Case Reports and Reviews: Open Access

Abstract 

Aim: Being a part of an international project, this article intends to provide valuable input regarding menstruation issues such as menstrual perception practices, hygiene awareness, and biological knowledge in socially vulnerable group of Portuguese girls. Methods: A set of 26 questions organized in four section were used in semi-structured and in-depth interviews. A sample of 15 young girls contribute with their experience and knowledge regarding menstruation topics. Feeling were also taken into account through nonverbal signs. Results: All interviewees were familiar with menstruation, which they identified as something natural and proper to the female body. However, they see it as something to be discussed by menstruators and did not reveal much ease in talking about hygiene. Their knowledge of the female reproductive system physiology was thin. Conclusions: This methodology has proved to be very effective in addressing the normal non-subject of menstruation. Data obtained indicated gaps and guided some suggestions to go further in this theme. Also, the responses obtained revealed that this is still a topic of general knowledge but on which we have yet to find strategies to make it more enlightening and open since is still a target of incomprehension and inequality. To understand menstruation deeply and clearly, every boy and girl has to go beyond dominant preconceptions and not only deepen the physiological knowledge but also sociological. 

Keywords: Menstruation; Youth; Menstrual perception; Hygiene awareness.