The Views of Jamaican Women on Menstrual Cycle and Reproductive Health Matters: Are Women using Contraceptive Method as a Pain Reliever against Menstrual Cycle Challenges?

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between menstrual cycle and reproductive matters among Jamaican women. Specifically, the study was conducted to 1) Find out the reproductive health matters of Jamaican women. 2). Determine the statistical relationship between the number of biological children and description of menstrual flow. 3). Determine whether there was any statistical association between ever experienced complications during late pregnancy and description of menstrual flow. 4.) Determine significant statistical relationship between menstrual flow and using a contraceptive method. 5). Find out reasons for using contraceptive methods and description of menstrual flow. 6). Find out whether there is any association between being pregnant and description of menstrual flow and, 7). Determine whether there is any association between women who have experienced a miscarriage and description of menstrual flow. The Study used correlational research design among 1,081 age 18-50+. The data for this research was collected using a questionnaire with a total of 19 questions. The study used purposive sampling procedure in the data collection phase. Data collected was analyzed by IBM Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27.0 software for Windows. The study revealed that 28.7% of respondents have never been pregnant, 41.3% do not have any biological children, 53.8% used contraceptive method, 39.5% have experienced a miscarriage, 16.7% begun their menstrual period at 9-10 years. The findings revealed that women who indicated having experienced heavy menstrual flow were most likely to have at least a miscarriage (54.2%) compared to those whose menstrual flow is medium (18.1%) and those who had light menstrual flow (43.0%)-[?²(2)= 102.492, P < 0.001].Women who indicated having at least a biological child experienced heavy menstrual flow (69.4%) compared to those whose menstrual flow is medium (57.2%) and those who had light menstrual flow (52.6%)-[?²(2)= 18.184, P < 0.001]. Women who experienced heavy menstrual flow are more likely to use a contraceptive method to ease the pain of the flow (43.5%) compared to those with medium flow (24.6%) and those with light menstrual flow (28.8%). In fact, women who experienced heavy menstrual flow least likely to use a contraceptive method to prevent pregnancy (20.5%) compared to those with medium (49.2%) and light menstrual flow (44.2%) [?²(6)=50.508, P < 0.001]. The current study provides an in-depth understanding of the reproductive health matters of Jamaican women, and that fact that some of them are using contraceptive methods as a pain reliever, and this information must be brought into the public health discourse.