Menstruation Related Social Norms and Customs and It's Impact on Adolescents' Reproductive Health

Abstract:This study was a qualitative scmtiny in the field of sociology to explore the impact of menstruation related social norms and customs on the adolescent girls' reproductive health at northern Bangladesh. The objective of the study is to explore the menstruation related social norms and customs and to identify the impact of social norms and customs on adolescent girls' reproductive health. A blending of several methods such as social survey methods through scheduled interview, focus group discussion (FGD}, informal meeting, spot observation has been used to explore and gain a critical view of overall aspect of the impact of social norms and customs on adolescent girls' reproductive health. This study highlights many dimensi0118 of research works carried out so far on menstruation related social norms and customs, and its impact on adolescent reproductive health. Various issues related to social norms and customs are recorded as responsible for bringing about health impact of rural adolescent girls. Among these issues level of the respondents' education, attitude of in-laws' family, notion of different sphere, maternal allruism, gender-based inequality, food taboos, restriction of movement, etc were dominant. To the best of the researcher's knowledge, such type of research have not been studied previously in the selected area. Rural adolescent girls adopted limited number of strategies to cope with their situstion and many of them willingly support this and would like to follow in future as they see all members of society to do this practice.