Mumbai: Blue Cross Laboratories, through its social awareness campaign made by C Com Digital, looks at eliminating the myths surrounding menstrual cycle.
The new campaign film #BreakTheCheatChain features women across three generations narrating the mental agony a young teenage girl goes through when she is advised to simply bear out the intense period pain. The film also narrates about how the word ‘pain’ takes a different meaning for women and has always been sugar coated with monikers such as blessing, rite of passage, nature etc.
With this lack of awareness, girls often tend to ignore their period pain which could be an indication of a more serious disorder such as endometriosis, PCOD, ovarian cysts, adenomyosis etc. all of which completely cripple the normal life of a girl and also severely impact her studies or professional growth.
The campaign is being promoted across the campaign website (www.painfulperiods.in) Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. On the micro-blogging platform Twitter, the video was trending at no.2 across India on the day of its release.
Speaking about this, Nikhil Marwaha, Director Strategy & Operations C Com Digital, said “In our conversations with many mothers, young women and girls, we found that the narrative around periods has largely remain unchanged over generations. Girls are often told about the bleeding, pain, discomforts associated with menstruation and are told to bear the agony is silence. In many cases the ability to bear immense period pain is glorified as the difference that makes women greater than men. Through our campaign video #BreakTheCheatChain we are encouraging mothers and daughters to break this narrative of myths and take charge of their health. Our second phase is replete with user interviews, interactive content and awareness ads to ensure girls & women suffering from dysmenorrhea know that they are not alone in this fight and there’s a cure. All they need to do is visit a gynaecologist.”
Recent research indicates that about 71% of girls in India do not know anything about menstruation before their first period. What exacerbates this situation further is the lack of awareness on period pain or dysmenorrhea, even among educated girls and women. The campaign thus aims to not only initiate relevant discussions on the subject but also remove the stigma and taboo around openly talking about period pain.
Speaking about this initiative the spokesperson from Bluecross Laboratories said “Dysmenorrhea never got the deserving attention it required. Women all along believed that they need to go through period pain as it is normal. We felt the need to educate women about the problem while also providing the solution. Our campaign is an appeal to all daughters & mothers to not ignore period pain. Our campaign has already elicited a fantastic response with requests for conducting dysmenorrhea workshops from schools & colleges across India. We are confident that with this campaign, we will achieve our objectives.”
Dysmenorrhea is the most common yet most deflected and ignored gynecological problem among adolescent girls and young women. C Com’s campaign for Blue Cross will thus help in gathering momentum and spreading awareness about dysmenorrhea among a wider audience that includes men too.
