Assessment of COVID-19 impact on menstrual symptom variation among women in the United Arab Emirates

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in short-term and long-term health, economic, and social repercussions since its outbreak in December 2019. More research is required to determine how the pandemic impacts various segments of the population. Preliminary research suggests that COVID-19 impacts menstrual cycles in different ways. The primary objective of this study was to assess alterations in menstrual cycles among women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following the pandemic. A cross-sectional online study was conducted between October 2022 and January 2023, enrolled 439 UAE women using the snowball technique. The Menstrual Symptom Questionnaire and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale were used to evaluate menstrual symptoms and assess depression and stress levels, respectively. The findings showed a significant increase in menstrual symptoms with both higher mean of pads usage per day and use of pain medication during menses after COVID-19 with a p-value <0.001. Moreover, women reported higher levels of psychological distress after COVID-19 (Beta = 1.47). The findings show that COVID-19 affected the menstrual symptoms in women, reflected by higher pads usage per day, bleeding days, and frequency of pain medication intake during menses. Furthermore, higher stress levels were reported in the post-COVID-19 period.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• menstrual cycle
• bleeding
• distress
• UAE

Acknowledgements

We thank all the participants for sharing their data making this study possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

Conceptualization, D.M.; methodology, D.M.; validation, D.M.; formal analysis, S.H., D.M.; investigation, D.M.; data curation, S.H., D.M.; writing – original draft preparation, H.A.; writing – review and editing, H.A., A.O., D.M., S.H.; supervision, D.M.; project administration, H.A., A.O. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Availability of data and material

The data reported in this article are openly available.

Ethical approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by Gulf Medical University Ethics committee (Ref. no. IRB/COP/STD/95/Oct-2021). All objectives were explained to each patient; informed consent was obtained from all patients prior to enrolling in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.