Menstrual disorders and quality of life of women in an urban area of Puducherry: A community-based cross-sectional study

Background: Menstrual disorders are common among women in reproductive age group and affect their normal functioning and social life. Due to cultural reasons, menstrual problems often get unreported. In India, the literature on the effect of menstrual disorders on the quality of life (QOL) of women is limited. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of menorrhagia and dysmenorrhea among women in an urban field practice area and to compare their QOL with women without menstrual disorders. Methods: This is a community-based cross-sectional study among women who have attained menarche and not yet attained menopause in an urban field practice area of a tertiary care teaching institute in Puducherry. Households were selected by systematic random sampling, and a door-to-door survey was done using an Android-based mobile phone app Epi Info. A pretested questionnaire was used for collection of sociodemographic details. QOL was measured using World Health Organization BREF scale. Results: A total of 119 women were interviewed, and their mean (standard deviation) age was 33 (10) years. The majority was homemakers (63%), belonging to lower socioeconomic status (60%) and one-fifth had no formal education. The prevalence of dysmenorrhea was 45% [95% confidence interval (CI): 36.6%-54.4%] and that of menorrhagia was 17% (95% CI: 11.6%-25.3%). QOL in women with dysmenorrhea was poor compared with normal women in physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains (mean score 57.9 vs. 69.7, P < 0.001). Conclusions: Prevalence of dysmenorrhea and menorrhagia is comparatively high in this study area. QOL of women with these disorders was poor.