Why Women Should Not Use Tissue or Cotton Wool as Sanitary Pads

A warning from gynaecologists against using tissue paper and cotton wool as substitutes for sanitary pads has reopened a difficult question about menstrual hygiene in Nigeria.

The question is what happens when the recommended product is simply too expensive or unavailable?

The concern should not be reduced to the claim that every woman who uses an alternative material will automatically develop an infection or become infertile.

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The evidence is more complicated.

Why women resort to alternatives

Research among schoolgirls in Badagry, Lagos State, found that 67.1 per cent reported using sanitary napkins, while 17.1 per cent used tissue paper, 15.5 per cent used clothes and 0.4 per cent used cotton wool.

More than half of those using alternatives identified the high cost of mainstream sanitary pads as a reason.

That finding matters because menstrual hygiene is not only a question of personal preference. It is also affected by household income, availability, sanitation facilities and the ability to change menstrual materials regularly.

Where the health concern comes in

The safer principle is that menstrual materials should be clean, suitable for menstrual flow and changed regularly.

Improvised materials can become problematic when they are unhygienic, retained for too long, exposed to contamination or used in ways that cause irritation.

However, it would be medically misleading to say that tissue paper or cotton wool by themselves directly cause blocked fallopian tubes or infertility in every user.

Blocked fallopian tubes can result from conditions including pelvic inflammatory disease and other reproductive-tract infections.

Infertility also has many possible causes.

The practical warning is therefore about hygiene, irritation, contamination and appropriate menstrual management, rather than a blanket claim that using an alternative automatically causes infertility.

The bigger Nigerian problem

The Badagry study also shows why public-health messaging must go beyond telling women what not to use.If women resort to tissue, cloth or other alternatives because sanitary pads are unaffordable, the response must also address affordability and access.

A woman cannot use a product she cannot afford. That is why menstrual-health policy requires both education and access to safe menstrual materials.

ValidViewNetwork reports that the strongest lesson from the evidence is not simply “do not use tissue or cotton wool”. It is that women need affordable, hygienic and accessible menstrual products, alongside accurate information about their safe use.