Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Female Health Professionals’ Abnormal Uterine Bleeding, Dysmenorrhea, and Premenstrual Syndrome Experiences

Purpose: This study aims to determine if abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB), dysmenorrhea, and premenstrual syndrome experiences changed in female health professionals who worked in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period, to find out the direction of the change, and to determine the effect size on this change.Methods: This descriptive and relational study was conducted with 194 female health professionals who actively worked in a health institution during the pandemic process. Data were collected online using the Participant Information Form and the Premenstrual Syndrome Scale. The McNemar Test, the Odds Ratio, the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, the Partial Eta Squared Analysis, the Paired Sample T Test, and the Repeated Measures d Coefficient were used for data analysis.Results: The dysmenorrhea (OR: 28.462 95% CI: 9.563-84.707), the abnormal uterine bleeding (OR: 25.490 95% CI: 10.046-64.678), and the PMS (OR: 22.708 95% CI: 7.891-65.348) were found to increase during the pandemic. The number of people who had increased PMS severity was found to increase during the pandemic, and the effect size of the pandemic on this increase was very high (η2:12.035).Conclusions: The risk of increase during the pandemic was 28.5 times more for dysmenorrhea, 25.5 times more for abnormal uterine bleeding, and 23 times more for PMS in female health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, measures should be taken for the effective management of menstrual problems of female health professionals who take active roles in the management of massive crises like the pandemic to increase their quality of life and work success.