THE EFFECT OF HEAVY MENSTRUAL BLEEDING ON WOMEN'S QUALITY OF LIFE: A CASE CONTROL STUDY

Abstract

Introduction: Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) is dened as excessive menstrual blood loss which interferes with a woman's physical, social, emotional and material quality of life. In India, 16% of the women aged between 15 and 44 are diagnosed with HMB. HMB has signicant effects on personal, social, family, and work life of women and thereby reduces their quality of life Aim And Methods: In this study, we aim to identify menstruation characteristics of the women and the effects of HMB on women's quality of life. The participants are 150 volunteer women who were not pregnant or had menopause at the time the study was conducted and who consulted to the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at a Rajarajeswari Medical College and Hospital, Bengaluru between November 2020 and January 2021. The patients who had HMB complaint were included in the case group (฀ = 75) while the relatives of the participants who did not have any specic health problems composed the control group (฀ =75 ). Results: Mean age of the participants in the case group was 45.5 year (p<0.05) . 23.9% women had HMB >3years , frequent cycles noted with average length of cycle being 22.79 days and 53.3% being diagnosed with myoma . We evaluated the participants' quality of life and found that HMB group members were affected more signicantly in all subscales of the SF-36 scale (physical functioning, pain, general health, vitality, social role functioning, emotional role functioning, and mental health) when compared to the women in the control group and was found to be statistically signicant with p < 0.05. Conclusion: HMB has negative effects on women's quality of life. Therefore, quality of life of the women with HMB complaint should be investigated and effective approaches should be designed.