Preparing girls for menstruation: recommendations from adolescent girls

This study asked adolescent girls who had been menstruating for one to three years how they would prepare younger girls for the event, and how they would advise parents to prepare their daughters. To this end, 157 9th-grade girls rated their own experience of menarche (in terms of preparation, initial response, parents' roles, and sources of information) and answered four open-ended questions. The girls emphasized the need for emotional support and assurance that menstruation was normal and healthy--not bad, frightening, or embarrassing. They stressed the pragmatics of menstrual hygiene and the subjective experience of menstruation (how it would actually feel), while down-playing the biological aspects and the link between menstruation and self-definition as a woman. Most girls had talked about menstruation with their mothers, but few had discussed it with their fathers. They saw mothers as critically important but often unable to meet their needs. Many girls felt uncomfortable talking about menstruation with fathers, wanting them to be supportive but silent; others believed that fathers should be excluded completely. Responses suggested several ways early preparation could be revised, including a shift in focus from the biology of menstruation to the more personal, subjective, and immediate aspects of the experience. Responses also supported a conceptualization of menstrual education as a long-term, continuous process, beginning well before menarche and continuing long after.