VIRAL: Young Girls Share Why They’re #PeriodDistancing

From social distancing comes #PeriodDistancing. As the world reopens and people are back to face-to-face interactions, some girls are feeling consumed by the pressure and anxiety of having to closely engage with their friends and family once again— and now, it’s because of their menstrual period and odors.  Avoiding cramped, enclosed spaces, and long commutes, young women have inadvertently started talking about a new distancing practice, called “#PeriodDistancing”, as a way of keeping their peers from being able to smell their period odor and avoid embarrassment. What was once a taboo topic, these girls share on their TikTok videos how they forced themselves to skip important family gatherings, school and work engagements, miss out on those long, overdue catch-ups with friends, and avoid visiting their favorite hang-out places so people won’t notice the fishy or “malansang” odor of their period. Zooming in on Period Odor Why do girls experience period odor in the first place? Menstrual blood, a combination of blood and uterine lining tissue, has a distinct smell. Period blood can have a unique metallic-like odor and it is primarily because of iron present in period blood. This is normally not a cause for concern and usually goes away after [...]