Female students taking China's demanding gaokao (national college entrance exam) face unique challenges. Online discussions highlight that many female candidates resort to using contraceptives to manage their menstrual cycles during the crucial test.

As China’s gaokao, or national college entrance exam, fell on June 7 to 10 this year, the bigger challenge that female candidates face during the test is receiving increasing attention online. Gaokao is an exam that most Chinese secondary school pupils take to further their study. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics in China, females account for around half of the secondary school pupils in recent years. Of all the female gaokao candidates, around 30 per cent might have...