Menstruation and feminism: A systematic review of the literature

Abstract

This document aims to analyze the scientific production related to menstruation and feminism using three search engines (Medline, Scopus, and Web of Sciences). The searches were carried out without retrospective limit with a cut-off date of March 31, 2023. The terms “menstruation” and “feminism” were used, MeSH or DeCS terms were not used as we did not intend to limit the search to this disciplinary field. We focus on comparing the technical (country, language, year of publication, area of ​​knowledge) and methodological (method, technique, results, and conclusions) elements of the articles, as well as reflecting on their general contributions. As a result of the established criteria 52 articles were chosen in a range of 31 years that oscillated between 1992 and 2023. The dominant language to spread knowledge is still English with 49 texts (94.2%) and only 5.8% (3) were redacted in Spanish. The countries with the highest number of publications were: United Kingdom (23), United States of America-USA (15) and Spain (2). The areas that concentrate most of the documents were: social sciences (12), followed by psychology (9) and medicine (6). Finally, the investigations tend for qualitative methods with techniques that allows them to access the experiences of menstruation mediated by discourse (content analysis, discourse analysis, literary analysis; open interview, in-depth interview, semi-structured interview; focus groups; ethnography). Menstruation can be seen from various areas of knowledge under differentiated methods and techniques that highlight various aspects of it. Talking about blood as a fluid product of menstruation challenges us in various ways and opens possibilities not only for highlight the topic but also for resistance.