Menstrual Profile: A Possible Determinant of Dysmenorrhea

Abstract

A healthy menstrual cycle i.e eumenorrhea throughout a woman’s reproductive years is sign of balanced ovarian hormones as well as other endogenous substances. However, dysmenorrhea compromises a healthy menstrual cycle. This study investigates the menstrual cycle patterns dysmenorrhea and eumenorrhea. We carried out a cross sectional study on 1,124 undergraduates that were selected by a multistaged sampling technique. Ethical approval was obtained from the ethical committee of the university. Subjects gave informed consent for the study and we gave them a semi-structured questionnaire for the study. Age of subjects was 19-23years with mean ages of 20.1 ±1.9 years and 19.7±1.8years for dysmenorrhea and eumenorrhea respectively; p>0.05. Menarche ranged between 9-19 years and a modal menarche age of 13years. All subjects (8) who had menarche at the age of 9 years had dysmenorrhea. Catamania ranged between between 2-7 days, dysmenorrhea was lowest in these extremes. Subjects with 2 days’ menses had no dysmenorrhea while subjects with 7days’ menses was (8)1.0%. Menses of 5 days had the highest percentage contribution 304 (36.4%) to dysmenorrhea. Dysmenorrhea and eumenorrhea cut across menstrual cycles < 25 days and >31 days. Dysmenorrhea was commonest in these extremes. Dysmenorrhea was (16)100% for subjects with cycles>31 days and (56)93.3% for subjects with cycles< 25 days. Very early age of menarche i.e. 9 years, menses between 4-5 days, menstrual cycle lengths less than twenty-five days and greater than thirty-one days can predispose females to dysmenorrhea.