Busting the myths Indian women grow up believing and replacing them with the truth
Every girl in India receives a period education. It just happens to be mostly wrong.
It arrives in fragments, a hushed conversation with a mother, a vague chapter in a biology textbook, advice from an older cousin, a warning from a grandmother rooted in tradition rather than science. By the time a girl has her first period, she has already absorbed a collection of beliefs about menstruation that will shape how she experiences it for the next three to four decades.
Most of those beliefs are myths. Some are harmless. Many are not.
This blog is about the ones that cause real harm - the myths that lead Indian women to tolerate pain they should not have to tolerate, avoid things they do not need to avoid, and feel shame about a biological process that is simply part of being human.
Myth 1: Period Pain Is Normal - Everyone Goes Through It
This is the most damaging myth of all, and it is the one most universally believed.
Period pain- the kind that keeps you in bed, makes you miss work or school, causes vomiting, or leaves you unable to function is not normal. It is a symptom.
Mild cramping in the first day or two of a period is common and generally benign. But debilitating pain is not something every woman experiences, and it is not something any woman should simply endure.
Severe period pain is one of the primary symptoms of endometriosis, a chronic condition affecting an estimated 25 million Indian women. It is also associated with fibroids, adenomyosis, and pelvic inflammatory disease, all of which are treatable conditions that go undiagnosed for years because women are told their pain is normal.
The truth is that pain severe enough to disrupt your daily life is your body signalling that something needs attention. It deserves investigation, not dismissal.
Myth 2: You Cannot Wash Your Hair During Your Period
This one has no biological basis whatsoever.
The belief common across many Indian households is that washing your hair during menstruation causes health problems, heavier bleeding, or hormonal disruption. None of this is true.
Menstruation involves the shedding of the uterine lining. It has no connection to hair washing, scalp temperature, or bathing habits. Warm water does not affect your uterus. Shampoo does not interact with your hormones.
In fact, maintaining hygiene during menstruation, including bathing regularly, reduces the risk of infection and supports overall comfort. There is no medical reason to avoid bathing, washing your hair, or any other hygiene practice during your period.
Myth 3: You Should Not Exercise During Your Period
The opposite is closer to the truth.
Light to moderate exercise during menstruation has been shown to reduce cramping, improve mood, decrease bloating, and ease fatigue. Physical activity triggers the release of endorphins, which are natural pain-relieving chemicals that actively help with period discomfort.
The idea that exercise is harmful or that women are too fragile to move during their periods is rooted in outdated notions of menstruation as an illness rather than a normal biological process.
That said, listening to your body matters. If your pain is severe enough that exercise feels impossible, that is important information, not about your fitness level, but about whether your pain is within a normal range at all.
Myth 4: Irregular Periods Are Not a Big Deal
Irregular periods are frequently dismissed as stress, diet, or just the way some women are built. Occasionally, that is true. Often it is not.
Consistently irregular periods, cycles shorter than 21 days or longer than 35 days, periods that disappear for months, or cycles that vary wildly from month to month can be signs of underlying conditions, including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), thyroid disorders, hyperprolactinemia, or premature ovarian insufficiency.
PCOS alone affects an estimated 1 in 5 Indian women, yet the average time to diagnosis remains years partly because irregular periods are routinely normalised rather than investigated.
Your menstrual cycle is a vital sign. Changes in its regularity, length, flow, or associated symptoms are worth tracking and worth discussing with a doctor.
Myth 5: Heavy Periods Are Just the Way Some Women Are
Heavy menstrual bleeding soaking through a pad or tampon every hour for several hours, passing large clots regularly, or bleeding for more than 7 days is not simply a personality trait of your uterus.
Heavy bleeding, clinically known as menorrhagia, can indicate fibroids, polyps, adenomyosis, clotting disorders, or thyroid dysfunction. It can also cause iron deficiency anaemia, which itself causes fatigue, brain fog, and a host of secondary health problems that women often attribute to entirely different causes.
Many Indian women live with heavy bleeding for years, managing it with extra padding and painkillers, never knowing there are effective treatments that could significantly improve their quality of life.
