Introduction: Primary dysmenorrhea is one of the most common complaints in women usually accompanied by economic, social, physical and mental effects. Although there are some reports about the effects of childbirth on decreasing the menstrual pain, but the relationship between mode of delivery and the pattern of primary dysmenorrhea is not clear. The aim of this study was investigating this relationship.
Methods: This cohort study was conducted on 124 primiparous women during 2010-2011
Mothers were divided into two groups of 61 cases with normal vaginal delivery and 63 ones with caesarean section. Sampling was conducted through multi-stage (stratified-cluster) method in health centers of Mashhad, Iran. The research was performed based on personal profile questionnaire, menstrual information before and after delivery and the menstrual pain degree based on verbal multidimensional scoring scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 11.5, chi-square and paired t-tests. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Women who had vaginal delivery would have significantly more improvement in severity of primary dysmenorrheal than women in cesarean delivery group (p<0.000). Location of pain also was statistically significant (p<0.04). The duration of menstrual pain after normal vaginal delivery was more reduced compared to caesarean group, but the difference was not statistically significant (p<0.59). There were also no significant differences in pain quality (p<0.39) and symptoms associated to the menstruation (p<0.82) between two groups.
Conclusion: Normal vaginal delivery would reduce the severity of dysmenorrhea more than caesarean section.