PRIMARY DYSMENORRHEA IN INDIVIDUALS WITH GENOTYPES :HbAA, HbAS and HbSS

Genotypes predispose individuals to various disease conditions. For instance, individuals with HbAA are more susceptible to malaria. On the other hand, individuals with abnormal Hb e.g HbAS do enjoy protection against infection by plasmodium falciparum. Individuals with HbSS suffer a common vasoocclusive crisis, which is characterized by osteo arthritic pains. However whether the pain of dysmenorrhea in these individuals deserve a special description is yet to be studied. This study was aimed at investigating the genetic predilection of genotypes; HbAA, HbAS and HbSS to dysmenorrhea and its effect on HbSS individuals. We carried out a cross sectional study on 90 subjects that were selected by multistaged sampling technique. Though the subjects knew their genotype, we confirmed genotype by standard hemoglobin electrophoresis . Subjects gave informed consent for the study and we gave them a semi-structured questionnaire for the study. The age range of subjects was 19-22 years. The mean age of subjects with dysmenorrhea was 19.1 ±1.9 years while 20.7±1.8 years was the mean age for the eumenorrhic subjects. The percentages of sufferers of dysmenorrhea with genotypes HbAS and HbAA were 53.6% and 63.3% respectively All the subjects (100%) with HbSS suffered dysmenorrhea although the grade of dysmenorrhea was essentially grade 1. The predominant effect of dysmenorrhea on subjects with HbSS was that of taking analgesics and continuing daily activities. Although dysmenorrhea has a genetic predilection for HbSS, it is not a cause of admission for subjects with HbSS because the pain of dysmenorrhea is mostly described as mild