Myth 6: You Cannot Get Pregnant During Your Period
This is a myth with potentially significant consequences.
While the probability of conception during menstruation is lower than at other points in the cycle, it is not zero. Sperm can survive inside the body for up to five days. If you have a shorter cycle and ovulate early, sperm from intercourse during your period can still be present when ovulation occurs.
For anyone relying on period timing as a contraceptive method, this is important information. It is not a reliable method, particularly for women with irregular cycles where ovulation timing is unpredictable.
Myth 7: Menstruation Makes You Impure
This is not a medical myth. It is a cultural one. But its health consequences are real.
The belief that menstruating women are impure, unable to enter kitchens, temples, or certain rooms, required to sleep separately, prohibited from touching food or participating in rituals, is widespread across India. It causes measurable harm.
Girls who internalise this belief learn that their bodies are shameful during menstruation. This shame makes them less likely to discuss period problems openly, less likely to seek medical help, and more likely to suffer in silence. It contributes directly to the delayed diagnosis of conditions like endometriosis, fibroids, and PCOS.
Menstruation is not impurity. It is a biological process, as medically significant as any other and treating it as shameful has real consequences for women's health outcomes.
Myth 8: Tampons and Menstrual Cups Take Away Your Virginity
This myth prevents many Indian women, particularly younger women and girls, from accessing menstrual hygiene products that offer significantly more comfort, freedom, and protection than pads alone.
Virginity is not a physical state determined by the hymen. The hymen is a thin membrane that varies enormously between individuals and can be altered by many ordinary activities, including exercise, cycling, and medical examination, none of which have anything to do with sexual activity.
Inserting a tampon or menstrual cup does not affect virginity in any meaningful sense. These are hygiene products. Restricting access to them based on this myth limits women's choices and their comfort during menstruation.
Myth 9: PMS Is Just Moodiness: It Is Not a Real Medical Issue
Premenstrual syndrome is real, documented, and in its severe form, premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). it is a recognised psychiatric condition that causes debilitating mood disturbance in the days before menstruation.
Dismissing PMS as women being dramatic or emotional minimises a legitimate hormonal experience. The mood changes, anxiety, irritability, depression, and physical symptoms associated with PMS are driven by hormonal fluctuations that are real and measurable.
For women with PMDD, symptoms can be severe enough to affect relationships, work performance, and quality of life. There are effective treatments, but only accessible to women who are taken seriously when they report their symptoms.
Myth 10: If Your Doctor Says Everything Is Fine, It Is Fine
Medical gaslighting is a documented pattern in which patients, disproportionately women, have their symptoms dismissed, minimised, or attributed to anxiety or stress rather than investigated properly. Indian women seeking help for period-related symptoms frequently encounter responses like "it is normal for women to have pain," "just take painkillers," or "you will feel better after marriage or childbirth" advice that is medically unfounded and actively harmful.
If your symptoms are affecting your quality of life and you do not feel heard, you are entitled to seek a second opinion. You are entitled to ask for investigations. You are entitled to advocate for your own health. A doctor who dismisses your pain without investigation is not providing adequate care.
The Common Threat
Every myth on this list has one thing in common: it teaches women to tolerate, minimise, or feel ashamed of their menstrual health.
Together, these beliefs create a culture in which women suffer from preventable and treatable conditions for years, often decades, because they were told that suffering was normal, that their bodies were impure, or that they were simply being dramatic.
The antidote is not complicated. It is accurate information, delivered without shame, early enough to matter.
What You Can Do
Track your cycle every month, note the length, flow, pain level, and any associated symptoms. This data is valuable to any doctor you see.
Talk about it. With your daughters, sisters, and friends. The more openly menstruation is discussed, the less power these myths hold.
Seek care when something feels wrong. Pain that disrupts your life is not normal. Bleeding that soaks through protection every hour is not normal. Cycles that disappear for months are not normal. These are signals worth investigating.
And if you are dismissed, find someone who will listen.
Your period is not something to be ashamed of. It is something to understand
