Publication:

The prospective study on prevalence of menstrual disorders in school going adolescents at Sangareddy district, Telangana

Background Menstrual disorders are common sources of morbidity among adolescent girls. Overall, 75% of adolescent’s experience problems with menstruation either with delaying in onset, irregular menstrual cycles, painful or heavy periods. The study was aimed to evaluate the prevalence and examine the key areas of need and explore the experience of adolescent girls with menstrual problems like dysmenorrhea, Amenorrhea, menorrhagia and PMS.

Methods The study employed prospective observational design. The pre-designed, self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire was used to elicit the data from 1100 adolescents selected from Government schools in and around Sangareddy district, Telangana by random sampling technique. Data was analyzed by using Chi-square test in Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 22.

Results A total of (65.6%) subjects were unaware of menstruation before menarche. The mean age at menarche was found to be 12.5±1.36 years. Dysmenorrhea (N=158.6) and PMS (N=125.7) were most commonly reported disorders. Majority of subjects have complained about abdominal pain (N=719). Many of subjects (N=292.7) were found to have history of menorrhagia. Many of them reported about irregular periods (N=172). Study resulted there is positive correlation between dysmenorrhea and dysmenorrhea with PMS with p value <0.05 and also amenorrhea and amenorrhea with dysmenorrhea with p value <0.05 which are significant.

Conclusions This study revealed that majority of girls prone to menstrual problems which often goes unreported due to lack of knowledge on their reproductive health. Hence there is a huge need of educating and screening programs in schools for early diagnosis and management of menstrual disorders, which will improve quality of life and also lower the risks for future diseases.