Heavy menstrual bleeding significantly affects quality of life

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of women subjectively experiencing heavy menstrual bleeding in the general population and their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) compared with women experiencing normal menstrual blood loss.

Design: Community-based cross-sectional descriptive survey on a randomized sample of the Swedish general population.

Settings: Invitation by e-mail to join an online questionnaire in Sweden, conducted in June 2012.

Population: 1547 women, aged 40-45 years old.

Methods: Web-based questionnaire consisting of disease-specific questions, concerning the perceptions of menstrual bleeding, in combination with the generic Short Form-36v2 (SF-36) Health Survey Questionnaire to evaluate HRQoL.

Results: We found that 32% of women experienced heavy menstrual bleeding, 39% normal menstrual blood loss, 15% light menstrual blood loss and 14% no menstruation. In general, menstrual bleeding was associated with negative perceptions and limited social and professional activities, although all areas were significantly more affected in women experiencing heavy menstrual bleeding than normal menstrual bleeding. The SF-36 showed that women experiencing heavy menstrual bleeding had significantly worse HRQoL compared with women with normal menstrual bleeding in all domains.

Conclusion: Of women 40-45 years old, 32% experience heavy menstrual bleeding. These women have significantly worse HRQoL compared with women with normal menstruation patterns.

Keywords: Heavy menstrual bleeding; SF-36; health-related quality of life; menorrhagia; prevalence.