Reviewer’ s report
Title: ‘Flower of the body’: Menstrual experiences and needs of young adolescent women with
cerebral palsy in Bangladesh, and their mothers providing menstrual support.
Version: 0Date: 17 Feb 2020
Reviewer: Linda Mason
Reviewer's report:
The topic is very timely - while there is currently great interest and recognition of the importance
of menstrual health, very little work has been undertaken in women / girls with disability. For thisreason, and the inclusion of a few great gems of information I suggest this paper could bepublished. However it would need extensive rewriting.This includes1) clarifications of terminology used, e.g 'materiality of menstruation' 'discourse of silence'. Thereare many more examples with a number of sentences that I could not follow either at all, or founddifficult.2)consistency in terms eg. were the interviews conducted with 'mothers' or with 'caregivers'3)clarity over whether the caregivers were speaking on behalf of the girls they care for, or theirown experiences in looking after these individuals (and the paper written clearly to demonstratedifferences). I suggest they include a clear compare, contrast and consider what the findings meanfor both populations, separately and then bring together if relevant.4) The approach of 'thematically analysed using a material-discursive approach and drawing on afeminist disability theory' needs clear explanation (how & why was this used, and how did thisshape the findings).
5) More information on how the focus groups were conducted - 'small groups' -how many of each,
and how many participants were included in each. How long did they last. I wonder howsuccessful in creating discussion these might be -although I note there is some acknowledgementof drawbacks of using this method of data collection within the discussion section. The specificdetail would help the reader to understand the situation better.6) The 3 themes were not clear (I did not grasp what 'menarche as a pathway to knowing' reallymeant), nor did the results provided necessarily fit into the themes eg under 'menstruation as a signof female maturation' there was a lot of (potentially useful) detail on how mothers had to care fortheir daughters menstrual needs. I think the themes needed to be more closely linked with theresults that were found. This would help the reader to take home the messages from the work.7) There were some quotes in bold. It is not clear whether these are subthemes or something else.
Are the methods appropriate and well described?
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.
No
Does the work include the necessary controls?
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.
Unable to assessAre the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.
No
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manuscript or would you recommend an
additional statistical review?If an additional statistical review is recommended, please specify what aspects require furtherassessment in your comments to the editors.
Not relevant to this manuscriptQuality of written English
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:
Not suitable for publication unless extensively editedDeclaration of competing interests
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