Abstract

Objective: Current study was carried out to determine coping methods of young women with dysmenorrhea.

Method: The universe of this descriptive cross-sectional type study was formed of the female students of Medical Sciences Faculty of a University. A totalof 419 student who had dysmenorrhea complaints and accepted to take part in study was taken as the sample of the study. Data of study were collected by face- to- face interviews realized between 15, and 20 of March 2018 by using Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and a survey form which had 19 questions about sociodemographic characteristics and coping methods with dysmenorrhea of young women. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U test in the SPSS 20.0 package program.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 20.18±1.87 (18-30) years and the mean pain severity according to VAS was 6.35±1.97 (0-10). When coping with dysmenorrhea, 48% of them did not want to use drugs and 80% of them used non-pharmacological applications including rubbing the abdominal region (86%), heat application to the feet (84%), massage (75%), and drinking green tea (47%). The mean pain severity of drug users was significantly higher than that of non-drug users (Z=-4.549, p=.000). There was no significant difference in pain intensity averages between non-drug users and non-drug users (Z=-1.024, p=.306). There was no significant difference between pain intensity averages according to the onset time of menstrual pain (Z=-1.040, p=.299).

Conclusion: It was determined that participants preferred non-pharmacological methods in a large extent to cope with dysmenorrhea. So as to provide the evidence-based use and to avoid hazardous practices of non-pharmacological methods, case-control studies evaluating effects of these methods in decreasing the pain of dysmenorrhea should be conducted.