Publication:

Knowledge, attitude and experience of menstrual cup usage among medical students at a tertiary care teaching hospital in central Kerala: a cross-sectional study

Background Sanitary napkins contribute substantially to solid waste generation, and their disposal poses significant environmental challenges. Menstrual cups offer an eco-friendly and cost-effective alternative to disposable sanitary pads; however, their adoption remains limited among Indian women. The objectives of this study were to assess the knowledge, attitude and experience of the women medical students in a college in central Kerala, India regarding the use of menstrual cups.

Methods The study was a prospective cross-sectional study carried out in 183 female medical students. It was done over a period of 6 months (from February 2025 to July 2025) in tertiary care centre of central Kerala. A self-administered online questionnaire was used to gather data, which was created with Google Forms. A questionnaire was used to evaluate the demographic, knowledge, attitude and experience of using the menstrual cup.

Results The findings were that 97.8% of the respondents knew about menstrual cups while 8.2% of them used. The majority of the participants (64.5%) believed that the use of menstrual cups is a better alternative than sanitary pads and 86.3% were interested to receive formal training on the use of menstrual cups. Discomfort, fear of insertion, and lack of knowledge were the main obstacles to adoption. The main source of information was social media (51.9%). Even though the cups were not being used, 59% of the non-users said they would like to use them in the future.

Conclusions The awareness rate of the menstrual cup was high amongst medical students, but the use of the menstrual cup was still low. Educational programs, organised demonstration activities, and specific awareness raising campaigns can help close the knowledge-action gap and encourage the use of sustainable menstrual hygiene products.