The New Indian Journal of OBGYN. Epub Ahead of Print

Prevalence of menstrual problems and their association with psychological stress among students of a medical college in Northern India

Shaugfta Aara, Mehbooba Rasool, Masarat Nazeer, Mohsina Mukhtar

ABSTRACT

Background: Regular menstruation symbolizes a normal reproductive health of woman; however, all women experience some form of menstrual problem in their lifetime. Medical undergraduates are mostly in the age group of late adolescence and early twenties. Females in this age group frequently experience different menstrual problems that commonly affect their quality of life. These disorders may be so severe that they influence their routine physical activity and also force them to skip their classes. Objectives: To estimate prevalence of menstrual problems and their association with psychological stress among students of medical college. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 120 medical and paramedical students of 1st and 2nd year of Government Medical College situated in District Anantnag. Results: Majority of participants were of 19 years of age (42.0%) and belonged to rural areas (71.4%). All of them were unmarried at the time of the study. The menstrual patterns of participants revealed that half of the students had attained menarche between 13 to 14 years and among 65.5% average duration of the menstrual cycle was more than 35 days. Menorrhagia was the most common menstrual disorder (56.5%) followed by dysmenorrhea (55.5%). There was statistically significant association between presence of irregular menstruation and menorrhagia (p = 0.03) as well as premenstrual symptoms (p = 0.007). Another significant finding of our study was that half of the students with middle perceived stress (MPS) were more likely to suffer from dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia and irregular cycles, although the associations were statistically non significant. Conclusion: The most prevalent menstrual problems in our study were menorrhagia and dysmenorrhoea. Therefore, it is recommended that female science students should be provided with early psychological and gynaecological counselling to prevent future complications.