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More about Menstrual Disorders:
Causes and symptoms Diagnosis Treatment Alternative treatment Prognosis Prevention Resources |
Definition
Anything that interferes with the normal menstrual cycle, causing pain, unusually heavy or light bleeding, or missed periods.
Description
Typically, a woman of childbearing age should menstruate every 28 days or so unless she's pregnant or moving into menopause. But numerous things can wrong with the normal menstrual cycle, some the result of physical causes, others emotional. These include amenorrhea, or the cessation of menstruation, menorrhagia, or heavy bleeding, and dysmenorrhea, or severe menstrual cramps. Nearly every woman will experience one or more of these menstrual irregularities at some time in her life.
AmenorrheaThere are two types of amenorrhea: primary and secondary. Overall, they affect 2 to 5 percent of childbearing women, a number that is considerably higher among female athletes (possibly as high as 66 percent).
Primary amenorrhea occurs when a girl of at least 16 is not menstruating. Young girls may not have regular periods for their first year or two, or their periods may be very light, a condition known as oligomenorrhea. This is nothing to worry about. But if the period hasn't begun at all by age 16, there may be something wrong. It's most common in girls who are severely underweight and/or exercise intensely, both of which affect the amount of body fat necessary to trigger the release of hormones that, in turn, begins puberty.
Secondary amenorrhea occurs in women of childbearing age after a period of normal menstruation and is diagnosed when menstruation has stopped for three months. It can occur in women of any age.
DysmenorrheaCharacterized by menstrual cramps or painful periods, dysmenorrhea, which is Greek for "painful menstruation," affects nearly every woman at some point in her life. It's the most common reproductive problem in women, resulting in numerous days absent from school, work and other activities. There are two types: primary and secondary.
Primary, or normal cramps, affects up to 90 percent of all women, usually occurring in women about three years after they start menstruating and continuing through their mid-twenties or until they have a child. About 10 percent of women who have this type of dysmenorrhea can't work, attend school, or participate in their normal activities. It may be accompanied by backache, dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and tenseness. The symptoms typically start a day or two before menstruation, usually ending when menstruation actually begins.
Secondary dysmenorrhea has an underlying physical cause and primarily affects older women, although it may also occur immediately after a woman begins menstruation, however.
MenorrhagiaMenorrhagia, or heavy bleeding, most commonly occurs in the years just before menopause or just after women start menstruating. It occurs in 9 to 14 percent of all women.
— Debra Gordon
