Structured abstract
Study design
This was a single-centre, prospective, descriptive, hospital-based study in females with spinal cord injuries (SCI).
Objectives
To study menstrual changes after SCI.
Setting
The in-patient and out-patient services of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of a tertiary care institute in India between October 2018 and October 2020.
Methods
SCI females who were included in the study answered a questionnaire regarding amenorrhea after injury, menstrual cycle regularity, frequency, duration, flow, dysmenorrhoea and presence of autonomic dysreflexia during menstruation. All the study related data was analysed using SPSS version 24. A p value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Results
40 females were included. 31 (77.5%) had amenorrhea. The mean duration of return of menstruation was 2.65 months. There was significant reduction in the duration of menstrual flow (p value < 0.001), amount of flow (p value = 0.041) and dysmenorrhea (p value < 0.001) after SCI.
Conclusions
Amenorrhea was seen in 77.5% females. Most of them resumed their menstrual cycle. The menstruation duration and flow were reduced significantly. There is a need to address concerns and reassure females regarding resumption of menstruation after SCI.
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Data availability
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Institutional ethics committee approval (IEC/1/973/2018) was taken before starting the study. We certify that all applicable institutional and governmental regulations concerning the ethical use of human volunteers were followed during the course of this research.
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The authors declare no competing interests.
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Charls, A.C., Rawat, N. & Zachariah, K. Menstrual changes after spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord 60, 712–715 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-022-00765-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-022-00765-2
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