“Menstrual problems and hygiene among rural adolescent girls of Tamil Nadu - A cross sectional study”

Background: Menstruation is a normal physiological process that begins during adolescence and many a times associated with various symptoms that occurs either before or during the menstrual flow. Many of the adolescent girls experience some problems associated with menstruation, which might indirectly have an impact in their academic excellence, sports activities and their selfesteem. Aim: To study the types and the frequency of problems related to menstruation among the adolescent girls. Methodology: A cross sectional study was undertaken among 500 adolescent girl students in the age group of 14 – 19 years who had attained menarche. The student’s data were collected by personal interviews by using a pre tested and a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised of age, socio economic status, educational status, menarcheal age, menstrual pattern, premenstrual symptoms (PMS), dysmenorrhoea, impact of menstrual disorders on school attendance, consultation for menstrual problems and the hygienic practices followed during the time of menstruation Results: The mean age of menarche in our study population was 12.67 years. 62.2% of the adolescent girls had pre-menstrual symptoms. Among the various menstrual symptoms the most common were abdominal pain (94.6%), cramps (82.2%) and backache (77.8%). Among the various menstrual problems experienced by our study subjects dysmenorrhoea(65%) was the most common one followed by oligomenorrhoea(16%) and menorhagia (11%). Only 41.6% of them had the habit of using sanitary pads and majority had said that the average pad/cloth (51.4%) used on those days were only 2 and 90% of the girls did not had the habit of cleaning the genitals with soap and water. Conclusion: The pre-menstrual symptoms and the menstrual problems were quite commonly prevailing in this age group as well as the poor menstrual hygiene. So a proper awareness programme had to be conducted on a routine basis in all schools particularly the rural schools emphasising the importance of genital hygiene and the remedies for the common menstrual problems which occurs in adolescent age group.