Características e impacto de la menstruación en la mujer española: el porqué del interés de la posibilidad de supresión de la menstruación

Introduction

To provide appropriate menstrual management requires knowing how women live and how it affects and imposes limitations on them, factors that are influenced by the sociocultural environment. Information on these issues as regards Spanish women is scarce.

Materials and methods

Internet survey with a sample of female volunteers aged 18-49. Details were collected on sociodemographic characteristics, contraceptive use, menstrual characteristics, the extent to which normal activity is limited, prevalence of symptoms, vital spheres affected, acceptance of menstrual suppression, and reasons for it. An analysis was made on the influence of age, use of hormonal contraception (HC) vs. non-hormonal/no method, and/or blood flows.

Results

The study included 1003 women aged 35.3 ± 8.3 years, of whom 98.7% menstruated, with 11.9% using HC to relieve menstrual discomfort. Menstrual frequency (28.9 ± 7.2 days) and duration (4.8 ± 1.3 days) decreased with age and with HC. Heavy menstrual bleeding was experienced by 23.8%, and was more common in older women and less common in those on HC. Almost all (93.4%) had menstrual symptoms (mean: 4.1 ± 2.5). The most common (>50%) were physical. Women who used HC or had less bleeding had fewer symptoms. The sexual sphere was considered to be the one most affected, with over half (56.2%) of the women expressed that they were quite/very willing to suppress menstruation, especially “for convenience/to stop worrying” (56.1%), and “to avoid experiencing symptoms” (52.3%). Acceptance was higher among women who considered that menstruation limited them to some degree.

Discussion

Menstruation has a major impact on women's lives and seems to be more related to the high frequency of symptoms than to the amount of bleeding. The sexual sphere is the one most affected. More than half of the women would be quite/very willing to suppress menstruation.