Association between unhygienic menstrual management practices and prevalence of lower reproductive tract infections: a hospital-based cross-sectional study in Odisha, India

This study, carried out in Odisha, India, and published in BMC Infectious Diseases by Torondel et al. (2018), explores association between unhygienic menstrual management (MHM) practices and prevalence of lower reproductive tract infections (RTIs). Three common RTIs were the focus of the study: Bacterial vaginosis (BV), Candida, and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) and the method of the study involved using a questionnaire to collect information on MHM practices, clinical symptoms for the three infections and socio-economic and demographic information. Vaginal fornix specimens were also taken for diagnosis of infections. 558 women were recruited for the study; 62.4% of whom were diagnosed with at least one of the three tested infections. Women diagnosed with these infections were more likely to exhibit a range of unhygienic MHM practices, such as reusing absorbent material or having a low frequency of personal washing.