Psychosocial and other characteristics of women complaining of menorrhagia, with and without actual increased menstrual blood loss

Objective To discover whether psychosocial factors can explain why many wom en with normal menstrual blood loss seek care for menorrhagia. Design Cross-sectional comparative study of women referred for menorrhagia. Setting Gynaecology departments of all five university teaching hospitals i n Finland. Sample Two hundred and twenty-six women aged 35-49 years complaining of men orrhagia. Main outcome measures Several psychosocial factors, seeking medical attenti on, menstrual blood loss. Results Twenty-nine percent of the women had their menstrual blood loss in the normal range (menstrual blood loss < 60 mi). By univariate analysis, un employment, anxiety, perceived inconvenience, abdominal pain, haemoglobin l evel and serum ferritin concentration distinguished this group of women fro m those with true menorrhagia. Unemployment, perceived inconvenience, abdom inal pain and serum ferritin remained significant variables by multivariate analysis. Conclusions A significant proportion of women with complaints of menorrhagi a have their measured menstrual blood loss within the normal range. Psychos ocial factors can have an impact on their seeking health care. Better under standing of the factors, which explain complaints of menorrhagia in women w ith normal bleeding could improve both medical outcomes and reduce the cost of treatment for menorrhagia.