Inadequate menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) pose a great challenge for working women, affecting their productivity, job satisfaction, attendance, and advancement, and also have implications for their employers. Yet there has been little research to quantify the impacts of poor MHH conditions or to consider the value add of workplace MHH programs. As part of USAID's Water Sanitation and Hygiene Partnerships for Learning and Sustainability project, we conducted a social cost–benefit analysis (CBA) of the Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) in the Workplace Action Research, a 10-month intervention in private sector enterprises in Nepal and Kenya. The intervention aimed to determine if providing adequate MHM in the workplace contributes to women's economic empowerment, including improved business and social outcomes. This CBA of a workplace MHM intervention – the first of its kind – found a positive return for investing in workplace MHM programs. The average benefit–cost ratio in the base-case across factories in a 10-month intervention was 1.4, which increased to 2.3 when projected over 24 months. These early results of a pilot CBA on MHM in the workplace should serve as a call for greater attention by governments and businesses to the needs of menstruating women.

月经健康和卫生 (MHH) 不足给职业女性带来了巨大的挑战，影响她们的生产力、工作满意度、出勤率和晋升，也对其雇主产生影响。然而，很少有研究来量化不良 MHH 条件的影响或考虑工作场所 MHH 计划的附加值。作为美国国际开发署水环境卫生和个人卫生合作学习和可持续发展项目的一部分，我们对工作场所的经期卫生管理 (MHM)进行了社会成本效益分析 (CBA)行动研究，对尼泊尔和肯尼亚私营企业进行为期 10 个月的干预。该干预措施旨在确定在工作场所提供足够的 MHM 是否有助于增强妇女的经济权能，包括改善商业和社会成果。这种工作场所 MHM 干预的 CBA 是同类中的首例，为工作场所 MHM 计划的投资带来了积极的回报。在为期 10 个月的干预中，各工厂的基本情况下的平均效益成本比为 1.4，当预测超过 24 个月时，该比率将增加至 2.3。工作场所 MHM 试点 CBA 的这些早期结果应该呼吁政府和企业更多地关注经期女性的需求。