The association between SARS-CoV-2 infection with menstrual characteristics changes in China: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the association between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection with menstrual changes, and analyze the possible related factors to menstrual changes.

Methods

A cross-sectional study based on online survey was conducted. Women who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 completed the questionnaires voluntarily and were enrolled in this study. Participants were divided into menstrual change group and no menstrual change group, based on the presence or absence of menstrual changes.

Results

A total of 1016 women were enrolled, including 530 in the menstrual change group and 486 in the no menstrual change group. The three most common abnormalities were changes of menstruation cycles, menstruation flow and menstruation duration. Compared with the no menstrual change group, participants in the menstrual change group were significantly younger (32.55 ± 7.00 vs. 33.67 ± 7.39, p = .013), reported more severe symptoms with score ≥ 6 (32.1% vs. 21.1%), and had more severe mental health problems, showing nervous (22.6% vs. 17.3%, p = .009), anxiety (34.9% vs. 24.5%, p < .001), depression (14.7% vs. 8.2%, p = .003) and fear (10.8% vs. 6.4%, p = .011).

Conclusions

SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with menstrual changes. The age, the severity of symptoms and mental health problems were related to menstrual changes.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• SARS-CoV-2 infection
• menstruation

Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge our colleagues in Reproductive Medicine Center, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all the female friends who participated in this questionnaire.

Authors’ contributions

Jing Zhao conceived the study and wrote the manuscript. Yan Yi collected and analyzed the data. Yanping Li participated in the study design. Qiong Zhang, Jingpei Li, Shi Xie and Jing Fu participated in the design of the questionnaire and data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data will be made available on requests to the responding author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province of China (No. 2021JJ31128).