Dear all,

My name is Liyen Chin and I am a Master student from Lund University. I am currently doing an internship in Laos researching on MHM. MHM in rural Laos will also be the topic for my upcoming master thesis.

Since you all know, the literature and reports on MHM are quite limited, even so for South East Asia and Laos. I am therefore wondering whether you have any relevant information or tips you could share with me. Due to the limited data, it has been a challenge to even come up with a good research problem. Do any of you have any ideas or suggestions? Maybe is there some specific topic on MHM that could need some more research or a specific issue for SEA. I would be grateful for any suggestions or tips.


Best regards from a rainy Vientiane


/Liyen

While I am not an expert in MHM, it would seem to me that the issue is quite similar in many places, e.g. that the market available pads etc. are both too expensive (or at least perceived to be) and often also not really culturally accepted (which largely boils down to the fact that it is too taboo to talk about these issues). This results in women using rather makeshift solutions that are both unhealthy and often not suitable for attending schools or workplaces etc.

Now admittedly this is probably a quite common-sense and not really that helpful answer...

My personal suggestion is not rely on published data and literature too much... those are really rather the result of proper research than the beginning; And only once you have to deal with "evidence based advocacy" and "scale-up" these become really relevant... but your thesis supervisor probably told you overwise

Try to mingle with the locals and just stroll around local markets a bit to see what is available to the less well off part of the population. Female teachers from rural schools are probably also a good starting point (when talking to them in confidence... make sure you have a female translator if you need one).

I hope that helps at least a bit.

MHM???
Thanks
Detlef

Menstrual Hygiene Management... another one of those "hot" topics (one could say buzz words ) in WASH these days.

Dear all,

Sharing is caring so here is my Master thesis on MHM in Laos I just finished with and an article I wrote for the Vientiane Times on my MHM research.


+++++++
Note by moderator:

Title of the thesis:

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how rural women and girls’ menstrual hygiene
management (MHM) affects their life-quality and performance in everyday life. The thesis
analysed the opportunities, abilities and motivation they had in performing MHM and how it
affected their social and economical opportunities. From this, conclusions were drawn on how
MHM affects their life-quality. A concurrent mixed methods approach was implemented
where qualitative data was gathered through group interviews and quantitative data through
closed questionnaires. The results were analysed through a combination of the FOAMframework
and Sen’s capabilities approach.
The results showed that not all women had sufficient access to toilets, water, panties and
sanitary pads. Together with an absence in social support and cultural norms that perceive
menstruation as taboo, these factors had negative consequences on their life-quality. It
restricted them in their access to a good health, education and income-generating activities.
The effects are however subjective; not all women saw their practice as problematic. The
results merely showed that not all women had access in exercising their capabilities, which
could lead to a decreased level of life-quality. Individuals as well as societies could thus
benefit in taking MHM into consideration in the development discourse.
Keywords: MHM, menstruation, women, girls, capabilities approach, FOAM-framework,
life-quality, Laos, Savannakhet

Dear Liyen,

Thank you so much for sharing your master's thesis with the forum.

I am in the final week of UNREASONABLE INSTITUTE (a social enterprise incubator, to take social business to scale: unreasonableinstitute.org/ ).

MHM is one of the passion engines behind our venture.

I would love to speak at more length with you.

Rachel Starkey
Transformation Textiles
www.transformationtextiles.com
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dear Liyen,

I have added your Master thesis to the SuSanA library now, see here: www.susana.org/en/knowledge-hub/resource...library/details/3413

The reason why I did that today (four years after you posted it here), is because I wanted to cite it in a Wikipedia article, thus I needed a URL for it. It was Susannah Clemence who alerted me to your thesis, after we spoke about the related Wikipedia article here on the forum: forum.susana.org/24-menstrual-hygiene-ma...menstruation-further

This is the Wikipedia article on culture and menstruation where your thesis has now been cited under the heading of "Laos":
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_and_menstruation

I quoted from your thesis as follows:

Laos
A small study in a rural area in Laos (Savannakhet) found that menstruation is considered taboo and shameful.[53]:40 This makes it difficult for sharing knowledge in schools and in homes. Also, there is a low level of menstrual hygiene management. This has a negative effects on the female's social opportunities in achieving a good health, move around freely and to go to school.[53]:40 Some menstruating women (16%) wear double-layer skirts (sinhs) while in the private sphere, compared to 54% who wear disposable pads.[53]:28

If this should be changed, or something else from your thesis should be included, just let me know (either in this thread or in the other one).

Thanks,
Elisabeth

Dear Elisabeth,

Thank you for notifying me. I am very pleased to see that my research was useful to your Wiki article and that it contributes in increasing the attention to the struggles many girls still face with MHM. //L