Attitudes toward menstruation

There has been substantial agreement in the literature that cultural attitudes influence females' reaction to menarche. Recently, growing interest has been shown in the ways cultural traditions affect the response to this event. To date, studies of the emotional impact of menarche and menstruation have involved.This research involved 325 individuals who had been selected by systematic random sampling method from among feminine students at different grades of nursing and midwifery fields at the faculty of nursing and midwifery of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The means of gathering data was a questionnaire consisting of two parts of which the first one consisting of demographic specifications, and the second part including questions relating the determination of attitude toward menstruation. Subjects had been selected as per the systematic random sampling from among the list of students' names which had been sorted on Persian alphabet. In the research, the researcher would give them the questionnaire; a total of 390 questionnaires were distributed out of which 325 completed questionnaires were analyzed. The results of research show that 57.5% of subjects have positive attitude toward menstruation, 37.9% of subjects reported one somatic symptom and 23.7% of them reported two affective symptoms within five days before menses in each of their three prior menstrual cycles, that the most frequent of symptoms were: fatigue, breast tenderness, angry outbursts, depression, abdominal bloating and irritability. Results of findings show that, the age is positively correlated with attitude toward menstruation; this means that as the age increases, the positive attitude toward menstruation is more. Attitude toward menstruation had no significant relationship with other demographic charactrics. These findings are discussed in light of the education related to menstruation. There were cultural differences in the impact of menarche on female lives. The emotional reactions of the women themselves differed widely.