Discussion about traditional Chinese medicine causes, pathogenesis and distribution of syndromes of primary dysmenorrhea among female college students based on questionnaire investigation

Objective: To discuss traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) causes, pathogenesis and distribution of syndromes of primary dysmenorrhea (PD) through questionnaire investigation among female college students. Methods: The ordinary times status, menstrual period conditions and distribution of TCM syndromes of the female college students with PD were surveyed and analyzed by descriptive statistics. Results: Of all the 58 female college students with PD who finished this investigation, at ordinary times, 62.07% averted to cold, 48.28% had cold limbs, 70.69% preferred warm food and drinks and 93.10% did physical activities less than 3 times a week. There were 74.14% and 37.93% of the patients whose menstrual pain were caused or aggravated by taking cold food and drinks or by taking cold baths. While there were 41.38% of the patients whose menstrual pain were relieved by eating warm food and drinks and 84.48% by applying hot compress on lower abdomen. 94.83% of the patients belonged to excess syndrome. 68.97% was diagnosed as the pattern of stagnation of cold-dampness. The Syndrome score of pattern of stagnation of cold-dampness was 10.99±3.62, which was higher than other patterns. Conclusion: This study suggested that for PD, the major TCM cause is cold pathogen and the major TCM pathogenesis is stagnation of cold and dampness in uterus resulting from exterior cold pathogen, and the major TCM syndrome is stagnation of cold-dampness.