A study on dysmenorrhea among adolescent girls of selected schools in Chennai

Abstract

Dysmenorrhoea is one of the most frequent gynaecologic disorders, affecting more than half of menstruating adolescent girls. With primary dysmenorrhoea, often begins 2 3 years after menarche and lasts for several years, girls have painful menses without demonstrable pelvic abnormality. Symptoms may decrease after pregnancy. Among female adolescents it is the most common gynaecologic complaint and the leading cause of recurrent short-term absenteeism. The majority of dysmenorrhoea in adolescents is primary (or functional) and has a clear physiologic cause, with occasional psychological component. Improving the health of school going adolescents increases their enrollments and retention in school, their cognitive achievements, and leads to greater productivity. So this study was done to find out the effectiveness of selected interventions such as Structured Teaching Programme on menstruation, dysmenorrhea and its controlling measures and the fish oil supplement on dysmenorrhea in adolescent girls. Quasi experimental one group pre-test post-test design. Adolescent school girls who attained menarche and aged between 12-15 years and studying in 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th standard. Simple random sampling technique. 800 girls who met the inclusion criteria were taken as the sample. The present study findings revealed that the STP on menstruation, dysmenorrhea and its controlling measures was effective in terms of increasing the knowledge and in turn reducing the severity of dysmenorrhea / menstrual distress of adolescent girls. Fish oil supplement was also found to be more effective in reducing the severity of dysmenorrhea and thereby promote the health of adolescent girls. So, there is a need for school health nurses to take active part in preparing the adolescent girls for menarche and menstruation. If the girls are prepared with adequate knowledge about menstruation, dysmenorrhea and its controlling measures, they will develop a positive attitude towards menstruation which in turn helps them to face dysmenorrhea in a positive way.