Preventive Care in Nursing and Midwifery Journal

Background: Primary dysmenorrhea (PD) is characterized by painful cramps of lower abdomen without abnormal pelvic pathology. PD begins some hours before or simultaneously with the onset of menstrual bleeding.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of separate and concurrent supplementation of fish oils (FO) containing n-3 fatty acids and Rosa damascena Damascena extract (RDE) on PD symptoms.
Methods: In this double blind clinical trial in 2015, through convenience sampling, 105 university students with primary menstrual pain in most recent years, without significant abnormal pathology, and with moderate/severe dysmenorrheadysmenorrheal symptoms according to visual analogue scale (VAS) were randomly assigned into one of four groups: 1. FO 1000 mg/day (n=26), 2. RDE 1000 mg/day (n=27), 3. FO and RDE concurrently, with the same dose (n=27), and 4. Control group (n=25). All measurements were performed three times, at the beginning, 30^th day, and 60^th day. Symptoms including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bloating, cramp, low back pain, headache, fatigue, anxiety, sweat, weakness, dizziness, drowsiness, and feeling cold were measured by VAS method.
Results: After 2-month treatment, supplementation with RDE significantly reduced severity of bloating (p<0.001) and sweat (p<0.001), but FO supplementation had no significant effect on PD symptoms. The concurrent use of FO and RDE significantly decreased severity of diarrhea (p=0.038), weakness (p<0.001), dizziness (p=0.003), and feeling cold (p=0.049).
Conclusion: Our results suggest that the concurrent supplementation of omega-3 fatty acids and RDE could be more effective than their separate use in decreasing PD symptoms; however, larger trials are warranted to confirm these preliminary findings.