Bibliometric convergence in menstrual health & hygiene research: A deconstruction of evolving scientific narratives and emerging paradigms

Menstrual health & hygiene (MHH) affects millions of women and girls worldwide and has increasingly been recognized within public health and gender-related scholarship, yet the organization and thematic structure of this research remain unevenly documented. This study explores how MHH research has been structured and developed in recent years through a bibliometric analysis of peer-reviewed literature published between 2014 and early 2025. Articles were retrieved from the Scopus database using a title-based search strategy, resulting in a final sample of 53 publications that met pre-defined inclusion criteria. Bibliometric techniques, including publication trend analysis, source and contributor mapping, keyword co-occurrence analysis, and thematic mapping, were conducted using Biblioshiny (R) and VOSViewer. The findings highlight a sustained increase in MHH-related publications after 2015, with research largely concentrated around behavioral, demographic, and hygiene-oriented perspectives. Dominant thematic areas include adolescent-focused studies, health knowledge-attitude-practice (HKAP) frameworks, and sanitation, while themes related to sustainability, workplace contexts, and intersectional considerations remain weakly integrated. Overall, the findings indicate that contemporary MHH research is strongly structured around behavioral and population-focused perspectives, while sustainability, workplace-related contexts, and intersectional dimensions remain comparatively underdeveloped within the current research landscape.