Abdominal stretching as a therapy for dysmenorrhea

BACKGROUND: Dysmenorrhea is pain during the menstrual period caused by uterine muscle cramps. The Dysmenorrhea prevalence in Indonesia is categorized as high at 64.25%. The dysmenorrhea symptom could be very disruptive and even decrease women’s productivity. Related to this problem, abdominal stretching is one of the alternatives to reduce pain from dysmenorrhea. AIM: This research was aimed to find out the effect of abdominal stretching on the pain intensity of menstrual cramps. METHODS: It was a quasi-experimental research with a pre-test post-test control group design. The sample was 130 female adolescents that were taken by total sampling. The sample was divided into two groups, which were the intervention group and the control group. RESULTS: The research finding, with a 0.000 (p < 0.005) significance value was obtained by using the Wilcoxon test. CONCLUSION: It means abdominal stretching exercise is significantly effective to reduce pain intensity from menstrual cramps (dysmenorrhea) in female adolescents. It is suggested to implement abdominal stretching as nursing care for menstrual cramps.