Myanmar Military Blocks Menstrual Products as Women Face Rising Prices and Health Risks

Sanitary Pads Reach 9,000 Kyat as Military Restrictions Spread

A pack of sanitary pads that previously cost 3,000 kyat now sells for 9,000 kyat on the hidden black market in parts of Myanmar, more than the country's minimum daily wage of 7,800 kyat. Military restrictions on transporting and distributing menstrual products have left women and girls in areas affected by conflict struggling to obtain a basic hygiene necessity.

The military authorities claim the products help resistance fighters treat wounds and cushion their feet inside boots. Women's rights activists and medical aid workers reject that justification and describe a policy that burdens civilians, restricts women's movement and worsens conditions in displacement camps.

Thinzar Shunlei Yi, director at Sisters2Sisters, a women's rights collective supporting fighters, said officials allege that the People's Defence Force uses sanitary pads for medical purposes and as support for feet and boots to absorb sweat and blood. On the bridge connecting Sagaing with Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city, transporting pads is reportedly prohibited entirely.

The restrictions began in August without a formal announcement from the authorities. As of April 20, 2026, they form part of a wider blockade affecting medicines, baby diapers, mosquito nets and oxygen cylinders. The absence of an announced policy, combined with cultural taboos around discussing menstruation, has made the full geographic reach of the restrictions difficult to establish.

For women already displaced by war, the consequences reach beyond the price of a packet of pads. Shortages force some to use rags, leaves or newspaper, while limited clean water, scarce antibiotics and a healthcare system that has collapsed in many regions make managing menstrual health increasingly difficult.

Where the Restrictions Apply

Parts of Sagaing region and Chin, Kachin and northern Shan states are among the areas affected by the restrictions. The measures began in territories controlled by opposition forces, where the military has lost control and seeks to limit supplies reaching ethnic armed groups and the People's Defence Force.

Transportation of sanitary pads, baby diapers, mosquito nets and oxygen cylinders reportedly requires approval letters from the military's regional administration. Those administrative requirements create barriers that can effectively halt distribution. The reported prohibition on the Sagaing–Mandalay bridge adds a direct obstacle on a route connecting the two areas.

Baby diapers have come under the same suspicion as menstrual products. Humanitarian monitoring organizations say authorities suspect resistance fighters of using diapers as gauze, the material normally placed over wounds to absorb blood and protect an injury.

Thinzar Shunlei Yi believes the restrictions are more widespread than the cases already reported. Women may be reluctant to describe shortages or discuss their periods publicly, leaving aid organizations with an incomplete picture of where products are being blocked and how many people are affected.

How the Four Cuts Strategy Reaches Civilians

The military calls its broader approach the four cuts strategy: cutting opposition forces off from food, funds, information and essential supplies. Restricting everyday goods serves that effort by isolating contested territories and making it harder for people living there to obtain necessities.

Myanmar's military seized power in February 2021, removing the democratically elected government and plunging the country into civil war. Since the coup, artillery attacks, village burnings and arbitrary arrests have become routine across the country. The campaign to deny supplies has intensified alongside that violence.

Restrictions on access to medicines and their transportation increased sharply from January 2025. The later restrictions on menstrual products extended the pressure to goods used regularly by women and girls, while the diaper restrictions also affected families caring for babies.

The sequence of events shows how the blockade developed:

• February 2021: The military seized power and ousted the democratically elected government.
• January 2025: Restrictions on medicine access and transportation began increasing sharply.
• August, with the year unspecified: Restrictions on menstrual products began without a formal announcement in opposition controlled areas.
• April 20, 2026: Women and aid groups were describing shortages, higher prices and obstacles to delivering menstrual products.

The military's stated purpose is to deprive opposition forces of supplies. Civilians living in the same territories must also navigate the approval requirements and shortages. Women who need menstrual products every month face a recurring cost and health burden, regardless of whether they have any connection to armed groups.

