Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Background: Menstruation is an important stage for girls in their reproductive life for which
every girl has a right to. Every day about 300 million women including school girls experience
menstrual flow worldwide. There has been inadequate information sharing on menstruation in
many Tanzanian secondary schools particularly the ones located in rural areas. Menstruation
has been perceived as a shameful subject to tackle not only for school girls but also for some
parents and relatives hence it has been ignored both at home and in schools.
Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the challenges facing secondary school
girls during menstruation in Tarime district, Tanzania.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study design was employed. A self-administered
questionnaire was used to collect data from 506 secondary school girls in Tarime district.
Analysis of the data was done using SPSS version 20 and descriptive analysis, frequency and
proportion measures were used to provide descriptive characteristics of the study population.
The degree of association was tested using chi square test with p-value of <0.05 at 95%
confidence interval was considered to be statistically significant.
Results: This study involved 506 school girls whose age ranged from 14 to 20 years. All girls
had attained menarche at the time of the study and their first menstrual period ranged from 9
to 17 years. Knowledge on menstruation was moderate, according to the scale, less than 10%
had high scores on the test used to measure menstrual knowledge. Half of the girls reported
mothers to be their first confidants on first menstrual experience. About two third (64.0%)
had history of missing school during their menstrual periods. Mesnstrual pains were the most
common problem among the school girls during their menses.
All participating schools in the study had separate pit latrines for boys and girls. None of the
schools had a proper place to dump the sanitary wares that girls used during menstruation or
private rooms for changing sanitary pads. None of the schools had piped water, all relied on
rain water stored in tanks or fetched from streams located far from the school compound. Half
(50.4%) of the school girls used disposable sanitary pads during their first menstrual periods.
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Conclusion: Most of the study participants had moderate knowledge on menstruation and
mothers were the common source of information to the majority. Poor school envornment,
sanitary facilities and the fear of staining clothes challenged girls in their school attendace
during menses. There is a need to prepared girls on matters related to menstruation earlier
before they attain menarche and to improve the school environment to become friendly to girls
during menses. Efforts to improve accessibility and affordability of the disposable sanitary
pads to school girls are also recommended
