The Effects of Medicinal Plants of Melissa officinalis and Salvia officinalis on Primary Dysmenorrhea

Introduction & Objective: Primary dysmenorrhea is one of the common problems in women, especially in young women. Although dysmenorrhea is not life threatening , it can have ad-verse effect on quality of life and cause disability or ineffectiveness. With regard to the young society suffering from it, various treatments are offered for dysmenorrhea one of which is medicinal plants. This study investigated the effect of Melissa officinalis and Salvia officinalis on primary dysmenorrhea. Materials & Methods: This study was a clinical trial study performed on 50 girls with dys-menorrheal taking Salvia officinalis as infusion for five days before menstruation and five days during the menstruation. The consumption of the plants was repeated in the next two periods in the same way. Severity of pain, blooding duration and dysmenorrhea duration were evaluated with VAS (Visual Analog Scale) Questionnaire in their next two cycles. Data were analyzed by chi-square, t-test and WILCOXON statistical test. Results: The results of this study showed that after using the plants, pain severity and pain duration significantly reduced (P<0.01) so that pain severity decreased from 6.30 to 3.94 and 3.24, (on a scale of 1 to 10) after taking the plants in the first and second periods ,respectively. The maximum pain duration before the treatment was 1 to 6 h (28.6%) and this number reduced to less than 1 h after using these medicinal plants (38.0%). Mean of blooding duration was 6.36 days before the treatment. After the first and second duration, this value reached 6.48 and 6.34 days, respectively. It was determined that taking oral seda-tives reduced from 56% to 26% and 22% after the first and second periods, respectively. Fi-nally, after the second period, 42% of the girls reported high rates of satisfaction because of using the medicinal plants. Conclusion: Generally, it was showed that Melissa officinalis and Salvia officinalis signifi-cantly reduced pain severity and pain duration in the girls with primary dysmenorrhea. These medicinal plants can be used as a therapy method and raise the life quality of suffering women.