Prevalence of Dysmenorrhea and its Effects on School Performance: A Crosssectional Study.

Menstruation is a normal physiological process that occurs approximately once a month in women of reproductive age as a result of the breakdown of the endometrial tissue. But dysmenorrhearefers to the occurrence of painful menstrual cramps of uterine origin. It is the most common gynecologic complaints in adolescence and young women, occurring in 60% to 93% of school girls and young women.

Major symptoms, including pain, adversely affect daily life and school performance, causing recurrent short-term school absenteeism among female adolescents. Previous epidemiologic investigations have reported the magnitudes of dysmenorrhea ranged from 43% to 91% in school girls. There are a limited number of studies conducted on university female students with the problem of dysmenorrhea in Ethiopia. Likewise, as far as our knowledge is concerned such study is the first to deal with dysmenorrhea and academic performance in our study area. However, some studies reported different prevalence; for instance, at Bahir Dar University the prevalence of dysmenorrhea and premenstrual syndrome were 85.1% and 72.8%, respectively.(Read More)