A comprehensive anonymous questionnaire survey of all U.S. Army and U.
S. Air Force rated female aircrew, with age- and duty-matched males, w
as conducted. This report addresses the menstrual concerns part of the
questionnaire, which sought information from women on discomfort prob
lems during the menstrual cycle and methods used for combating this di
scomfort. Five hundred sixty-seven women were surveyed. Only 9% of res
pondents admitted to having any menstrual complaints and, of these, on
ly 17% attempted to take themselves off the flight schedule during the
problem days. Even so, 41% of all women aircrew admitted to taking so
me form of medication for menstrual discomfort while on flight status.
Most respondents to this section of the questionnaire were openly hos
tile, seemingly sensitive to sex-specific questions, This could be a s
afety-of-flight issue, in that menstrual symptoms could be a serious i
n-flight distraction to the female aircrew member.