Abstract

Attention has been drawn to attitude to menstruation which vary from culture to culture, symptoms and management of menstruation. The aims of this study were to investigate the menstrual awareness of female secondary school students and correlations between such factors as menarcheal age, frequency of menstruation, presence of pain during period (Dysmenorrhoea), degree of incapacitations due to pain and other factors. A structured self-administered questionnaire was given to 300 female secondary school students in 2 randomly selected secondary schools in 2 Local Government Areas of Lagos State which are in the middle class area of Lagos State. The students were well informed and consent duly obtained. All the participants were nulliparous (Para 0 + 0) and between ages 9 - 19 years. All the questionnaires were adequately filled and the data obtained was analysed using SPSS. The influence of family values on the source of information on menstruation was significant as 87% of respondents obtained it from “mummy and sister”. On the grading of severity of dysmenorhoea, 65% responded as moderate-severe but 61.8% claimed that pain was not disturbing activity and only 25.4% used medication for pain. About 50.2% had secondary dysmenorrhoea whilst 48.6% obtained information about medication from family members. From this study, a negative correlation was found to exist between age at menarche, menstrual pain disturbing activity and medication for pain. We found that the family values are important factors in menstruation as shown by the fact that 97.3% of respondents obtained information about menstruation from the family  while,  50.2% of the girls obtained their information on medications for menstrual pain from family members-mothers, sisters and father in descending order.

Key words: Menstruation, awareness, menarcheal age, dysmenorrhoea, attitude, medication.