Mapping menstrual stigma through emotions: A reflexive analysis of systematic reviews as cultural artifacts

Abstract

Menstruation is not only a biological process but also an emotional and sociocultural phenomenon. Understanding it requires attention to lived experiences and to the scholarly narratives that represent them. This paper adopts a reflexive approach to examine how emotions mediate menstrual stigma by conducting a secondary thematic analysis of two systematic qualitative reviews – one focused on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and the other on high-income countries (HICs). Drawing on over 180 studies across 51 countries, I analyse not only the patterns reported but also the epistemic lenses through which these patterns are constructed. While emotions such as shame, fear, and embarrassment appear across both contexts, the reviews frame them through different classificatory schemes, such as taboos, secrecy, and internalised stigma or gender norms, that reflect distinct epistemic cultures rather than inherent cultural differences. By tracing how these categories are produced through layered processes of interpretation and disciplinary framings, the analysis highlights the need to resist the essentialization of LMICs/HICs differences. Emotions thus provide a critical lens not only for understanding menstrual stigma but also for examining the production of knowledge about it.