Menstrual Characteristics of Young Adults

Abstract

Menstrual health plays a key role inwomen’s sexual and reproductive life. Thepurpose of this study is to understand the age atmenarche and menstrual characteristics of young adults in a rural area of West Bengal.The present cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted among one hundred and one young adult females of age 18 to23 years. Data were collected on age, age at menarche and menstrual characteristics by using questionnaire.The mean age at menarche of the study participants was 12.07 (1.37) years. Duration of average menstrual discharge and number of days of peak discharge of the studied population was 4.84 (1.38) days and 3.03 (1.5) days, respectively. The result also revealed that menstruation skipped in 16.83per cent girls in last one year. When menstrual discharge problems were considered, it was observed that majority (74.25%) of the girls feels some degree of pain and discomfort. However, 8.91per cent of the girls had irregular periods.Premenstrual syndrome was observed in most (91.09%) of the girls, of which majorities reported abdominal pain (58.41%), followed by back pain (38.61%) and weakness (32.67%). An overwhelming majority (74.25%) of the girls reported the nature of menstrual discharge to be in the form of a mixture of fluid and clots. Interestingly, gynaecological problem was observed in all girls. Thefindings of this study would help health care professionals to devise future health care programs on menstrual health.