Female university students' metaphorical perceptions of menstruation

Aims: This study aims to describe the metaphorical perceptions of university students towards menstruation through metaphors and was conducted with metaphor analysis technique based on phenomenological method. Methods: This research has been conducted with metaphor analysis technique based on phenomenological methods. Data included 169 students who agreed to participate in the study. The data of the study was collected between March - April 2024 with a questionnaire form prepared by the researchers. In the first part of the questionnaire, questions about socio-demographic characteristics were included, and in the second part, the sentence "Menstruation is like, because." was included to determine the metaphors developed by the students about menstruation. Results: Students produced a total of 164 valid metaphors related to the concept of menstruation. The metaphors revealing the students' perceptions of the concept of menstruation were grouped under 5 categories: “Terrible pain and suffering”, “Emotional and spiritual change”, “A natural part of life”, “Renewal and purification”, and “Feeling of discomfort and fatigue”. In the study, it was determined that the category in which the most metaphors were generated was "Terrible pain and suffering". Conclusion: In the study, university students provided metaphors containing both positive and negative concepts related to menstruation.