Estimation of Prevalence of Premenstrual Syndrome and Habit of Menstrual Hygiene Practice in Adolescent Students of A Medical University

Abstract Background: Premenstrual syndrome is characterized by cluster of symptoms that reoccur every month in luteal stage of a woman's menstrual cycle. Estimating frequency of premenstrual syndrome in teenagers was the goal of this research. As adolescents are new to these changes, it’s also important to make them aware about habit of menstrual hygiene to avoid further health issues. Methodology: Total 225 girl students of Health University, Bathinda, were invited for the study, participants were adolescent girls of age 18-19 years, campus residents and those were willing to participate in the study. An interactive session was taken for all the girl students of various constitutional colleges of Adesh University. Sociodemographic self-designed questionnaire was distributed (which included questions about their usage of sanitary pads, age at menarche etc.) along with daily records of severity of problems was distributed and followed up the students for two months. Those students submitted fully filled record of two months, were given premenstrual symptoms screening tool for adolescents to calculate the premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual syndrome scale (PMSS) to calculate severity of the symptoms. Result: The premenstrual syndrome was calculated from the data extracted from premenstrual symptoms screening tool used for adolescent in percentage form and prevalence of moderate to severe PMS in this study group was 80.92%. 98% participants showed moderate, intensity of the symptoms and only 1.9% were having mild severity of the symptoms. Adolescent girls were following menstrual hygiene protocols and were using commercial sanitary pad.