Efficacy of individualized homoeopathy in treatment of primary dysmenorrhea in adolescents:a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Dysmenorrhea is one of the most common gynaecological problems and is characterized by acute pelvic pain during menstruation. Primary dysmenorrhea is the presence of painful menstruation in the absence of pelvic diseases (e.g., endometriosis and pelvic inflammatory disease) or pelvic leiomyoma. Primary dysmenorrhea is the most common form of chronic pelvic pain that can last for at least 6 months, can be severe enough to disrupt one’s daily life activities, and ultimately lead to medical or surgical treatment. The reported prevalence of dysmenorrhea has ranged from 15.8% to 89.5%, with higher rates reported in adolescent populations. It is the leading women hood problem that affects 90% of adolescent girls and more than 50% menstruating women. Prior studies have shown the impact of dysmenorrhea on quality of life as dysmenorrhea often leads to women not attending school or office. The rate of absence days from school was reported to vary between 14% and 51% among women with dysmenorrhea. The conventional treatment for primary dysmenorrhea is Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs) and oral contraceptives, but it has lot of side effects. As a result, patients seek complementary and alternative therapies, such as Homoeopathy as a treatment option for Primary dysmenorrhea and in Homoeopathic literature, myriads of drugs have been mentioned for Primary dysmenorrhea. This research study is planned to be carried out to obtain scientific evidence of the effectiveness of homeopathy in in reducing the pain days in Primary Dysmenorrhea in adolescents with an added benefit of knowing the efficacy of homoeopathy in reducing the use of analgesics for dysmenorrhea as well as improving the sick days or days of absenteeism in a student life.