Original research articleWhat is the desired menstrual frequency of women without menstruation-related symptoms?
Introduction
The menstrual period is a major part of every woman's life. Some women believe that amenorrhea is unhealthy and that monthly bleeding is necessary to “clean” the body. Some women use menstruation as a way to determine if they are pregnant, as a reason to avoid sex or as a means to ascertain fertility. Other women view monthly bleeding as, at best, an inconvenient nuisance.
For many women, monthly menstruation and menstruation-related disorders can cause considerable discomfort and social concerns. Menstrual periods may be associated with dysmenorrhea, migraine and a variety of somatic (breast tenderness, abdominal bloating, swelling) and affective (depression, irritability, anxiety, confusion) symptoms. These conditions not only cause pain, suffering and impaired quality of life but also may decrease social and economic productivity. Obviously, women who experience menstruation-related heath problems would, given the choice, eliminate or lessen the frequency of menstruation [1], [2], [3], [4].
In the past, clinicians have used temporary induced amenorrhea to assist military women [5], competitive athletes [6], [7], honeymooners, those with travel plans, mentally disabled women [8] and other women in suppressing or specifically timing menses [9], [10]. Women with such reasons to control their bleeding, as well as women with menstruation-related disorders, may benefit from this treatment approach.
To the best of our knowledge, no investigation has evaluated the menstrual preferences of women without menstruation-related symptoms.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the menstrual preferences of women without hormone withdrawal symptoms. Study subjects were recruited among women attending the Department of Gynecology of the San Martino Hospital (Genoa, Italy) because of routine gynecologic consultations between February 2003 and December 2004.
To be eligible for the study, women had to be of reproductive age, be at least 6 months postpartum or postabortion, not be trying to get pregnant and have regular menstrual
Characteristics of the study population
Three hundred thirty-two women fitting the inclusion criteria were approached for the study; none of these women had menstruation-related disorders. Two hundred seventy women consented to participate, yielding a response rate of 81.3%.
The demographic characteristics of the study population are listed in Table 2. Table 3 provides details on sport activities and work performed by the women included in the study.
Relationship between menstrual periods and social activities
Among the 242 sexually active women, 183 (75.6%) declared that their menstrual periods
Conclusions
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating the desired menstrual frequency of women without menstruation-related symptoms. We observed that over 50% of these women would like to lessen the frequency of menstrual periods and that about 50% of them would desire amenorrhea. In this population, easing daily jobs, participating in sports and engaging in sexual activity are the reasons for wanting to reduce the number of menstrual periods.
The findings of the current study are
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