Use of Complementary Alternative Therapies for Dysmenorrhea Management

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE: This study was planned for detecting the use cases of complementary alternative medicine (CAM) methods by people having dysmenorrhea. METHOD: It was planned as a descriptive cross-sectional study between February-June 2014. The research population consisted of students studying at a public university. Without going to the sample selection, the entire universe is intended to achieve. Eventually, 660 female participants who are 18 years old and over, having primer dysmenorrhea and suit to be diagnosed with primer dysmenorrhea were got involved in the research. Data were collected on the basis of participants' self-report. Before the study, approval was obtained from the institutions and participants. SPSS program was used to evaluate the data. In collecting the data, a questionnaire including demographic characterictics and features related to dysmenorrhea are used. FINDINGS: The mean age of participants 20,40 ± 1,54 and the average duration of participants’ menstruation 5,81 ± 1,26 days. In the majority of the participants, it is seen that the dysmenorrhea started with menstruation (%39,9); dysmenorrhea pain lasted only the first day (%52,6) and not consulted a doctor due to dysmenorrhea (%83). It is determined that %51,7 of participants use the analgesic drugs, the majority (%80,9) apply to any CAM therapies. The most commonly used CAM therapies are detected as application of heat to the abdomen (%67,2) and massage (%42,6). Participants who use herbal methods prefer chamomile tea (%15%), black tea and sage (%11,8). Analgesic usage rate, usually 1-2 times per day (%87,9); %39,6 of participants were using drugs with the suggestion of a friend. RESULT: It has been observed on participants having primary dysmenorrhea, complementary therapy methods are used more compared to the use of analgesic drugs and most preferred method is the application of heat to the abdomen. In addition, the majority of participants use the drugs accoarding to friend suggestions ,without physician recommendation. Accoarding to these findings women see the dysmenorrhea as a condition they can handle themselves.