What is known in the existing literature about how young homeless women in High Income Countries (HIC) experience menstrual health and menstrual hygiene care?
The population participants of this scoping review will include young homeless women aged 14-24 years of age.
Menstrual health and menstrual hygiene care are an important sexual and reproductive healthcare issue across the globe, especially among society's most marginalised female populations. In spite of this, how young homeless women experience menstrual health and menstrual hygiene care in High Income Countries (HIC) remains an under-acknowledged and under-represented challenge. Moreover, there is no conceptual clarity on the experiences of menstrual health and menstrual hygiene care in HIC amongst any age group of females in the current literature. In this systematic scoping review, young homeless women of HIC will be of priority.
Due to the menstrual health and menstrual hygiene care of young homeless women being an under-acknowledged and under-represented field in the existing literature within HIC, a systematic scoping review with a comprehensive electronic database and grey literature search may provide more clarity to this limited, although integral field of sexual and reproductive health and public health. In addition, previous reviews conducted in this field do not mention nor highlight menstrual health and menstrual hygiene care among homeless young women as a sexual and reproductive health care issue. As such, this systematic scoping review aims to provide a valuable perspective in order to inform future service provisions in the field of menstrual health and menstrual hygiene care among young homeless women in HIC, particularly Australia. As mentioned, due to very limited scholarly literature which exists among HIC, and with HIC being a main component of this systematic scoping review; literature covering both HIC and Low-Middle Income Countries (LMIC) will be included in order to illustrate this evident gap.