Youth is a social framework in which individuals are in the process of transformation
and is related to intellectual, biological and psychological factors (FONSECA, 2013).
Young people may be more susceptible to vulnerabilities and be impacted differently
(REIS, 2021). For example, young women who menstruate may experience different
contexts of vulnerability. Thus, the study aimed to analyze menstrual poverty among
young students in the city of Santarém, PA; To identify the socioeconomic profile of
young female students in the Municipality of Santarém and to characterize the
possible individual, social and programmatic vulnerabilities of young students in
Santarém-PA. This is a study with a quantitative and descriptive approach, with data
collected from a questionnaire (Appendix D), structured with socioeconomic
questions, concepts about menstrual cycle and hygiene, applied among young
female students from the municipal and state public schools. , from the 6th to the 9th
year of elementary school and from the 1st to 3rd of high school, in the city of
Santarém - PA, in urban and rural areas. The schools were selected by the criterion
of convenience, considering their accessibility. Data collection took place after
signing the institutional consent form (Appendix C) and authorization from the
Research Ethics Committee, opinion number: 5,439,148. Students under 18 years of
age signed the Free and Informed Consent Term (Appendix A) and those
responsible signed the Free and Informed Consent Term (Appendix B), also used for
those over 18 years old. Data analysis took place through Exploratory Data Analysis
and Correspondence Analysis. As for the profile of the 111 interviews, the age of the
young women in the urban area ranged from 13 to 22 years old and in the rural area
from 11 to 18 years old, 75% declared themselves brown, 84% live in their own
home, 95% have a masonry bathroom, 30% are unaware of their parents' education
and 53% have an average family income of 1 minimum wage. In terms of access to
health services, the precariousness faced by these young women stands out, since
76% did not have access to a consultation with the gynecologist, in addition to 80%
indicating precariousness in the school structure in the unavailability of absorbent,
58% indicated lack of water and 63% addressed the lack of showers for hygiene and
90% of schools do not discuss menstruation. It was possible to identify how much young people from urban and rural areas are
exposed to various vulnerabilities, bringing an alert to contexts of inequities in urban
areas and potential in rural areas that distance young women from the right to live
with dignity in the face of basic human needs of the whole women, reinforcing the
need to discuss accessible policies between schools, the Municipal and Regional
Education Departments and the implementation of actions that consider the social
and cultural context of these young women's insertion. The study considers a context
of vulnerabilities beyond individual blame and brings to the scope of reflection how
much social and programmatic vulnerabilities can be limiting for the maintenance of
quality of life.
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