Primary dysmenorrhea: evaluation and treatment pattern among female medical students

Abstract

Background: Dysmenorrhea is a very common condition in females in fertile age group and its affective and somatic features often limit female mobility which results in loss of work hours. The aim of the study was to evaluate prevalence, severity, drug usage and loss of work days among young female medical students.Methods: The current questionnaire based study was done in Department of pharmacology, GMC Jammu over a period of 3 months. Female students aged between 17-24 years who consented for participation were included. The demographic profile and detailed history of dysmenorrhea was recorded.Results: Out of 342 participants, 218 females (63.7%) had history of dysmenorrhea. Most of the dysmenorrhic females had menarche between 13-14 yrs of age (73.3%) and menstrual cycle of 21-34 days (82.5%), duration of bleeding less than 6 days (91.6%) and had a positive family history of dysmenorrhea (58.7%). Majority of females had mild to moderate features of dysmenorrhea (93.4%). Most common medication was Mefenemic acid alone and in combination (90.5%). Most of the females took self-medication (69.8%) and only 30.2% took medicines on advice of doctor. 71.5% students missed their classes due to symptoms of dysmennorhea.Conclusions: Dysmenorrhea is quite prevalent among college going medical students. Most of them had positive family history. Mefenemic acid and its combination was frequently used to treat symptoms. On an average 1-2days were lost due to dysmenorrhea.

Prevalence and treatment patterns of dysmenorrhea among female medical students: a questionnaire based study at KIMS, Koppal

“…In the current study, mefenamic acid alone (34.3%) and in combination with anti-spasmodic dicyclomine (56.8%) were the most commonly used drugs for relief from dysmenorrhea. These findings are consistent to the results observed by Gupta et al, Marjoribanks et al, and Sugumar et al 1,15,16 As per the present study, despite the fact that 56.6% of dysmenorrhic girls used pharmacological methods for treatment, only 28% of these sought medical advice. This suggests that, 72% chose self-medication instead of seeking physician's advice for the management of dysmenorrhea.…”

“…It is estimated that prevalence of dysmenorrhea varies from 20% to 95%. 9,10 In the current study, the prevalence of dysmenorrhea among female medical students was 85.3% as compared to the prevalence of 84.2% by Kural et al 11 Similar high prevalence rate of 71.8% was reported by Yesuf et al and 63.7% by Gupta et al 1,4 The reason for the difference in prevalence maybe due to usage of different diagnostic tool or different outlook of the subjects toward menstruation.…”

“…These findings are in concurrence with Sherpa et al who reported 78.75%, Kumbhar et al 66.7% and Gupta et al 64.5%. 1,12,13 Most of the females in our study reported mild (48.8%) to moderate (37.2%) severity of dysmenorrhea. These results are in concurrence with Gupta et al and Omidvar et al 1,14 High levels of PGF2α is the key reason for pain during dysmenorrhea.…”

“…After going through various research articles on dysmenorrhea, we employed the questionnaire on dysmenorrhea utilized by Gupta et al for this study. 1 The participants were given a time period of 30 minutes to fill the questionnaire.…”

“…High levels of prostaglandins and their metabolites is the key reason for pain during menstruation. 1 Though the prevalence rates of dysmenorrhoea differ by age, more than 50% of women in all age groups experience dysmenorrhoea. The global prevalence rate of dysmenorrhoea is between 50.9% and 87.4%.…”