Aya Care’s Sudden Fame

Aya Care is the brainchild of Canadian entrepreneur, Adriana Lica, and Nigerian businesswoman, Inya Ajanaku. It was founded in 2020 from a conversation the two shared on period health in Nigeria. Ajanaku lamented about the lack of affordability for sanitary products and Lica was concerned about the quality of the products on the market. The latter explained that there was a ‘huge gap in quality’ in the Nigerian period market, so the brand was ‘built out of a personal need’.

Aya Care began operations in 2022 and officially launched in July 2023, distributing to different stores and supermarkets. It brands itself as making ‘confident and comfortable period products that care’. This tagline influenced the making of their pads which are thinner and longer than other pads with wings that keep the pad in place.

So far, Aya Care has made a user-friendly product, filling a gap in feminine hygiene products. As of 2022, according to the Sanitation & Hygiene Fund, Nigeria’s menstrual hygiene market was valued at around $371 million (N459 billion at the official rate as of writing), with sanitary pads alone accounting for nearly $369 million (N456.8 billion); but with the menstrual hygiene market in Nigeria constrained by low consumer spending, limited access to products and continuous stigma, how far can Aya Care really go?

Regardless of her viral endorsement, Tamara strongly believes that a product will speak for itself if it’s good enough. She knows she helped start the conversation but is also aware that the conversation would have been a dead-end if people tried Aya Care products and realized that they didn’t like it. What use is virality without identifiable strengths for the average user? 

The length of Aya Care pads was the brand’s selling point, and once Tamara’s video went viral, Aya Care was quickly branded as a company that listens to and understands its market. However, listening to the market is not as easy as it would seem. This explains why when other brands reached out to Tamara asking for sponsored endorsements, she turned them down. She didn’t like their products and wasn’t going to be a sellout. ‘They wanted to jump on the bandwagon. But their pad didn’t even live up to that standard,’ Tamara told me in an interview. What she did with Aya Care was authentic. She liked the product and wanted to share. Luckily, it paid off.

While there are some concerns about the safety of sanitary pads, pads are generally not harmful. The concern surrounding their safety stems from the vulnerability of the vagina. For instance, taking hormone treatments vaginally allows the drug to be transferred directly into the bloodstream without being metabolized the way it would if taken orally. Furthermore, some ingredients used in making pads are better than others. Most conventional pads are not made entirely of cotton, and often contain synthetic materials like rayon and polyester, which may undergo processing and bleaching with chlorine. Additionally, to absorb menstrual blood, pads commonly use superabsorbent polymers, such as sodium polyacrylate, which are not biodegradable.

Tests for menstrual health products usually involve evaluating factors like absorbency, leakage prevention, and overall performance. Typically, manufacturers use synthetic fluids that mimic menstrual blood such as saline for testing purposes. It was only in 2023 that researchers at Oregon Health and Science University tested the absorbency of various products with real blood to ensure their effectiveness.

More than this, however, individual allergies play an important part in product compatibility. According to Darlene Sandra Clarke-okah, the founder of the menstrual health initiative, Femme Avenue, some individuals may experience skin irritation or allergies to certain materials used in making pads. Tamara had previously experienced such discomfort when using another sanitary pad brand. ‘There was a time [Always] gave me rashes, but I think it was just a factory error. I don’t think all their pads are like that,’ she said. Some ingredients that can cause this irritation are fragrances, synthetic materials, or dye.

Aya Care currently offers two products—medium comfy pads and large comfy pads. According to Lica, they’re ‘the best on the market’. While the co-founder refrained from sharing extensive details about the materials Aya Care uses in producing its pads (presumably to protect the brands competitive advantage), she seemed confident that Aya Care has created the best product with the best ingredients not just in Nigeria, but internationally. She owes this to them spending ‘close to a year designing the perfect pad’. Lica also told me that she was shocked at the state of menstrual health in Nigeria when she surveyed the industry before officially launching Aya Care. ‘The fact that girls need to question the quality [of the period products] is beyond me.’ At the time, she thought to herself, ‘More needs to be done’. Compared to other brands which can cost somewhere around N550 to N1,800, Aya Care pads currently retail at N650, which Lica explains is affordable for the quality produced.

