The Effect of Lifestyle on Primary Dysmenorrhea

Abstract

Introduction: Dysmenorrhea, also known as painful periods, is a common gynaecological diagnosis faced by most women of fertile age. Dysmenorrhea is still a misunderstood condition and most women accept it as a normal part of their menstrual cycle. The pain has a strong impact on well being and can severely affect quality of life. Methods: An online questionnaire was administered to female subjects between May and July 2020. Shapiro-Wilk, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used, non-para-medical statistical analyses using Spearman correlation coefficient. Statistical significance was set at p 0.05. Results: The sample consisted of 774 women. It can be seen that the respondents who have already given birth have statistically significantly less menstrual pain (MR = 270.36; VR = 67859.50) than the respondents who have not given birth (MR = 402.06; VR = 184545.50). On average, respondents who experience orgasm less than 1x/week (MR = 346.93) have the least menstrual pain, and respondents who experience orgasm daily or 4-6x/ week have the most menstrual pain (MR = 427.18). Respondents who go to bed at 1am or later have the highest mean pain response score (MR = 433.65) and the lowest among those who go to bed before 10pm (MR = 346.30). The highest mean menstrual pain response score is among respondents who have negative attitude towards menstruation (MR = 557.54) and the lowest is among respondents who have neutral attitude (MR = 268.82). Conclusions: The results confirm statistically significant relationships between sleep, sexuality, stress, menstrual perception and menstrual pain.