“Exploring the Phenomenon of Dysmenorrhea among Middle-Aged Adolescent Female Students at West Bandung”

Abstract

Adolescence is a transition period from childhood to adulthood, where their ages are spread between 10-19 years, teenagers experience puberty, which begins with their first menstruation. Dysmenorrhea is characterized by pain in the lower abdomen, this can cause activity to be disrupted for 1-2 days each month. Purpose: to explore how the phenomenon of middle-aged adolescents experienced dysmenorrhea, how the experiences of actions they had taken, and the experiences resulted from actions to relieve dysmenorrhea. Methods: This was a phenomenological study: with a qualitative method using interview techniques. The target population was 197 female students of SMA Negeri 1 Parongpong who experienced dysmenorrhea during menstruation, selected with Simple Random Sampling technique, and were willing to be interviewed, thus there were 8 people being informants. Findings: The pain experienced were varied, included: cramps in the abdomen, pain felt from the front of the abdomen spreading to the back of the waist, and pain throughout the body felt weak until unable to walked. The worst pain was on the first - second day of menstruation. The impacts of dysmenorrhea were: wanted to sleep all the time, had no appetite and mood changes. The actions to relieve dysmenorrhea were: using hot compresses with bottles, consumed painkillers, simply drank warm to hot water and combined 2 to 3 types of pain relief actions. The results of these actions included: gradually relieved over several hours, the pain did not subside, and suddenly the pain was no longer felt. Value: This study contributed to adolescents by giving understanding that dysmenorrhea is a very common thing and can be relieved in various ways. Implications: The results of this study will be useful for adolescents in relieving dysmenorrhea, thereby reducing the numbers of absenteeism from school.