Lica also believes that apart from its design, Aya Care is at a competitive advantage because it is a women-led and women-focused brand. She added that her team of women are setting the standards in an industry that is, so far, primarily led by men who simply cannot relate to the issue they’re attempting to solve.

While Aya Care pads have been flying off the shelves, Lica explains that it wasn’t an easy process to get registered with the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). According to Lica, healthcare regulations in Nigeria involve thorough work and diligence. However, she believes ‘this is the type of diligence that should be expected for healthcare products.’

Before their debut in the Nigerian market, Aya Care had its pads tested by a group of 30 women (aged 16-40). Most of these women were brought in by the co-founder, Ajanaku, from her church, where she’s a prominent member. Lica told me that with contributions from investors, and a large chunk of their personal money, Ajanaku and Lica flew in a renowned gynaecologist (name withheld) from the US to moderate the session. While moderating, the gynaecologist ensured that the materials used in making the pads were safe and made sure the volunteers understood the process every step of the way. The insights from this test were what inspired the design of Aya pads.

The test was also part of the process for their NAFDAC registration as they needed confirmation from the governing body before initiating the session. While she felt the registration was straightforward, owing to the credibility of the products they presented, Lica added that the process was compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. They also had to wait further to obtain the physical document after the pads were already approved for distribution.

Pads are now the most popular and widely used sanitary product, but before they caught on, women used different materials to manage their periods such as bandages and cloth. Eventually, concerns about bacteria growth caused by inadequate cleaning of reusable products inspired the making of disposable pads and menstrual cups. Despite the dynamic nature of menstrual products, however, the societal stigma associated with menstruation remains constant. For instance, in the 1870s, before they were advertised in catalogues, sanitary products were only marketed door-to-door. The next breakthrough happened during World War I when nurses noticed how well cellulose absorbed blood. As a result, brand such as US-based Kotex began selling cellulose napkins in the early 1900s. Such providers also encouraged women to use these products to join the workforce so they could provide for the home while their spouses were fighting in the war.

A century later, some of these ideas remain. Society expects women to ‘toughen up’ while providing limited options and access to menstrual care. Additionally, menstruation remains a sensitive topic that is often shamed and avoided.

At 13, Clarke-okah was already all too familiar with this concept. She recalls passing in and out of consciousness from period cramps. She remembers feeling odd and hateful that her sisters and friends did not experience their period the same way she did. She remembers having to visit the hospital so frequently because of the indescribable pain. And now, years later, she can only marvel at how nothing much has changed for young girls in Nigeria who must deal with a lack of menstrual health awareness. She says,

At first, I used to get my period once every three months which isn’t normal, and then I proceeded to have difficult and more severe pain with my periods. It was so bad that I found myself in the hospital almost all the time because I passed out from the pain.

When she started reading more on the topic to understand her body and period, Clarke-okah realized how little women and girls are taught about the way their bodies work. This was the driving force behind her establishing Femme Avenue.

Lica, who suffers from polycystic ovary syndrome—a painful hormonal disorder that causes cysts around the ovaries—expressed a similar sentiment. She mentioned how easier her life would have been ‘if someone had told me when I was 13 that it’s not normal to pass out from a period’. She told me that she looks forward to more education in the menstrual health industry that will help prevent cases like hers and Clarke-okah’s.

Considering the numerous advancements in the history of mankind—living underwater, walking on the moon, communicating across oceans—it’s interesting, and not in a positive way, to consider that such breakthroughs are limited in menstrual hygiene. Stores and households remain filled with substandard sanitary products that do little to control flow and supplement the side effects of menstruation. Society also complicates menstrual health further by period-shaming.

Period-shaming is a broad term that covers the discrimination and stigma associated with menstruation. While period-shaming is inherently rooted in misogyny, its manifestations are more subdued. In schools, it’s the hushed ruffling of the paper bag passed discreetly from one hand to the other. In some homes, women are isolated from their family and young girls are looked at with disgust because they suddenly have become women who can seduce husbands and sons. In certain parts of Nigeria, there is also a lack of proper sanitation facilities in schools and public places. However, Clarke-okah has observed efforts being made to address these challenges through education, advocacy, and initiatives aimed at improving access to menstrual hygiene products and facilities. She told me that,