On 22 October, Kenyan women started #MyAlwaysExperience to raise concerns about the sanitary products marketed to them under the Always brand name. Many women took to Twitter to describe how these sanitary towels have given them minor chemical burns and rashes during their time of the month.
As I write, it is not clear whether these women have been sold counterfeit products, or whether the genuine Always brand, a subsidiary of Procter & Gamble, is offering inferior products to non-Western women.
One user wrote: “Wow I thought this was just me. I used to think I was suffering from an adult version of ‘nappy rash’ every month. I’m beyond grateful to know I’m not the only person this has happened to! I will no longer be using these #MyAlwaysExperience”.
Another said, “I termed the burning rash I always had after using “Always” as pad rash because I thought it was normal. I’ve not experienced the rash since I switched to Mopled #MyAlwaysExperience”.
Clearly, until this hashtag got going, many Kenyan women had been keeping quiet about their experiences since they thought it was normal to experience this level of discomfort when using sanitary towels.
Some African women have used the hashtag to compare the Always products they were being sold with their Western counterparts. They found that the pads sold to women in Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana are significantly different. It appears that the only way to obtain Western-standard products is to ask friends or relatives in the West to buy them for you and send them on.
One woman wrote: “#MyAlwaysExperience my final Always pad compared to a US brand pad that I currently use. @Always_Kenya are giving Kenyans mediocre products”.
Is this the result of counterfeiting, as indicated by a video which seems to show Somali workers putting non-Always brand pads into Always packaging? Or is that African women are still being palmed off with grossly inferior sanitary products? The Kenyan branch of Always had already been forced to issue an apology. In March 2019 it stated that: “It breaks our hearts to hear that some of our products have not given you the best experience and we are here to work with you to get the right product from our eight variants to meet your needs. We keep innovating and that’s why we reintroduced our Ultra soft pad this past weekend.”
Always Kenya is yet to publicly comment on this latest uproar, but the use of this hashtag highlights the stigma surrounding periods and the health issues which can often go unnoticed as a result. Periods are uncomfortable enough without the added pain of rashes caused by sanitary wear. When these women speak up we should damn well listen and do something to regulate the issue.