Abstract
This study was undertaken to obtain the menstrual patterns and menstrual discomforts in women university students. For the data collection, self-administered questionnaire survey was made from December 10, 1996 to January 20, 1997 among the 180 women university students in Seoul. The resultant data were processed by SAS program for frequency, proportion, and chi-square test. The results of this study are as follows ; 1) The mean age of the subjects was 20.6 years old. The mean height was 162cm and weight was 52.3Kg. $26.9\%$ of the subjects responded that they had experienced the unbalanced diet, $56\%$ the irregular meal, $39.6\%$intermittent dizziness, and $63.4\%$ the premenstrual syndrome. $53.7\%$ had feeling that skin temperature of their four extremities was 'a little lower than others'. The mean BMI(Body Mass Index) was 19.8, 'normal level' was $41.8\%$. $18.7\%$ responded that their characters were 'introspective ones'. The mean age of menache was 13.8 years old. The subjects responded that the mean number of pads they used per day during menstrual periods was 4.6 sheets. The mean duration of menstruation was 5.4 days, $10.4\%$ responded that their menstrual cycles were 'extremely regular', $44.8\%$ was 'regular', $36.6\%$ was 'a little irregular', and $8.2\%$ was 'extremely irregular'. Out of them who had experienced the dysmenorrhea, $21.3\%$ had family history of dysmenorrhea in connection with their mother and $35.0\%$ in their sisters. The mean of the first time that they experienced dysmenorrhea was 15 years old. $94\%$ of the subjects responded that they had experienced the dysmeorrhea. $47.6\%$ of the subjects responded that they experienced the dysmenorrhea 'monthly' and $52.4\%$ 'intermittently'. $53.0\%$ of them who had experienced dysmenorrhea responded that dysmenorrhea was the severest 'on the first menstrual day' and $22.4\%$ 'on the second day'. $48.8\%$ of them who had experienced dysmenorrhea responded that the most painful region was 'low abdomen'. $40\%$ of them who had experienced dysmenorrhea responded that they used 'analgesics' to soothe dysmenorrhea, $24.8\%$ used nothing, $18.4\%$ lay in their beds or slept, and $12\%$ made their 'low abdomen' warm. $70.3\%$ who had used analgesics because of dysmenorrhea took analgesics 'one or two times per month', $25.7\%$ 'intermittently', and $4.0\%$ more than 3 times per month. The analgesics which they used were 'geworin$(33.8\%)$,' 'penzal$(32.4\%)$', 'tyrenol$(18.9\%)$', and 'aspirin$(4.2\%)$'. $(47.9\%)$ of them who took analgesics because of dysmenorrhea responded that the duration of analgesics effect was '4 to 8 hours'. $15.1\%$ of them who experienced dysmenorrhea responded that they had visited the hospital. 2) The incidence of premenstrual syndrome was no significant difference according to the BMI, unbalanced diet, pattern of meal, skin temperature of four extremites, and characters. 3) The incidence of dysmenorrhea was significant difference according to the BMI, unbalanced diet, pattern of meal, skin temperature of four extremites, and characters. 4) The incidence of analgesics usage was significant difference according to the BMI, subjects with low BMI took more analgesics than those with normal BMI (p<.05). The incidence of analgesics usage was significant difference in accordance with pattern of meal. The women who had a meal regularly took more analgesics than those who had a meal irregularly(p<.05). But the incidence of analgesics usage was no significant difference in accordance with the unbalanced diet, characters, the incidence of dizziness, skin temperature of four extremities, the incidence of premenstrual syndrome.