Background: Dysmenorrhea or painful menstrual periods is one of the common health issues the female university students experience which intervenes with academic activities and quality of life. Objectives: We aimed to find the prevalence, intensity, extent of impairment in academic engagement, and efficacy of the management of dysmenorrhea among nursing students at Peradeniya University, Sri Lanka. Methodology: This cross sectional study comprised 86 female nursing students who represented all four academic years. A self-administered questionnaire was used. The intensity and level of dysmenorrhea were assessed. Association of the extent of working impairment with the level of pain determined by Pearson correlation. Duration of dysmenorrhea persisted before and after management was compared using paired sample t-test. The effectiveness of management was analyzed using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: The prevalence of dysmenorrhea was 97.7%. The majority (54.7%) suffered moderate pain. Mean age of the participants was 24.02 (±1.503). During the period of dysmenorrhea, 32.6%, 33.7%, and 17.4% students experienced slight, moderate, and heavy impairment of overall academic engagement. A positive correlation was observed between level of pain and extent of academic impairment ( p < 0.05). The majority practiced pharmacological and non-pharmacological pain relieving methods together. Wilcoxon signed-rank test value revealed more negative ranks and statistically significant reduction in intensity in post-management period ( z = −7.793, p = 0). Post-management dysmenorrhea duration was significantly reduced than pre-management ( t76 = 8.984, p = 0). Conclusion: A substantial percent of undergraduates suffer from dysmenorrhea. It is associated impairment of overall academic engagement. The nursing students were able to manage dysmenorrhea successfully.

Stillbirths is one of major health issues in Sri Lankan context. This study aimed to explore the distribution of externally identifiable congenital anomalies according to their sex and the period of gestation and to estimate risk of stillbirth with or without congenital anomalies to be born pre-term or term. Sample size was 246. Due to extreme prematurity and maceration, 05 fetuses were excluded. Of 241 stillbirths, 36 (14.9%) had congenital anomalies and majority were females (n=23, 9.5%). The mean period of gestation was 31 weeks (SD=5.3). 12.5% with congenital anomalies were pre-term. 95% confidence interval (0.261-1.170) of risk estimate revealed that there is no statistically significant association between fetal sex and having congenital anomalies. Risk to be preterm stillbirth for the fetuses with congenital anomalies was 2.447 times (OR = 2.447) greater than the non-anomulous. Females were at high risk to acquire congenital anomalies. Congenital anomalies caused preterm stillbirths.