A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MENSTRUAL CUPS AND SANITARY PADS IN MAINTAINING MENSTRUAL HYGIENE

Background: In many parts of the world, menstrual hygiene management remains a signicant challenge, particularly for women in low and middle-income countries. Concerns have been raised about their environmental impact, cost-effectiveness, and potential adverse effects such as vaginal discomfort, skin irritation, and leakage. The present study is aimed to assess the impact of uses of menstrual cups and conventional sanitary pads during menstruation for maintaining menstrual hygiene. 200 women in child bearing age Methodology: group of 18-45 years including medical staff and women attending Gynaecology OPD were chosen for study. 100 Women were advised, counseled and trained in using menstrual cups, mainly about insertion, cleaning and emptying by demonstration. Other 100 women are advised to use sanitary pads, for 3 menstrual periods for 3 months. Review taken during each menstrual cycle using questionnaire. Telephonic review taken in each cycle and difculty regarding its uses were noted and solved. The women had a mean age of 24.5years (sd 0.89) at basel Results: ine. Two-thirds of the women reported experiencing cramps during menstruation, and a quarter of them stated that their menstruation was heavy. Women who reported recent sanitary pad use stated that they used an average of 8 pads per menstrual cycle, averaging 2 pads per day over the course of 4 days of menstruation. The reported uptake and use of cups by the women increased from 39% after one month to 80% by the end of 3 months. The aggregate mean acceptability score for the ve measures increased signicantly from 73 to 81 out of 100 (F 17.2; p < 0.001) over the study period among women who reported being able to and using the cup. For women allocated pads, the aggregate acceptability score among those who reported being able to and using pads increased from 83 to 89 out of 100 (F 32.5; p < 0.001) over the study duration. The aggregate score of acceptability measures among women reporting being able to use the cup or pad and women reporting not being able to use them. Insertion was slightly less problematic, with 9% of women reporting difculties at 3 months, which dropped to 5% by the end of the study. This study demonstrates that Conclusion: both menstrual cups have better acceptability as compared to sanitary pads among primary women in this population as menstrual cups are easy to use, easy to dispose and easily available. Although the proportion of women initially experiencing problems was higher among cup users but later after proper instructions, most of these issues were resolved within the rst few weeks of use and acceptability increased for cups