Experiences and practices of menstrual hygiene management among secondary school-going adolescent girls in Busia Secondary School, Busia District, Uganda: Aqualitative study.

Abstract

Menstrual hygiene management continues to be one of the major challenges among school adolescent girls. Globally, 20% of adolescent girls miss school, and one in ten will drop out entirely due to menstrual hygiene management related challenges. The prevalence of school absenteeism among adolescent girls related to menstrual hygiene management is seen to be 59% in Uganda. There is limited literature on the experiences and practices of school-going adolescents in Uganda. This may continuously lead to poor menstrual hygiene management practices and impacts such as anxiety and depression. Exploring the experiences and practices provides useful insights for developing effective menstrual hygiene management plans as well as creating a conducive environment for adolescent girls to manage their menses with dignity. Objective: This study aimed to explore the experiences and practices of School-going adolescent girls regarding menstrual hygiene management at Busia secondary School, Busia District, Uganda, in order to generate information that can be used to develop menstrual hygine management tailored strategies so as to reduce on the menstrual hygiene related issues among adolescent girls in schools. Methodology: A qualitative descriptive approach was used, and 20 in-depth interviews using interview guides, were conducted among School-going adolescent girls regarding menstrual hygiene management at Busia secondary School, Busia, Uganda. Purposive sampling was used in selecting participants for the study, and the principle of saturation determined the actual sample size. The key informant interview guide was used to interview five key informants. The interviews were recorded manually and later transcribed verbatim, then collated into codes, categories, and themes. The results were presented inform of text and narrative quotes from participants. Results: Four themes emerged from the thematic analyses of the experience of adolescents: Lack of access to menstrual hygiene management education, menstrual hygiene management dis comfort, financial constraints, and psychological distress. Two themes emerged from the practices: Good menstrual hygiene management practices and poor menstrual hygiene management practices. Good MHM practices included; changing sanitary pads regularly, cleaning of the genitalia with clean water, and carrying emergence pads, whereas, poor MHM practices incuded irregular changing of pads and putting on many clothes to absorb menstrual blood, not tracking menstrual dates and disposing of soiled pads in the open pit. Older adolescent girls in upper secondary exbited good menstrual hygiene management practices therefore attended school regularly compared to the young lower secondary girls who lacked adequate information on menstrual hygiene management. Conclusion: There was limited information among adolescent girls regarding menstrual hygiene management. Additionally, adolelescent girls lacked sanitary pads and suitable menstrual hygiene management facilities such as toilets with lockable doors, lighting in the toilets, running water and soap for cleaning the genitalia and hands. Furthermore, there was lack of menstrual hygiene management social support to adolescent girls. Therefore, there is need to educate adolescent girls on menstrual hygiene management on addition to provision of sanitary pads and disposal facilities. There is need to provide social support to adolescent girls inform of counselling on the challenges and practices of menstrual hygiene management. Key words: Menstrual hygiene, school-going adolescent girls, menstrual health, menstrual management and menstrual education.