HONG KONG, Feb. 6 (Chinese media) -- About a third Hong Kong girls suffer from menstrual problems but only a few of them look for medical advice, according to a study published in the February issue of Hong Kong Medical Journal released here Friday.
The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong recently surveyed 5,609 girls from ten local middle schools. The average age of the girls and their average age at menarche were 15.1 and 12.3 respectively.
As said in the study, 33.6 percent of the girls told that heavy menstrual flow forced them to reduce daily activities; 12 percent had to miss school because of menstruation-related symptoms including menorrhagia and dysmenorrhoea. However, only 6.4 percent of those girls had sought medical help.
Moreover, the age at which local Chinese girls have their first menstrual period is falling. The median age at menarche measured in a World Health Organization study 20 years ago was 12 years and nine months. But this recent study found that the median age at menarche was 12.1 years old.
The report concluded that the prevalence of menstrual problems in Chinese adolescent girls was high and might adversely affect their education and daily activity, but their knowledge was often poor and only a minority seek medical advice.
It said that proper education about menstruation and its related problems is important for both the adolescent girls and their mothers, so that they would not choose to avoid medical help.
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