amenorrhea

[¦ā‚men·ə′rē·ə]

(medicine)

Absence of menstruation due to either normal or abnormal conditions.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Amenorrhea

the absence of menstruation. As a physiological phenomenon it is found in girls until the time of sexual maturity, among pregnant and lactating women, and in older women after the climacteric. In all other cases, the condition indicates some form of illness.

A distinction is made between primary amenorrhea, in which no menstruation has ever occurred in the individual, and secondary amenorrhea, in which menstruation previously took place and has ceased. Amenorrhea is associated with disruption of the ripening of the follicle and formation of the corpus luteum; it may be brought on by acute or chronic infection, disease of the endocrine glands, neuro-psychiatric disorders (“war amenorrhea,” for example), cardiovascular or blood disease, and so forth. The condition may result from X-ray or radioactive irradiation of the ovaries, chronic poisoning (for example, by alcohol, nicotine, or lead), exhaustion (from hunger, undereating, or malnutrition), extreme adiposis, and so forth. In some women amenorrhea makes its appearance accompanied by extreme fatigue, either physical or mental, as in the case of students at the time of examinations. Amenorrhea may be the result of artificial abortion or of cauterization of the uterine mucous membrane with iodine or other remedies.

The condition may ensue from developmental defects in the reproductive organs (such as lack of an opening in the hymen) or from scars of the vagina or cervix uteri following trauma. Menstrual blood accumulates in the vagina, uterus, and uterine tubes and then cannot be expelled from the body; this is known as false amenorrhea.

Frequently amenorrhea produces no marked subjective disorders, but severe cases may lead to metabolic changes (adiposis or sometimes loss of weight), depression, or unpleasant sensations such as congestion or vertigo.

Finding proper treatment requires determination of the basic causes of the condition, and treatment is directed toward elimination or mollification of the causes. Effective diet, long rest periods in the fresh air, climatotherapy, and therapeutic exercises are the prescribed forms of therapy. Emotional disturbances should be removed. Hormone preparations are frequently prescribed.

REFERENCES

Vikhliaeva, E. M. “K voprosu gormonoobrazovatel’noi funktsii iaichnikov u zhenshchin v klimaktericheskom periode.” In Fiziologiia i patologiia menstrual’noi funktsii. Moscow, 1960.
Kvater, E. I. Gormonal’ naia diagnostika i terapiia ν akusherstve i ginekologii, 3rd ed. Moscow, 1967. “Osnovnye formy anomalii menstrual’noi funktsii.” In Osnovy en-dokrinologicheskoi ginekologii. Moscow, 1966.

A. L. KAPLAN

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References in periodicals archive

(2014) reported an association of primary amenorrhea and mental retardation with concomitant unbalanced X; 6 translocation and X chromosome rearrangements (12).

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One case of 16 years girl with primary amenorrhea was treated.

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In only case of primary amenorrhea, tubercular endometrium was diagnosed by hysteroscopy which was interpreted as small uterus by TVS.

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In phenotypic female, it is a common cause of primary amenorrhea. Testicular feminization syndrome is a form of male pseudo-hermaphrodite, where phenotypic female has male gonads and is genotypically male.

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In women presenting with primary amenorrhea, the disorder is fairly common, second only to gonadal dysgenesis as a cause (1).

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INTRODUCTION: Primary amenorrhea is defined as absence of menses at age 13 years when there is no visible secondary sexual characteristic development or age 15 years in the presence of normal secondary sexual characteristics.[1] Approximately 30% of patients with primary amenorrhea have an associated genetic abnormality.[2] Turner syndrome (45 X0) is the most common chromosomal abnormality causing gonadal failure and primary amenorrhea.[2, 3] The incidence of gonadal dysgenesis with Turner syndrome is 1:2000 whereas the occurrence of pure gonadal dysgenesis with 46 XX genotype is extremely rare.[1] Yet we came across four patients with gonadal dysgenesis within a short span of time, all from a single village.

Gonadal dysgenesis--a case series from a single village

Incidence of primary amenorrhea in gynecological practice is less than 5%.

Female genital tuberculosis as a cause of primary amenorrhea in a young unmarried woman