Abstract:
Premenstrual symptoms are recurrent, cyclic disorder in women at reproductive age.
There are wide spectrums of physical and emotional symptoms that occur regularly
during one to two weeks before the start of each menstrual cycle. The study aimed to
assess the prevalence and severity of premenstrual symptoms among female academic
staff of the University of Jaffna. The institutional based descriptive cross-sectional study
was carried out among female academic staffs after receiving ethical clearance from
the Ethical Review Committee, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna. Data were
collected using a self-administered questionnaire via google forms in sinhala, tamil
and english and analysed by SPSS version 25. Among 245 study participants, only 207
participants were eligible for the assessment of premenstrual symptoms, since they were
experiencing at least one cycle of menstruation within the last three months. Among them,
93.2% (n=193) reported at least one premenstrual symptom, while 6.8% (n=14) did not
experience any of the premenstrual symptoms. The most “severe” symptoms reported
by the participants during their premenstrual days were irritability or getting angry for
small things (24.2%), mood swings (23.2%), feeling sad (19.3%), extreme tiredness
(16.9%) and heaviness of breast (15.9%). The most common “moderate” symptom was
bloating (21.7%). The least reported “mild” premenstrual symptom was facial puffiness
(9.2%). Premenstrual symptoms were a common problem among female academic staffs
of University of Jaffna (93.2%). For the majority of participants, emotional symptoms
were more severe than the physical symptoms during their premenstrual days. It is
recommended to increase awareness among the female academic staffs and colleagues
about premenstrual symptoms.
