ABSTRACT

Background:  Pain due to primary dysmenorrhea is common among young women that have been reported to be severe in many of the young women, resulting in their incapacitation for the first 3–4 days of their menstrual cycle. Considering the contra-indications of chemical medications and their unwanted side effects, there has been an increase in the use of alternative treatments among women such as Ginger.

Aim: To see role of Ginger in reducing pain (on Visual analogue scale) in women presenting with primary dysmenorrhea

Methods:  Quasi Experimental Study was carried out at Lahore General Hospital. The study population included 100 women presenting with primary dysmenorrhea ranging in age from 15-25 yrs.

Results: In this study the mean age of subjects was 19.20 ± 2.57 years with minimum age 15 years and 25 years. Pain related to primary dysmenorrhea before treatment was 7.86 ± 1.01 with minimum and maximum pain score 5 and 10 respectively on visual analogue scale (VAS). After 3 days of treatment mean pain score of primary dysmenorrhea was 4.03 ± 1.43 with minimum and maximum pain score 2 and 7 respectively on VAS. Mean change in pain score after treatment was 3.83 ± 1.21 on VAS. The mean change after treatment was significantly reduced p-value < 0.001.

Conclusion: Through this study we found that Ginger is an effective treatment in significantly reducing pain severity in primary dysmenorrhea.

Keywords: Dysmenorrhea; adolescents; primary dysmenorrhea, complementary and alternative medicine, Ginger