A new roll on to relieve period pain

By Jyoti Singh

New Delhi: Marking the International Women’s Day, researchers from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT-Delhi) recently launched a roll on that could be used for relieving pain during mensuration. Based on essential oils including eucalyptus oil, menthol and wintergreen oil, it can also help improve the mood of users.

The product has been developed by two third year students at textile technology department, Archit Agarwal and Harry Sehrawat. It took seven months for them to come out with the formulation.

When a woman, who is having periods, suffers from pain, she just needs to apply it on the place where there is pain. She will get immediate relief. It will be effective for up to about eight hours. One 10ml roll on can be used for three period cycles. The rolls have an expiry date of three years from the date of manufacture.

It is different from other pain relief roll ons and ointments as those are formulated to give heating effect first and then cooling effect. This one is formulated in such a way that it gives cooling effect first and then the heating effect. “This is the best way to handle period pain”, said Archit Agarwal. 

 “One of my friends could not write her exam properly and was feeling terrible about it. On questioning she confided that she could not study well because of period pains. From there we got the idea and we thought we should do something about it”, he said.

The product, he noted, is 100 % natural and has no side effects. Clinical trials were conducted on two age groups: 14-28 and 28-35. The trials were conducted at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the feedback was good.

Dr Rita Bakshi, Chairperson, International Fertility Center, Delhi, who was present at the launch programme, noted that a main plus point of the ointment is that there is nothing to consume and it is made of natural ingredients. “As a doctor I recommend pain killers. But, many women don’t take them for fear of side effects. This one is a roll on and is applied externally. I am sure women will use it happily”.

Prof. Srinivasan Venkataraman, Mentor, Department of Design, IIT Delhi, said the two students had recently developed a `stand and pee’ product whereby women don’t have to squat to answer the call of nature. Named Sanfe, the new roll on product for period pain can be purchased from e-commerce sites and medical stores.