The role of indigenous languages in communicating menstrual hygiene to rural adolescents

Abstract

Menstrual health is a critical yet underexplored dimension of adolescent wellbeing that is profoundly shaped by language, culture, and communication practices. While existing reviews have focused largely on infrastructure, product access, and general education interventions, limited attention has been paid to how indigenous and mother-tongue languages mediate comprehension, stigma, and behavioural uptake. This systematic review synthesised evidence from 110 peer-reviewed journal articles, ethnographic monographs and chapters, and international technical reports to examine how household discourse, school-based instruction, community programmes, and vernacular media influence adolescents menstrual-health literacy, hygiene practices, stigma experiences, and school participation. Following PRISMA-guided screening and quality appraisal, findings were analysed using inductive thematic synthesis. Four interconnected themes emerged: indigenous-language instruction as a facilitator of comprehension; linguistic taboo and euphemism; mothers and female relatives as linguistic gatekeepers; school and community programmes as sites of discursive change. Across diverse global contexts, indigenous languages functioned simultaneously as resources for learning and as carriers of cultural ideologies that may reproduce silence unless deliberately reframed. The review concludes that menstrual-health education operates as an implicit form of language policy and argues for integrating multilingual pedagogy, participatory terminology development, caregiver engagement, and vernacular media into adolescent-health strategies. These insights position linguistic inclusion as central to equitable and sustainable menstrual-health interventions worldwide.