Period pain affects over 90% of teenage girls and has a significant impact on many aspects of adolescent life but remains stigmatised and under-discussed at school. It is a common yet often overlooked issue that can significantly affect girls’ concentration, participation in activities, and overall wellbeing.

Previous studies that have tried to understand the impact of periods on school life have focused on one aspect, for example how often a girl misses school due to her period. This is the first study attempting to build a much wider picture of how periods affect girls' lives at school.

Assembling experts to build the 'big picture'

Dr Abbie Jordan, funded by Wellbeing of Women and Reckitt, and her team are bringing together experts across the fields of adolescent mental and menstrual health, chronic pain, and education to understand how school life – including the beliefs and attitudes of people around them - impacts menstruating students and their peers.

Across the team, the researchers have backgrounds in psychology, children’s nursing, education, social statistics and demography. Over three years they will hold interactive workshops in four secondary schools across the UK. Through these workshops the team will gain a better understanding of how beliefs and misunderstandings about periods, particularly period pain, affect teenage girls and boys.

They will then interview girls, staff and parents/carers in more depth to understand how period pain affects the daily life of girls at school and learn what prevents them from engaging fully in school. The researchers will also gather extensive information from parents, carers, school staff, boys and girls themselves in surveys about their knowledge and attitudes to period pain, how it affects school participation and their confidence in managing pain.

An educational revolution

All of this information will allow Dr Jordan and her team to develop practical solutions and improve the way we support girls to manage period pain at school. The team will create short, interactive educational sessions tailored to teenage girls, parents/carers and school staff, as well as educational material that are useful to teenage boys, whose attitudes about periods play a role in how period pain is experienced at school.

In the long term, this grant will allow Dr Jordan and her team to gain deep insight into how girls are able to thrive fully at school. By reducing the stigma around periods and providing evidence-based tools to manage period pain, this project will empower girls and ensure they feel supported in their education and wider school life. The research team will eventually develop a host of new resources, including educational videos and recorded sessions, which will be made freely available to schools across UK.

Periods, and period pain, shouldn’t limit girls’ ability to thrive at school; Dr Jordan and her team are helping to create the conditions where they can.

Dr Jordan said, “We don’t yet know the true impact of period pain on teenage girls' school lives. By exploring attitudes and knowledge about period pain among girls, boys, parents/carers, and school staff in the UK, we aim to challenge misconceptions, improve self-management of period pain, and foster greater understanding and support in schools when it comes to periods."