The Relationship Between Attitudes Toward Menstruation and Perimenstrual Symptoms Among Female Students of Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Northeast Iran

Despite the fact that menstruation is a normal physiological process, perimenstrual symptoms influence a significant proportion of women. There is little agreement among researchers on factors predicting perimenstrual symptoms. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the relationship between attitudes toward menstruation and perimenstrual symptoms among female students of Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Northeast Iran. The current descriptive study was conducted on 300 female university students selected by the stratified random sampling method. The data were collected through an individual characteristics form (ICF), a menstruation attitude questionnaire (MAQ), and a menstrual distress questionnaire (MDQ). Data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 18. Descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation coefficient were used for data analysis. 76.6% of the female students agreed menstruation is a debilitating event, 49.6% agreed menstruation is a bothersome event, and 92% of participants perceived menstruation as a natural event. 89.7% of them agreed the onset of menstruation could be predicted and only 35.3% of them believed that mensturation has no negative effect on woman’s performance. Mood swings, cramps, and feeling sad or blue were the three most common symptoms during the premenstrual phase. Cramps, fatigue, and backache were the three most frequent symptoms during the menstrual phase. Fatigue, backache, and feeling sad or blue were the three most common symptoms during the reminder cycle phase. There were positive correlations between perimenstrual symptoms and all subscales of MAQ (except for the subscale “menstruation as a natural event”). According to the results of this study, menstrual attitudes in female university students are associated with their perimenstrual symptoms.