The Effect of Primary Dysmenorrhea on Perceived Stress and Women’s Health: One Year Into the Pandemic

Objective: This study, was conducted to examine the effect of primary dysmenorrhea on perceived stress and women’s health in one year into the pandemic. Method: This study was conducted as a descriptive, comparative, and cross-sectional study type epidemiological study between 25 May-31 July 2020. The study group consists of a total of 906 women, including the group with primary dysmenorrhea (n=418) and the group without primary dysmenorrhea (n=488). Research data, were collected using the “introductory information form”, “perceived stress scale”, and the “women’s health questionnaire”. Results: A significant difference was defined between the groups in terms of mean scores according to depression (p<0.001), somatic symptoms (p<0.001), somatopsychic (p<0.001), somatic-cognitive (p<0.001), gastrointestinal (p<0.001), self-esteem (p=0.002), anxiety (p<0.001) and interest-desire (p<0.001). It was determined that women with primary dysmenorrhea experience more depression, somatic, somatopsychic, somatic-cognitive, gastrointestinal, self-esteem, anxiety and interest-desire problems. Negative spousal relationships and premenstrual syndrome are among the reasons for experiencing primary dysmenorrhea. Conclusion: In our research, it was determined that women with primary dysmenorrhea experience more physiological and psychological problems, and it is thought that measures to be taken to improve the negative consequences of problems such as primary dysmenorrhea, which affect women’s health in many ways in situations such as pandemics, are important.