THE EFFECT OF OCCUPATIONAL STRESS EXPERIENCED BY NURSES ON MENSTRUATION: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

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Studies have shown that stressful and shift work can lead to reproductive health problems such as irregular menstrual cycles, dysmenorrhea, and subfertility. This study was carried out to determine the irregularity of menstruation that may develop due to the work stress of nurses. The study universe was composed of female nurses aged 18-49. By taking the research sample as an example of studies related to the menstrual irregularity of nurses in the literature, it was determined that 196 nurses should be reached with a 5% error margin and 95% confidence interval, and 264 nurses were reached. The data were collected face-to-face and online using the Introductory Information Form, the Menstrual Symptom Scale (MSS), and the Work Stress Scale (WSS) as data collection tools. The ethics committee approved the study with the number xxx on 09.06.2022. The data were evaluated by number, average percentage, Pearson or spearman correlation, student's t-test, and one-way analysis of variance in a statistical program. The mean age of the nurses participating in the study was 33.31±7.73. 57.6% of nurses are married, 60.6% are undergraduate graduates, 42.8% are working in a university hospital, 32.3% have been working for 11-20 years, 53.8% are working ≤40 hours weekly, and 56.8% of them work in a shift system. The mean duration of menstruation of the participants was 6.13±1.91 days. 65.6% of them thought that their menstruation was regular, 54.9% had their first menstruation between the ages of 9-13, and 79.2% had a menstruation interval of 21-35 days. A moderately significant relationship was found between the WSS total and all sub-factors and the MSS total score averages. Furthermore, a low-level positive and significant correlation was found between the MSS score, the WSS total score, and the WSS Job Role Mismatch sub-factor score. As a result, it was determined that there is a positive significant relationship between work stress and menstruation status. It has been observed that weekly working hours and shift work affect work stress. The implementation of practices that will reduce work stress by health managers will also be able to reduce the complaints of nurses about menstruation.