A Survey on Awareness and Attitude towards Menstruation among Females of Dhaka City

Abstract

Menstruation is a normal physiological phenomenon for females still it is associated with some degree of sufferings & embarrassment. The main objective of this study was to assess the menstrual pattern, disorders, hygiene practices, and attitudes of Bangladeshi female. A total of 259 female were evaluated under this study aged 16 to 23yrs from different universities, colleges and slums of the Dhaka city using a structured questionnaire. Among them 79.92% female were from non-slum area and 20.08% were from slum area. Almost 52.9% had completed their H.S.C. and 4.63% were illiterate. The age of menarche was found 12 to 14yrs in majority cases. Most of the girls (85.3%) had the prior knowledge about menstruation but (78.38%) felt nervous at the first time & the most common source of information was family members (73.36%) usually mother & sister.It has seen that, Menstruation is a natural event to 92.28%, debilitating event to 42.47%, bothersome event to 44.40% women of total respondents. Majority (89.19%) of the respondents has a normal duration and 50.19% has a normal amount of flow. The study indicates that 78.76% of the respondents think that, menstruation is a physiologic process and 51.35% respondents are aware of the source of bleeding. Although 86.87% have knowledge about the ideality of using sanitary napkin but 83.40% are comfortable of using it. It is found that almost 90% of them mentioned about suffering from at least two different Premenstrual syndrome and dysmenorrhea was the main menstrual problem reported by 62.55% of the respondents. In that case analgesic or anticholinergic were found commonly used by them to control pain. Relative openness about menstruation or related topics with family members very poor in majority. So the teachers, family members, health educators & media should play an important role in improving menstrual hygiene, practice and awareness growing up by providing more knowledge about this topic.