Menstrual health - knowledge, experiences and practices among medical students: a cross sectional study

Background: Menstrual hygiene is a noteworthy public health issue that is linked to gender inequality, discriminatory, social norms, cultural taboos, poverty and lack of basic services like toilets and sanitary products, restricting women’s participation in community life. Thus understanding the knowledge of the future healthcare providers is imperative. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 290 female medical undergraduate students during the period of July and August 2023. The data was obtained with the pre-structured questionnaire through Google forms. Results: Among 290 female medical undergraduates, 93.1% of students had received education about menstruation, 83.4% shared this experience with their mothers. Nearly 42.8% of them could not attend to their daily work and avoided college during menstruation because of menstrual symptoms such as dysmenorrhea, nausea, vomiting and giddiness. However, 94.8% are willing to seek help from a health care provider for their menstrual problems. Conclusions: Menstrual health education should address the areas where they lack knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs and identify the socio-cultural and environmental barriers to improve menstrual hygiene management (MHM) programme.