---
title: What are young women's experiences and feelings about menstruation?
description: Eight Iranian university students described menstruation as shameful, secret, and often painful. Many felt frightened and unprepared when menstruation started
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/unpreparedness-impurity-and-paradoxical-feeling-menstruation-narratives-of-2018/
---

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- What are young women's experiences and feelings about menstruation?

Interview study, 2018

# What are young women's experiences and feelings about menstruation?

Eight Iranian university students described menstruation as shameful, secret, and often painful. Many felt frightened and unprepared when menstruation started because they did not receive enough information from family or school.

 Early or limited evidence

8 Iranian university students aged 21-25 in Tehran

## What they did

Researchers interviewed 8 Iranian university students aged 21-25 who lived in Tehran. They asked the students about their experiences with menstruation and their first period, then analyzed the interviews to identify common themes.

## What they found

Women described their first period as a negative and frightening experience, partly because they were not well prepared or informed. Most felt menstruation was shameful and secret, and many believed it made them impure according to religious rules. Many experienced menstruation as painful. Some described conflicting feelings about their periods and found the unpredictability of their cycle stressful. A few women mentioned having PMS symptoms.

## What it means for you

How women feel about menstruation is influenced by cultural and family attitudes more than by the physical experience itself. This study was very small and focused on one Iranian community, so these experiences may differ from women in other cultures and settings.

8

women interviewed

21-25

age range

## About the study

Original title Unpreparedness, impurity and paradoxical feeling: menstruation narratives of Iranian women Authors Seyed Hosseini AS Journal International journal of adolescent medicine and health Year 2018 Study design Interview study What was tested interviews Read the paper [doi.org/10.1515/ijamh-2018-0008](https://doi.org/10.1515/ijamh-2018-0008)

## Topics

[Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Menstrual cycle and mood](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-cycle-mood/)[Students and academic performance](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-education/)[Adolescents and young people](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-adolescents/)[Stigma, attitudes and culture](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-stigma-culture/)

Research tells you what helps on average. Niyora helps on the day it hits.

Calm down, see it another way, and decide what to say, with a PMS and PMDD app built by a doctor.

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