Exploring the impact of premenstrual syndrome and dysmenorrhea on students’ academic performance

Abstract

Menstrual problems affect as high as 90% of adolescent females. Dysmenorrhea was the most frequent menstrual disorder for which adolescents and their parents were referred to a physician. Many undergraduate students are adolescents who undergo several hormonal changes that affect menstrual patterns. This study aimed on the impact of premenstrual syndrome and dysmenorrhea on students’ academic performance at Mohammed Al mana college for medical sciences.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was adopted, and 328 female medical sciences students of MACHS were selected using convenient random sample approach.  A semi-structured and self- administrated questionnaire was used to collect personal and socio-demographic information from the selected female medical sciences students.

Results: For the Descriptive statistics, frequency, percentages, mean, and standard deviation (SD) were calculated. To determine the correlation between the variables the Spearman correlation (non-parametric test) test was employed. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare dysmenorrhea symptoms between students who exercise and those who do not.  The results demonstrated that the student who perform exercise develop low dysmenorrheal symptoms compared with who to perform exercise, in the opposite side the students who expressed high stress level suffering from high dysmenorrhea symptoms compared with who didn’t expressed stress,  finally the study showed moderate significant correlation between students' academic performance and dysmenorrhea (r = 0.430, P=< .001). Which displayed that about three quarter of the studied subject reported mood swing which affects their concentration during study hours, attending the classes, exams, and writing the assignments, and leading to feeling of lack of self-confidence & inferiority.

Conclusion: The academic performance of students affected negatively by dysmenorrhea and their coping skills are somewhat correlated. As a result, a person should be conscious of their own menstrual pain patterns and competent in developing suitable coping strategies, such as exercise, complementary and alternative therapies, and prescription medications.