Why Aid Workers Reject the Medical Justification

Meredith Bunn, founder of the medical aid charity Skills for Humanity, rejected the claim that sanitary pads are suitable for treating combat injuries. She said anyone with experience in combat medicine would recognize their shortcomings.

A sanitary pad wouldn't stay in place, wouldn't soak enough blood and wouldn't keep the area [clean].

Proper wound care requires sterile dressings designed to maintain pressure and prevent infection. Consumer menstrual products are designed to absorb menstrual flow, rather than the rapid bleeding associated with gunshot wounds or lacerations. They also lack the adhesive properties needed to secure them during movement in combat conditions.

A dressing for a serious wound must do more than absorb liquid. It needs to remain in position and help keep the injured area protected. Bunn's explanation addresses those practical requirements and why a sanitary pad would be inadequate for the role the military attributes to it.

Bunn described the policy as the product of completely uneducated, misogynistic fools within the military. Her criticism also extended to its effects on women: she believes the restrictions target female resistance fighters while controlling civilian women and victimizing people in displacement camps.

Healthcare professionals and aid workers have categorically rejected the military's justification. Their concern is that goods needed for ordinary hygiene are being blocked under a medical rationale that leaves women facing shortages and avoidable discomfort.

Displacement Makes Menstrual Health Harder to Protect

More than 3.5 million people have been displaced since the 2021 coup. Women and girls in displacement camps face particular difficulties because the healthcare system has largely collapsed, medical attention is scarce and clean water is limited.

Henriette Ceyrac, who founded the period education organization Pan Ka Lay before it was forced to close, said women are resorting to rags, leaves or newspaper when menstrual products are unavailable. She described the health consequences of those alternatives.

It can cause urinary tract infections [UTIs], reproductive tract infections; just a lot of discomfort and pain.

Urinary tract infections affect the parts of the body that make, store or carry urine. Reproductive tract infections affect the reproductive system. In displacement camps, both become harder to address when women cannot obtain clean water, medical advice or antibiotics.

Thinzar Shunlei Yi said Sisters2Sisters regularly receives requests for antibiotics to treat UTIs associated with unhygienic menstrual management. Those requests show how a shortage of hygiene products can create additional demand for medicines that are themselves subject to restrictions.

Untreated infections can lead to serious complications, including kidney damage and infertility. In regions where the health system has collapsed entirely, women may have little opportunity to obtain treatment before an infection worsens.

Physical discomfort also changes daily life. Some women remain indoors during menstruation instead of taking part in ordinary activities or political organizing. Aid workers argue that this loss of mobility serves the regime's wider effort to suppress dissent.

Prices Force a Choice Between Food and Hygiene

The increase from 3,000 kyat to 9,000 kyat per pack means menstrual products now cost three times their previous price on the hidden black market. A single pack costs 1,200 kyat more than the minimum daily wage of 7,800 kyat, roughly 15 percent above a full day's minimum pay.

Women trying to support a household must cover that cost alongside food and other necessities. For families already struggling with displacement and lost income, the higher price can put disposable pads beyond reach. Women are being forced to choose between buying food for their families and managing menstruation safely.

Households headed by women face disproportionate financial pressure from the conflict. Economic scarcity affects them more severely than households headed by men, making the added cost of menstrual products particularly difficult to absorb.

The World Bank projects an economic contraction of 2.5 percent because of recent earthquakes and the continuing conflict. That wider economic damage compounds the problems caused by blocked transport routes and reduced supplies.

The termination of international aid programs has also created a $259 million funding gap. The loss has removed crucial support for organizations led by women that previously provided prevention of gender based violence, education and healthcare services. Local groups now face greater needs with fewer resources.

Banking systems have collapsed in many areas, and humanitarian aid is being blocked. Women therefore face barriers both to obtaining menstrual products and to accessing the money or assistance needed to pay for them. Period poverty, the inability to afford or obtain what is needed to manage menstruation safely, affects millions amid these pressures.

Cultural Taboos Keep Women Silent

Thinzar Shunlei Yi said the taboo around talking about menstruation means many cases go unreported. A woman unable to find pads may also feel unable to discuss the problem openly, making it harder for aid groups to identify needs and organize help.

