Common gynecological morbidities among married women in a resettlement colony of East Delhi

Abstract

Background: A women is always celebrated for child birth but gynaecological issues a stigma is attached. The fear of being ostracised by the society for gynaecological problems is deep set. Gynaecological morbidity is defined as “structural and functional disorder of genital tract not related to pregnancy, delivery or perpuerium”. This paper aims to study the pattern of gynaecological morbidity among married women residing in a resettlement colony of East Delhi.Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted during 2014-2015 in the field practise area of Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi. A self-designed, pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data. All married women of reproductive age (15-49 years) who were willing to participate were included in the study.Results: The mean age of study subjects was 34.6±8.5 years with a range of 18-49 years. All women in study had menarche within normal range (mean age =13.1±1.01 years, range: 11-16 years). Mean age at marriage was 20.6±2.4 years, range: 15-25 years. Nearly 40% of women had 3 children and most women above 40 years of age had three or more children. The mean parity was 2.04±0.5. Mean age at first delivery for study subjects was 22.1±3.9 years. In the present study 722 (59.5%) of the 1214 study subjects had one or more symptom related to common gynaecological morbidities. Among symptomatic 594 out of 277 (82%) had one symptom. The commonest symptom was ‘lower abdominal pain during menstrual period’ 419 (34.5%) followed by symptoms of premenstrual syndrome [(such as ‘bloating’ 328 (27%) and ‘irritability’ 269 (22.2%) and ‘breast tenderness’ 218 (18%)]. Other symptoms observed were ‘scanty blood loss’166 (13.7%), ‘shortened duration of blood flow’ 149 (12.2%) and ‘something coming out of vagina’140 (11.5%).Conclusions: Gynaecological morbidities in spite of their preponderance and adverse health outcomes, have not attracted the attention due to it for two reasons: i) women in most patriarchal dominated societies do not speak out of their health problems and needs, more so if that is not connected to the birth process, ii) Health care providers and institutions had been so overwhelmed with the birthing process, and now the expanded reproductive health issues that attending to gynaecological morbidities was considered to be “luxury” in as far as public health was considered.

Cervical cytology and associated factors among tribal women of Karnataka, India

“…The predominant gynaecological complaint among the study population was lower back ache (77.6%) followed by white discharge per vagina (29.0%) and menstrual problems (25.8%). Gynaecological complaints reported in previous studies are similar to our study, though the proportion may vary [ 14 , 17 , 18 , 20 , 22 , 23 ].…”

“…In our study, majority of the women had three or more gynaecological complaints (74.6%). The higher number of gynaecological complaints among the study population may be attributed to the lack of awareness regarding gynaecological morbidities, poor accessibility to healthcare facilities in remote areas, embarrassment, stigma and fear towards pelvic examination, and above all the prevailing patriarchal family system in rural India, as indicated in prior studies [ 4 , 7 , 17 , 20 ]. The predominant gynaecological complaint among the study population was lower back ache (77.6%) followed by white discharge per vagina (29.0%) and menstrual problems (25.8%).…”

“…However, studies from rural regions of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand states of India reported a lesser proportion of women having gynaecological complaints; ranging between 36.9% and 46.5% [17][18][19]. These discrepancies could be attributed to the differences in the type and profiles of the populations studied [20]. Zhang et al reported that education status influenced the prevalence of gynaecological morbidities among women in China [21].…”

Reproductive health status of rural married women in Tamil Nadu: A descriptive cross-sectional study

“…The most commonly reported gynecological problems were menstrual disorders such as menorrhagia and dysmenorrhea. Similar results were obtained in studies done by Mathew et al and Mathur et al [1013] Urinary tract infections and reproductive tract infections [UTI and RTI] were the most commonly diagnosed gynecological morbidity with prevalence of 14% and 11.6%, respectively. Studies done by Srikala et al and Muthulakshmi et al , the prevalence of UTI was found to be 12.4% and 20.4%, respectively.…”

“…Study done by Mansi et al found the prevalence of RTI to be 8.1%. [13] This shows that UTI and RTI are more common among married women when compared with other gynecological problems.…”