Physical complaints of patients with sickle cell trait.

Prospective and retrospective experience with physical complaints of 112 oral contraceptive and 67 intrauterine device Black family planning patients with sickle cell trait was evaluated by comparing their cumulative complaint rates with a randomly selected control group of non-sickle cell trait family planning patients having the same method, age and parity distribution as the sickle cell trait patients. Physical complaints considered are: dysmenorrhea, mental depression, vaginal discharge, fatigue, headaches, and nausea-vomiting. No evidence of a significant difference at level .05 is found between cumulative complaint rates of sickle cell trait and control patients for either oral or intrauterine device users for any of the complaint types. Further clinical research may be desirable in this area for dysmenorrhea and mental depression.