الفهرس 
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Abstract
Gynecologic symptoms are the most important indicators of gynecologic morbidity, which can severely affects women’s health, social wellbeing, quality of life, fertility and productivity. Women’s responses to common gynecologic symptoms vary widely. Many national studies stated that most women might internalize their reproductive problems as part of a ”culture of silence”. Women tend to internalize ailments such as “pain and discomforts emanating from their reproductive and sexual roles are accepted as the very essence of womanhood”. These women perceive their condition as either being unworthy of medical attention, too costly to address or as part of their burden in life. The symptoms associated with woman’s reproductive system are often difficult for her to describe objectively. The way in which these symptoms are described to the doctor or nurse depends on patient’s feelings about the symptoms, her attitude to sexual matters and her previous experience in talking about her symptoms with other people.
Maternity nurse has a significant and unique role in women’s health promotion and prevention of their reproductive morbidity. She is in a key position to identify, observe, assess and support women with gynecologic symptoms. Therefore, the nurse should be well prepared to eliminate the harmful response to gynecologic symptoms and help women seek the necessary medical treatment. Therefore, this study was done to help the nurse understand woman’s response toward common gynecologic symptoms and to enable her to deal with them in away that contribute to the provision of sensible, adequate, proper and professional care.
The study was conducted at 3 out-patient gynecologic clinics affiliated to El-Shatby Maternity University Hospital, Dar-Esmail Maternity Hospital and Gamal Abdel Nasser Hospital in Alexandria. It included a convenient sample of 200 women who where in the reproductive age group (19-45 years) and had one or more of common gynecologic symptoms (dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia, leucorrhea and pruritus vulvae).
A specially structured interview schedule was developed and utilized by the researcher to collect the necessary data. It entailed two parts. Part one includes data about women’s socio-demographic characteristic as well as their menstrual, obstetric, medical and gynecologic history. Part two involves data about women’s gynecologic symptoms, their responses toward them and resource person of their response. The interview schedule was tested for content validity by 10 juries who were expert in the related field.
A pilot study was carried out on 20 women (who were excluded form the study subjects) to test the relevance, validity and clarity of the tool as well as the time needed to complete it.
Collection of data was carried out over a period of 4 months, starting from the beginning of May till the end of August 2006. Women attending gynecologic clinics were interviewed, before and after examination, individually and in total privacy within 20-30 minutes. The collected data was categorized, coded, tabulated and analyzed using percentages, mean and standard deviation.