Study on Awareness and Practices of Menstruation amongst Unmarried Female Adolescents in a Semi Urban Area of Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

Objective: This school based cross sectional study was conducted amongst 400 primary and secondary school girls in a semi urban village i.e Achrol near Jaipur city to determine their awareness on menstruation and practices during menstruation. Only girls from the local permanent population who were residents of the village and had attained menstruation before the inception of the study were included. Methods: The 400 adolescent girls were interviewed through a house to house survey, using a pretested questionnaire. The study population included all adolescent school going girls who were residing in the study area between the age group of 10-19 years. Results: 85.5% adolescent girls used sanitary pads as compared to only 14.5% using cloth during menstruation. 85.5% girls said that they disposed pads in the dustbin and a majority i.e. 98.8% girls had prior information about menstruation. Conclusion: it was concluded that almost all the girls had prior knowledge regarding menstruation and a majority of the adolescent girls were using proper material i.e sanitary pads during menstruation.