Ceyrac described menstruation as something treated as shameful in Myanmar society, with women encouraged to hide evidence of their periods. That expectation leaves women managing shortages privately even when the cause is a restriction affecting an entire community.

Ceyrac also explained the social pressure against seeking knowledge about menstrual health.

It is frowned upon as a woman to seek information and to be knowledgable about these things.

Menstrual cups and tampons remain rare and largely unavailable in Myanmar. Cultural barriers limit open discussion of those options, leaving disposable pads as the only culturally acceptable solution for most women.

The combination of military restrictions and social stigma creates two barriers at once. Products become harder to obtain, while speaking about the shortage becomes difficult. That silence can hide both the extent of the blockade and the health problems women experience because of it.

Local Groups Try to Deliver Supplies

Sisters2Sisters and other grassroots organizations continue fundraising and delivering aid intended for women, including sanitary pads and medical supplies. Their work attempts to fill gaps left by military restrictions and the loss of international funding.

Military authorities recently blocked volunteers from distributing aid in Pale and Yin Mar Pin townships in Sagaing region, where opposition control is strongest. Those obstructions prevent supplies from reaching communities already facing severe shortages.

Local organizations are also attempting to distribute reusable pads. These can be used again after washing, but displacement camps often lack enough clean water or suitable places to wash menstrual materials properly.

Aid workers discussing those conditions explained why disposable products had been preferable until alternatives became necessary.

A lack of menstrual equipment and areas to wash them properly can cause infections, irritation, UTIs and worse, which is why, until it became absolutely necessary, disposable [menstrual products] were preferable.

Reusable pads therefore leave aid groups with another practical requirement: women need safe conditions for cleaning them. Where water and washing space are scarce, changing the type of product alone leaves those difficulties unresolved.

Activists Describe a Form of Gender Based Violence

Local groups have formally raised the restrictions with the United Nations, describing the denial of such a basic commodity as a clear human rights violation. Activists and human rights observers argue that the policy deliberately targets women's biological needs to achieve military objectives beyond denying supplies to fighters.

Ceyrac said the restrictions further immobilize women and described that control as gender based violence.

It makes sense actually that [the military] wants to restrict women's movement even more. It's basically gender-based violence.

Bunn believes female fighters are a specific target, while civilian women and those in displacement camps also bear the consequences. Pain, discomfort and fear of infection can keep women indoors during their periods, reducing their participation in public life and political activities.

The restrictions sit within a broader pattern in which the military has systematically targeted defenders of women's rights. Activists describe the pad blockade as another way of punishing and controlling women, using an unavoidable biological function as a military tactic.

Women face the combined pressure of restricted supplies, higher prices, weakened healthcare and cultural silence. Local organizations continue trying to reach them, but blocked deliveries and lost funding limit that response. The immediate needs remain menstrual products, clean water and access to treatment for infections.

What to Know

• Myanmar's military has restricted menstrual product transport and distribution in opposition controlled areas, claiming resistance fighters use pads for wound care and boot padding.
• The restrictions began in August without a formal announcement and affect parts of Sagaing, Chin, Kachin and northern Shan.
• Transporting pads across the bridge connecting Sagaing and Mandalay is reportedly prohibited entirely.
• Sanitary pads, baby diapers, mosquito nets and oxygen cylinders reportedly require regional military approval letters for transportation.
• Medical aid workers reject the military's justification, explaining that sanitary pads are unsuitable for serious combat injuries.
• Black market prices have tripled from 3,000 to 9,000 kyat per pack, above the minimum daily wage of 7,800 kyat.
• More than 3.5 million people have been displaced since the February 2021 coup, with women facing shortages of hygiene products, clean water and treatment.
• International aid program terminations have created a $259 million funding gap, while local volunteers have faced blocked deliveries in Pale and Yin Mar Pin.
• Women's groups have raised the issue with the United Nations and describe the restrictions as a human rights violation and gender based violence.