ArticleBMC women's health2026
Self-reported menstrual-related physical and psychological symptoms and health-seeking behaviour among rural school-going adolescent girls in Bangladesh.
Article in BMC women's health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMenstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) is recognized globally as a public health concern; however, it remains a neglected issue in Bangladesh, particularly in rural communities. This study examined the self-reported prevalence and perceived severity of menstruation-related physical and psychological symptoms, their association with menstrual irregularity, and health-seeking behaviour among rural school-going adolescent girls.
methodsA cross-sectional mixed-methods study was conducted among 474 grade 9-10 school-going girls in rural Sylhet division, Bangladesh, between September and November, 2024. Participants reported menstrual cycle characteristics and self-rated the severity of their common physical and psychological symptoms as mild, moderate, or severe. Menstrual cycle regularity was assessed through self-report. Symptom prevalence and severity distributions were summarised descriptively by cycle regularity group. Chi-square tests examined associations between menstrual irregularity and symptom severity. Qualitative in-depth interviews (n = 29) were conducted with purposively selected participants to contextualise quantitative patterns within broader sociocultural and structural determinants.
resultsOf 474 participants, 111 (23.4%) reported irregular menstrual cycles. Abdominal pain or cramps (77.2%), fatigue or weakness (69.4%), and joint or muscle pain (48.5%) were the most prevalent physical symptoms. Irritability (73.4%), mood swings (64.1%), and anxiety (58.6%) were the most common psychological symptoms. Menstrual irregularity was significantly associated with higher symptom severity for both physical (χ²(2) = 157.81, p < 0.001) and psychological (χ²(2) = 100.85, p < 0.001) outcomes; 49.5% of irregular-cycle girls reported severe physical symptoms versus 3.9% of regular-cycle girls, and 27.0% reported severe psychological symptoms versus 3.0%. Qualitative findings revealed that these high symptom burdens were systematically normalised through cultural beliefs, intergenerational transmission of avoidance strategies, and stigma-mediated communication failures, resulting in very low rates of formal health-care seeking irrespective of symptom severity.
conclusionsThis study demonstrates that menstrual symptom burden, both physical and psychological, is substantial among rural adolescent girls in Bangladesh and is disproportionately severe among those with irregular cycles. These findings highlight the importance of integrating symptom recognition, stigma reduction, and accessible care pathways into health initiatives for adolescents. Given the cross-sectional and self-reported design, the results should be interpreted as exploratory but indicative of an important area for targeted public health attention in rural contexts.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.