Beyond The Cycle: Unveiling The Subjective Experience of Menstruation and Menstrual Pain Through Body Mapping

<p><strong>Menstrual pain is more than the occasional cramp, but winds its way through emotional responses, daily rhythms and social relations in ways that biomedical descriptions tend to miss. Despite its complexity, there has been limited investigation into how those who menstruate interpret and communicate these complex experiences, meaning health practitioners lack comprehensive direction. This thesis fills that gap by working with 8 participants in body-mapping workshops, facilitated in Aotearoa New Zealand, where creative visual methods enabled the analyzed of pain narratives. Utilizing feminist theory, and social constructivism as a theoretical framework, data were obtained during the interactive sessions with participant, using a combination of, drawing, coloring, annotation and reflective group discussion. Workshops were audio and video recorded and digitalized, and maps analysed through an interpretative thematic approach which transcends descriptive codes to reveal hidden layers of meanings and tensions. Three paradoxical dynamics developed through analysis. Theme1, Pain beyond the Physical shows the ways pain emanates from the belly to infuse study, work, and relationships, distorting options and sense of self. That relentless calculus between hiding one’s discomfort in order to keep up appearances, to keep them from worrying, and sending out faint signals, those tiny rituals or even gestures, to solicit care is at the heart of Theme 2, Keep Going, Keep Hiding. Theme 3, Solo Navigation speaks to the isolation of self-diagnosis and self-management, as people fumble around trying experimental medical, creative and self-care techniques, in the absence of definitive help. As a whole, these results suggest that menstrual suffering is not an isolated affair but a dynamic process of negotiation between bodies, spaces, materials, and social forces. By focusing on embodied experiences, this study provides new perspectives for participatory health methodology and practical, culturally situated recommendations for acknowledging and responding to the multiple dimensions of menstrual pain.</strong></p>