A pictorial chart for managing common menstruel disorders in
Turkish population
Aydan Biri, Nuray Bozkurt, Ercan Yilmaz, Umit Korucuoglu,
Bulent Tiras, Haldun Güner
Gazi University, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Department, Ankara, Turkey
Objective This study is designed to detect the
personal changes during menstrual periods in Turkish population.
Design and method Six hundred women were included in this study. Along with a questionnaire,
pictorial chart was applied to investigate the women’s bleeding pattern during
the menstrual period. SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL ( Statistical Package for Social
Scinces, version 13.0 for Windows) was used for statistical analysis.
Results
Mean age of the 600 women was 20.4. 63.8% of women were between 16-20 years.
Among all participating women, 39 women (6.5%) had easy bruising, 86 had (14.3%)
epistaxis, 248 had (41.3%) gingival bleeding, 193 had (32.2%) bleeding after
surgical removal of a tooth and 52 had (8.7%) bleeding after previous surgery.
Of all women responding the questionnaire, 3.3% had menstruation every 15-20
days, 55.5% had menses every 25-28 days, 15.3% had every 29-31 days, 15% had
every 21-24 days, 8% had menses every 32-40 days. The menstruation lasted 3-8
days in 97% of patients, 9-11 days in 2.3% of patients. During menstruation, 160
women (26.7%) used 5 or more pads, 254 women used (42.3%) big size pads and 233
women (38.8%) defined menstrual blood on their underwear. When the pictorial
scores of the participants were evaluated, 218 patients (36.3%) had a score
lower than 50, 100 patients (16.7%) had between 50-70, 129 patients (21.5%) had
between 70-100 and 153 patients had a pictorial score greater than 100. 79% of
women using 5 or more pads during menstruation had a pictorial score greater
than 50, 67% of women having blood on their underwear had a pictorial score
greater than 50 and 76% of women using big sized pads had a pictorial score
greater than 50.
Conclusion
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Menstrual irregularities cause considerable
problems affecting life quality in most of developed countries. Among the
most commonly observed menstrual irregularities are dysmenorrhea and irregular
and excessive bleeding.
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Prolonged duration of menstruation along with a
total amount greater than 80 ml, defined as menorrhagia, is the most common
menstrual problem.
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This study examines the menstrual pattern in Turkish
population by using the pictorial scoring system. Fifty was defined as the cut-off
value in this scoring system evaluating the duration of menstruation, number and
size of pads and quantity of bleeding.