learned the phases of her cycle cannot leverage cycle-aware nutrition or exercise.
A 2020 systematic review examining menstrual health education interventions found that structured education programmes — even brief ones — significantly improved product-use hygiene practices, reduced menstruation-related school absence, and increased willingness to seek healthcare for menstrual symptoms. The evidence is clear: knowledge changes behaviour, and changed behaviour changes outcomes.[3]