Anemia remains a critical health burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and a paradigm shift is needed to effectively reduce the prevalence in women. The reproductive years place women at high risk of anemia in general, and iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in particular, largely because of menstrual and delivery -associated blood loss, as the lost iron is often not adequately replenished from dietary sources. Iron deficiency, even without anemia, has profound adverse effects on multiple cellular and metabolic parameters and frequently manifests with impaired cognitive and physical function. In Africa and Eastern Mediterranean regions, around 39% of non-pregnant women and 40-45% of pregnant women have anemia as estimated by The World Health Organization (WHO). Maternal anemia is a risk factor for preterm labor and both maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. Although data is limited, 5-28% of women in LMICs experience abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) yet the importance of menstrual blood loss as an indicator of and a risk factor for anemia is frequently ignored in anemia control and prevention strategies. The condition is further complicated by the fact that both women and their physicians tend to normalize menstrual symptoms. To enable development of comprehensive interventions to address IDA among women in our locality, it is critical to characterize heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) and its relationship with IDA among women and determine ways to use these data to direct women at risk for IDA to appropriate healthcare services for evaluation and treatment.~For women with HMB, early diagnosis and treatment of anemia is important to prevent its negative health consequences. However, in low resource settings, laboratory facilities are not always available. In addition, laboratory tests may be expensive limiting their use in such circumstances. For this reason, a cheap, simple to use tool to identify women at high risk of anemia who require further evaluation and treatment is needed.~The Aberdeen Menorrhagia Severity Scale (AMSS) is a multi-dimensional scale. It measures quality of life in women with HMB in addition to menstrual bleeding characteristics. AMSS consists of 13 questions. with a 4-point answer to each question. Maximum score is 47, which is converted to a percentage. The lower the scale is associated with better quality of life. The AMSS has been validated against the SF-36, which is a generic scale for measurement of quality of life.
In the present study, we test the ability of AMSS as a simple tool to identify women with HMB who have ID/ IDA. We will compare the AMSS score to patients' hemoglobin and serum ferritin in women with self-reported HMB and women with normal menstrual flow.