Mihail Kochubovski^1,2, Aleksandra Petrova^1,2*, Shaban Memeti^1,2 and Djansun Bukovec²

¹Institute of Public Health, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
²University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Medical Faculty, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia

*Corresponding Author: Aleksandra Petrova, MD Researcher, Department of Water Safety and Environmental Sanitation, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia.

Received: June 02, 2021; Published: September 20, 2021

Abstract

  Menstruation, or period, is a monthly occurrence for people of reproductive age. The number of girls, women, transgender men and non-binary persons that experience the period is about 1.8 billion. Even though a big progress is made in raising the awareness for menstruation hygiene and health, however, there are some issues that cause girls and women not to meet the basic menstruation hygiene and health needs. Researchers say that poverty, menstruation taboos, lack of basic hygiene services, gender inequality have negative impact on the lives of the vulnerable categories. Adolescent girls during their period, are often faced with intimidation, stigma, and even social discrimination. The aim of the work is to analyze the habits during the menstrual cycle as well as the absence from classes. The study is a cross sectional observational study conducted between November and December 2019. The sampling unit included the Medical Faculty in Skopje, in North Macedonia. Results shows that the majority of 48.2% of students are not absent due to menstrual cramps. More than 50% do not prevent girls from doing physical activity during the menstrual period, 70% have moderate to severe pain, and 16% should take a painkiller. Higher percentage of responses were in the direction that they have nowhere to change during the menstrual cycle during teaching. Education for girls in relation to menstrual cycles is very important. Based on the obtained results, we can conclude that the awareness of the Medical Students is great, and they have no obstacles in everyday life, this can help us in the further education of the other age groups. The only problem that medical girls have during the menstrual cycle is the place and the appropriate toilets, clean and tidy where they can be changed during the menstrual cycle while they are in college.

Keywords: Medical Students; Habits; Toilets; Menstrual Health; Hygiene; Physical Activity; Pain

References

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Citation

Citation: Aleksandra Petrova., et al. “Menstrual Hygiene Among Medical Female Students". Acta Scientific Women's Health 3.10 (2021): 11-14.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Aleksandra Petrova., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.