An intersectional approach on menstrual inequity as lived by women in circumstances of socioeconomic vulnerability in an urban and rural setting in Spain: a qualitative study

Autor: Josefina Pruneda Paz, Andrea García-Egea, Constanza Jacques-Aviñó, Ana Maria Besoaín Cornejo, Laura Medina-Perucha
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, Vol 32, Iss 1 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 26410397
2641-0397
DOI: 10.1080/26410397.2024.2422155
Popis: Since menstrual health and menstrual inequity are determined by social power structures, this study proposes to analyse, from an intersectional perspective, the experiences of menstrual inequity of women and people who menstruate (PWM) (≥18 years) under circumstances of socioeconomic vulnerability in an urban and rural setting in Catalonia (Spain), focusing on menstrual poverty, menstrual management and access to health care for menstrual health. An exploratory and interpretative qualitative study was conducted. Venue-based convenience sampling was carried out, recruiting women from a non-governmental organisation and a primary health care centre. Eighteen individual semi-structured interviews were conducted between October 2022 and February 2023. Data were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. Analysis revealed that menstrual care was generally a distant preoccupation that revolved around circumstances of socioeconomic vulnerability, housing, and productive/reproductive work. Menstrual poverty, menstrual management and menstrual self-care challenges, barriers to accessing health care for menstrual health, and menstrual taboo, stigma and discrimination were commonplace and deepened by socioeconomic vulnerability. In this way, women’s menstrual experiences were rooted in intersecting axes of inequity, based on gender, race and class. Intersectional and critical participatory research, policy and practice are imperative to develop counter mechanisms that confront systems of privilege-oppression to modulate menstrual experience, health and equity.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals