Age at Menarche and Menstrual Characteristics among the Munda Tribe of Jajpur District of Odisha: A Case Study

The present study aims to estimate the age at menarche and study the menstrual characteristics of Munda women of Jajpur district of Odisha. The sample of 308 ever married women were taken by face to face interviewing them by using semi structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and cross tab were used to analysis the data. The mean age at menarche is 13.2 years. Only 29.9 % women used sanitary napkins. Most common menstrual problems were waist (40.77%) and abdominal pain (23.30%). 60.4 % women have regular monthly cycle and only 8.8 % women have irregular cycle. 62.7 % women have less than five days of menstrual bleeding and 7.8 % women have more than five days of menstrual flow. Celebration at the time of puberty was found to be negligible (0.3%). The present study suggests there is a need of increasing awareness among the women regarding the menstrual hygiene practices, taboos and the different physiological phenomenon associated with menarche.