A Study on Menstrual Hygiene among Rural Adolescent Girls

Although menstruation is a natural process, it is linked with several misconceptions and practices, which sometimes result into adverse health outcomes. Learning about menstrual hygiene is a vital aspect of health education for adolescent girls. (i) To find out the status of menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls. (ii) To explorethe beliefs, dietary habits and perceptions regarding menstruation among the study population. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among 110 adolescent school girls with the help of a pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire regarding menstrual hygiene. The mean age of menarche was 12.4 years. Majority of the girls (66.4%) preferred using both sanitary pads and cloth pieces. Only 11.25% girls used sanitary pads during the entire menstruation. Practices of cleanliness were unsatisfactoryamong 43 (39.1%) girls. Eighty four (76.4%) girls had dietary restrictions, 85.5% girls were restricted to visit temples and 62.7% girls were prohibited entry to kitchen during periods. Menstrual hygiene is far from satisfactory among a large proportion of the adolescent girls with rampant ignorance, false perceptions and unsafe practices regarding menstruation. This emphasizes upon the need to encourage safe and hygienic practices among the adolescent girls and bring them out of traditional beliefs, misconceptions and restrictions with the active involvement of medical and paramedical health professionals.