“We’re talking about a biological process,” University of Queensland school of public health adjunct lecturer Minnie King said.
“It is a basic human right to menstruate with dignity and have access to support mechanisms including infrastructure and pain relief.”
King and Associate Professor Nina Lansbury have been working with students in the western Cape York Peninsula to understand what they want to know about menstrual health.
Along with community, the pair co-designed the ‘Mind your body’ guide, which includes interactive resources like quizzes, puzzles, classroom activities and conversation starters.
King, a Kaiwalagal, Umaii and Kiwai woman, who lives in the western cape, says the students, schools and wider community in the region have embraced the project.
“They obviously saw the need for improvement in health literacy ... ultimately so they can advocate for oneself,” she said.
Lansbury said engaging in conversations around menstrual health can help remove any stigma.
“Menstrual health can impact a student’s academic performance, health and quality of life,” she said.
“Stigma or shame around a topic that is just biology holds us back from being able to share knowledge.”
King said the project has been eight years in the making and already there’s been some positive shifts in attitudes.
“The more we talk about this, the more it becomes part of acceptance and understanding,” she said.
“This is a lifetime of awareness for students leaving school, and it’s not just for the girls, the boys are actually receiving the exact same science and biology on menstrual health as the girls.”
King said there’s also been interest from remote communities across the country, but the guide could be used to teach all students about menstrual health.
“So much of what is out there in today’s world that is portrayed, it can be superficial and external,” she said.
“Mind your body is actually about taking a look inside, creating a safe space, a culturally safe space and inclusive space.
“This is about taking care of oneself and what happens biologically .... for anyone who menstruates.”
A study earlier this year by Curtin University researcher Dr Felicity Roux revealed that many young girls lack even a basic understanding of anatomy, ovulation and menstruation.
Looking into menstrual health literacy amongst pubescent and pre-pubescent girls in a sample group of independent and Catholic schools in Western Australia, Roux told EducationHQ she was shocked at what her survey revealed.
Less than 9 per cent of respondents understood that ovulation happens about two weeks after their period and most didn’t really understand what menstruation is, the academic lamented.
A major concern is that reproductive health confusion can lead to serious outcomes, particularly if girls are unable to determine when their cycle starts.
“They think if there’s blood in their knickers, that’s a period. No, it’s not. Menstruation is very specifically defined. It is a bleed that happens after ovulation, provided the woman is not pregnant,” Roux said.
“Therefore, ovulation is the driver of the cycle, and you can only say if the bleed is menstrual if no ovulation has happened.
“Otherwise, it’s some other kind of bleed, and that’s important if you want to compare periods with periods, right? You have to be able to compare a period with a period, not a period was an ovulatory bleed. So you can see how this can all go wrong.”
