Women’s health is increasingly recognized as a fundamental human right, yet significant gaps remain in knowledge, literacy, and technological support, particularly around menstrual health (MH). While calls for a life-course approach emphasize adolescence as a formative period shaping long-term menstrual health experiences, most research and technologies continue to focus on adults (18+). As a result, adolescents’ early encounters with menstruation, menarche, and cycle management remain poorly understood and insufficiently supported.

This project focuses on adolescent menstrual health as a distributed care ecosystem, shaped by interactions among children, caregivers, educators, healthcare professionals, and community actors. It examines how menstrual health knowledge, responsibility, and care are negotiated during a life stage where individuals are legally considered children, yet increasingly expected to manage complex bodily changes, stigma, and health-related decisions.

Objectives

1. Understand Adolescent Menstrual Health Ecosystems
   Investigate how adolescents navigate menstruation within interconnected home, school, clinical, and community settings.
2. Examine Responsibility and Autonomy
   Explore tensions between adolescents’ limited legal autonomy and the substantial responsibility they assume in managing menstruation, bodily changes, stigma, and reproductive health decisions.
3. Identify Gaps in Technologies and Practices
   Analyze how existing menstrual health technologies and non-digital practices succeed or fail in supporting adolescents’ needs, privacy, and agency.

Approach

This project follows a two-part research approach combining empirical and analytical methods.

First, it employs participatory research with children and adolescents to explore how they experience and navigate menstrual health in their everyday lives. To situate these experiences within broader care ecosystems, the study also engages key adult stakeholders, such as parents and caregivers, educators, and healthcare professionals, to examine how menstrual health knowledge, responsibility, and care are distributed, negotiated, and sometimes contested across settings.

Second, the project conducts a scoping review of existing research on adolescent menstrual health. The review systematically maps participant groups, research contexts and methods, digital technologies (including menstrual health technologies), non-technological strategies, and reported challenges and opportunities. Together, these methods provide both lived and literature-based insights into current practices, gaps, and design implications.

Scientific and Social Contributions

1. Scientific Contribution: This work contributes an ecosystem-oriented perspective on adolescent menstrual health, highlighting gaps in HCI, personal informatics, and digital health research that predominantly center adult users
2. Social Impact: By foregrounding adolescents’ lived realities, this project aims to inform the design of more inclusive, context-aware menstrual health technologies and practices that respect young people’s privacy, agency, and developmental stage.

We are currently looking for children and adolescents (ages 8–17) to take part in a first study which was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Zurich (OEC IRB # 2026-004). 

What does participation involve?

Participants will take part in a conversation-based session where we explore how menstrual health is understood and experienced in everyday life. This includes:

• how young people learn about menstruation
• how menstrual health is talked about and managed in different contexts (e.g., school, home, social environments)
• what kinds of support, information, or tools are available and used
• what challenges or gaps young people perceive

Participation does not require having a period. We are interested in a wide range of perspectives, including those without direct personal experience.

Duration

• Ages 8–12: approx. 30 minutes
• Ages 13–17: approx. 60 minutes

Why participate?

By taking part, you contribute to research that aims to improve how menstrual health is understood, supported, and designed for young people. You can also ask questions at any time and talk about anything you are unsure or curious about.

Assent and consent forms

For detailed information about the study, please review the assent and consent forms below.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at marinja.principe@uzh.ch.

English:

• Assent Form (ages 8–12)
• Assent Form (ages 13–17)
• Consent Form (legal guardian)

Deutsch:

• Zustimmung (8–12 Jahre)
• Zustimmung (13–17 Jahre)
• Einwilligung (Erziehungsberechtigte)

Marinja Principe, Prof. Dr. Tobias Kowatsch, Prof. Dr. Elaine Huang, Prof. Dr. Marcia Nißen

January 2026 – today