“Tomorrow, I’ll Be Fine”: Impacts and coping mechanisms in adolescents and young adults with primary dysmenorrhoea

Abstract

To understand the experiences of adolescents and young adults with primary dysmenorrhoea through the lens of structured frameworks extant in contemporary pain literature. Descriptive qualitative study. Thirty-nine adolescents and young adults (ages 16-24years) with primary dysmenorrhoea participated in semi-structured in-person interviews. Transcripts of the interviews were analysed using deductive thematic analysis from November 2018 to April 2019. Two overarching themes, each with subthemes, were identified. The first theme, primary dysmenorrhoea impacts the whole person, contained the following subthemes: biological, social, and psychological. The second theme, coping mechanisms of women with primary dysmenorrhoea, contained the following subthemes: primary, secondary, and passive coping. Women experience several primary dysmenorrhoea-related impacts on their biological, social, and psychological functioning. Women employ a variety of coping mechanisms to manage their primary dysmenorrhoea pain. This study emphasizes the significant effects of primary dysmenorrhoea on nearly every aspect of women's lives and contributes to an understanding of the ways women cope with this pain. The findings of this study underscore the need for continued consideration of primary dysmenorrhoea as a debilitating pain process as well as the need for additional interventions to help women manage this condition.