In this presentation we would like to report on a series of dilemmas we faced during our fieldwork in Tsotsil, Tseltal and Mestizo communities, as well as on the evolution that our research project has undergone. Our starting point was an approach based on an intercultural and interpretive paradigm. The initial aim was to explore the content of intergenerational menstrual experiences and their relationship to the roles of menstruating people in the communities. The research findings revealed that mechanisms of taboo, stigmatisation and subordination associated with the experience of menstruation persist across generations and that the experience of menstruation involves conflicts within individual and collective identities. The women who participated in our research, from a distance from the academic context, pointed to the need to talk about issues other than just the experience of menstruation. In addition, some of the study participants expected that our project would produce concrete results that would have a direct impact on their lives. These expectations of the study participants forced us to change our approach and prepare a workshop in the spirit of action anthropology and feminist critique that has the potential to change attitudes towards menstruation in the communities involved in the study.