A study of prevalence and severity of primary dysmenorrhea in relation to reproductive characteristics of IX to X grade school girls

Primary dysmenorrhea is pain and discomfort during menstrual period in reproductive years of women without any pelvic pathology. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of primary dysmenorrhea and its reproductive risk factors among 9th to 10th grade school girls.This is a cross sectional questionnaire based study conducted among 931 school girls having age limit 14-16 years. Only unmarried adolescent females were included in the study however, females with gynecological, psychological or other medical problems were excluded from the study. It used validated and reliable questionnaire such as VAS for pain rating scale. The descriptive data analysis were used to explore the relationship between reproductive factors and dysmenorrhea. P<0.05 was considered as significant. 36.6% females coming from a family having previous history of dysmenorrhea.85.28% study population were dysmenorrheic. Risk of dysmenorrhea was more among adolescent with early menarche (below 11 years), frequent menstrual cycle (below 28 days), menstrual bleeding duration above 5 days, irregular menstrual pattern and release of clot blood in menstrual flaw. Participants whose family members had a history of dysmenorrhea had 1.67 times greater chance of having same problem in compared to participants without family history of dysmenorrhea.Thus, earlier age at menarche, family history of dysmenorrhea, irregular menstrual cycle, and presence of clot blood in menstrual flow, longer bleeding duration and frequent menstrual cycle were risk factors for primary dysmenorrhea among secondary female students.