Menstrual Health and Hygiene Practices Among Adolescent School Girls in Nowshera: Insights and Impacts

Abstract

Menstrual Health Management (MHM) is an important aspect of adolescent health and gender equality that is underserved. Cultural taboos and socioeconomic barriers frequently jeopardize the health and education of young girls in Pakistan. The practices of menstrual hygiene, awareness levels, and socioeconomic obstacles faced by adolescent schoolgirls in District Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, are the subjects of this study. In five schools in Nowshera, 200 adolescent girls between the ages of (14± 2, grades 8-10) participated in a quantitative descriptive study. A 15-item, structured, and translated into Urdu questionnaire was used to gather information about awareness, product use, and the impact of menstruation on school attendance. Both parental consent and ethical approval were obtained. A notable lack of preparedness was observed, as 22% of participants said that they had no confidence in their knowledge of menstruation (P < 0.001). Economic issues were also observed, as 68% of participants admitted to borrowing sanitary pads from others, which is a risky practice in terms of hygiene, and 58% used cloth pads. Sixty percent of participants from this group were absent from their classes due to their menstrual cycle, which was a remarkable number of school absenteeism (P < 0.001). Although 87% relied on their mothers, only 7% were "very satisfied" with education from schools. Moreover, 68.5 percent of misconceptions were due to cultural issues rather than medical facts, such as taking a bath or using cold water. The research emphasizes a critical MHM situation that exists in Nowshera, characterized by institutional failure and "period poverty". Specific policy interventions are necessary, including the integration of MHM into the national school curriculum and the provision of government subsidies for sanitary products to address the 60% absenteeism rate and the risky sharing of menstrual resource. In order to ensure that adolescent girls are able to manage their health in a dignified manner and continue with education, the recommendations suggest that MHM should be incorporated into the curriculum, sanitary items should be subsidized, and "period-friendly" school infrastructures should be developed.