This work was carried out on adolescent female students in Man­soura to study the prevalence, deter­minants, impacts as well as treatment practices of dysmenorrhea. A total of 664 female students were selected by cluster sampling techniques from pub­lic general and technical secondary schools of urban and rural areas. Data was collected through an anony­mous self ad ministered questionnaire during the class time.
Twenty-two (3.3%) of students never menstruated. The median age of menarche was 13 years. About three-fourths of students experienced dysmenorrhea. Dysmenorrhea was mild, moderate and severe in 55.35%, 29.9% and 14.8% of cases, respec­tively. Fatigue, headache, backache and dizziness were the commonest associated symptoms {70.8%, 62%, 56.8% and 30.1%; respectively). Analgesic/NSAlD/antispasmodic were the treatment taken by 34.7% of cas­es. No limitation of activities was re­ported by 47.4% of dysmencrrhic stu­dents. Limitation of activities (daily home chores, going out of home, par­ticipation in social events, sports par­ticipation, class concentration, home work tasks and school attendance) were significantly more reported by students with severe dysmenorrhea. On logistic regression analysis the significant predictors of dysmenorrhea were the older age of students, irregu­lar cycles, heavy bleeding and long cycles.
Conclusion: Dysmenorrhea is highly prevalent among adolescents and has limitation on school atten­dance, social, academic, sports and