African Progress Starts With Protecting The Womb Of Our Women

#AfricanProgressStartsWithTheWomb 10/07/17

On the backdrop of a critical debate started by Ed Chakakosha on sanitary wear a few days ago, I thought I would make a critical contribution on the subject.

The subject on the day in question was the #menstrualCup. A number of interesting contributions came from a number of members of the group. Some support the cup because it’s comfortable, some say it’s messy and then there are those who felt that the subject should be reserved only for women and not men.

I have an opinion on the points brought forward, however, my points are not merely for discourse but actually motivated by an interest in the health of our women.

Why Do I Care As A Man?

Since having daughters and women who I occasionally accompany to the gynae, I am a man who has developed great interest in female hygiene issues. Of particular interest for me is the cyclical irritations and infections women suffer in their nether regions, that are usually attributed to chemical imbalances resulting from food and bath cosmetics.

What I find concerning though, is whenever scientists look at vaginal thrush and other such infections our women face, many causes are given but there is a conspicuous absence of the synthetic products women use for at least 20% of their lives: sanitary products.

Surely, the science and medicine is questionable when it attributes the pathology of vaginal infections and irritations to everything BUT the ubiquitous sanitary products which women use for the greater part of 30% of their lives. These include panty-liners, pads, tampons and even panty pads.

What Is Wrong With Sanitary Products

As I write this, I can already hear some asking themselves what is wrong with these products. Well, EVERYTHING!

A majority of these products contain a spectrum of toxic, synthetic chemicals ranging from GMO cotton containing glyphosate (Agent Orange used in bombs dropped in the Vietnam War), herbicides, bleach and petrol chemicals in the formulations designed to trap odors and gel the menstrual flow. The cup on the other hand is made from silicone [synthetic plastic] which is extracted from petrol chemicals and other hydro-carbons.

I don’t think I need to labor the point of the problem of hydro-carbons in the human body.

This is information that most women, including our most educated medical practitioners don’t know about these marvels of western technology [witchcraft].

If You Can’t Eat It, Don’t Put In Your Body

I have come across a wise saying that says: “if you can’t put it in your mouth, it shouldn’t be in your vagina”. Well, how many ladies who use tampons, menstrual cups, pantyliners and pads could put the same in their mouths for six days every month without getting sick?

And if most sanitary products would make you sick by ingesting them, what are they doing in the most sensitive and absorbent part of a woman’s body? Let me put this in context for the reader: they say you are less likely to contract HIV from the mouth and the digestive tract as you are from the vagina.

What Is Causing Cervical Cancer In Blacks

So, now, by reading the above argument, do the words thrash, yeast, endometriosis and cervical cancer start to pop to mind? They pop into my medically ignorant mind.

And in a progressive society of educated people, ignorant questions should be subject to scientific inquisition, right? Scientific inquisition that should be critically formulated, specifically for the unique societies scourged by the problems [cervical cancer and endometriosis], like the black community.

Men Must Care About Female Health

This brings me to the final point raised by a gentleman: This issue is for women only, not men. On the contrary, this issue is not for women alone because men and women together form society. As support for this argument, here I am, a man, a father of daughters, a son to a mother, raising a critical question about the safety of sanitary wear that most women wear without ever questioning.

Men and women are partners in this conundrum called life because the man IS because of the woman.

Moreover, the people manufacturing these products are mostly men, interested in profits more than women’s health. Therefore, female hygiene is a societal issue, particularly for us Africans because our daughters, wives and mothers are the ones suffering the most from cervical cancer.

So on a continent where we grow organic cotton, is it not time that we African men and women start using our financial resources and so called “education” to contribute to the research, development and manufacture of organic African sanitary products that can save the lives of our wombman?

My Business Supports Ethical Business

It’s for the above reasons: the health of our people why my company, an marketing consultancy will not support western biotech, pharmaceutical and petro-chemical businesses, no matter how much we need the business. #EthicalBusinessForAfricanProgress

By Rutendo Bereza Matinyarare