Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2013 to January 2014 in rural villages of Poonamallee block, Thiruvallur district in Tamil Nadu. Ever married women of reproductive age group (15-49 years) were selected and interviewed on symptoms related to menstrual disorders using standard operational definition. Two stage cluster sampling was adopted.

Results: Mean age of 330 participants was 34.1 years and 61% had completed high school. More women (76%) belonged to upper and middle socio-economic class. It was observed that 44.8% of women had at least one menstrual disorder. Dysmenorrhoea (22.7%) and oligomenorrhoea (12.1%) were more common. Education acted as a protective factor for menstrual disorders (P = 0.0214). Low socio-economic status women had 1.8 times greater risk of dysmenorrhoea (P = 0.044). Old age (P = 0.035), anaemia (P = 0.002) and educational level (P = 0.032) were associated with oligomenorrhoea. Among women with menstrual disorders, 25.67% sought health care. Majority did not seek care due to personal reasons, 36% did not know they had disorders and 40% did not worry about it.

Conclusion: Almost half of rural women had menstrual disorders and very few sought health care. Majority of them did not seek care due to personnel reasons, this should be addressed.