Menstrual Disorder in Morbid Obese Patients, Compared to Normal-weighted Controls

 To evaluate the association between menstrual cycle disorders with obesity in Iranian women.

In the present case-control study, 405 obese women of reproductive age who referred to the Obesity Clinic of Minimally Invasive Surgery Research Center, Rasoul-e-Akram Hospital, Tehran, between Jan 2013 and Oct 2015 were included as the case group and were compared with a control normal-weight group, selected from their family members (N=293). Menstrual cycle characteristics were documented in a researcher-designed checklist. For the statistical analysis, we used SPSS version 19 and Stata version 5.0.

In the case group, 47 women (11.6%) had irregular menstrual cycles, while it existed in 22 (7.5%) of the control group (P<0.001). The prevalence of different menstrual disorders was as follows: polymenorrhea 107 (26.4%) in cases and 51 (17.4%) in controls (P<0.001), oligomenorrhea 22 (5.4%) in cases and 16 (5.5%) in controls (P<0.001).

The results of the present study showed that morbid obesity increases the risk of menstrual irregularities and dysmenorrhea; therefore, it is essential to pay greater attention to this issue in morbid obese patients for proper management of this disturbing comorbidity.