Relationship between menstrual abnormalities, anemia and hematological parameters among university students

Abstract

Objective: To determine the relationship between anemia, menstrual abnormalities and hematological parameters among students, who are studying at Sindh University and are the permanent residents of Hyderabad city. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was carried out at physiology department, university of Sindh Jamshoro. Study duration was one year from August 2018 to July 2019. All participants were the permanent resident of Hyderabad, aged from 18 to 25 years, and willing to contribute in the study. The questionnaire was designed to elicit comprehensive responses from participants regarding hematological parameters and menstrual abnormalities. Menstrual abnormalities such as poly-menorrhea, menorrhagia, oligo-menorrhea, dysmenorrhea, and amenorrhea were determined using the menstrual history. Participants with a hemoglobin level of <12 gm/dl were deemed anemic. SPSS version 20 was used to analyze the data. Results: A total of 300 individuals were randomly selected for this study, and 283 of them agreed to have their blood drawn. The participants' average age was 20.99±1.87 years. Most of the participants had irregular cycle 44.52%, followed by oligomenorrhea 13.43%, Polymenorrhea 11.66% and remaining were normal. Hypomenorrhea was seen in 8.48% of the respondents while hypermenorrhea was seen in 7.42% of the respondents. 14.49% of females reported the duration of menstrual bleeding for fewer than three days, and 34.63% reported normal duration of menstrual bleeding. Longer menstrual bleeding days (>7 days) was 26.85% Anemia in the participants was 45.94%, out of this mild, moderate and severe anemia was 32.51%, 7.42% and 6.01% respectively. RBCs, HCT and WBCs were statistically significant in terms of menstrual abnormalities (P<0.05), whereas other hematological parameters remained statistically insignificant in terms of menstrual abnormalities (p->0.05). Conclusion: Prevalence of menstrual abnormalities and anemia were observed to be frequently high among female students of Sindh University’s permanent residents of Hyderabad. Key words: Menstrual patterns, menstrual abnormalities, Anemia, University students