Prevalence of Primary Dysmenorrhea among the Undergraduate Medical Students and its Impact on their Performance in Study

Background: Primary dysmenorrhea is the most common gynaecological problem associated with menstruation among the adolescent girls. It represents the leading cause of periodic work absenteeism among that population.

Aims&Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of dysmenorrhea and its severity in female medical students and its effects on their daily routine activities.

Material&method: this is a cross-sectional study conducted on 101 female medical students; all the participants were given a questionnaire to complete: questions were related to menstruation elucidating variation in menstrual problems, history of dysmenorrhea&its severity (according to visual analogue scale) and absenteeism from college/class.

Results: the prevalence of dysmenorrhea was 85.15%. Most of the girls (63.95%) had dysmenorrhea of grade 3-4 according to visual analogue scale and 70.93% girls did not take pain medication for it. College/class absenteeism was present in 10.47% girls having dysmenorrhea there was no significant association of dysmenorrhea with age of menarche, menstrual cycle regularity, BMI, blood groups and diet (vegetarian/nonvegetarian) (P> 0.05).

Conclusion: Dysmenorrhea is highly prevalent among female medical students. It affects their quality of life. Maximum girls do not seek medical advice. The path of solution of this painful problem might be paved out by mental preparation and by appropriate change in life style like de-stressing the person through relaxation exercise, yoga and breathing exercises (pranayama)