Dysmenorrhoea
Pain
Chronic pain, which affects up to 30 per cent of people worldwide, is defined as ‘chronic’ when pain lasts for more than three months. Once developed, chronic pain is difficult to treat, so understanding who is most at risk is vital for improving prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment.
Period pain, although often dismissed, is so common and has a huge impact on the lives of teenagers. We hope this work will provide further support for the need to take it seriously and treat it promptly as well as ultimately reducing the number of women suffering with chronic pain.Dr Katy Vincent
Previous research has shown that women are more likely to develop almost all types of chronic pain than men, and these differences become apparent after puberty, suggesting changes in puberty - such as periods starting - may be contributing to this increased risk.
Despite periods often being very painful, period pain (dysmenorrhoea) has traditionally been dismissed as "normal" and something girls must “learn to live with”. However, research in adult women with period pain shows many differences across a range of body systems when compared to women without period pain. Similar changes to those seen with period pain can be seen with other chronic pain, but it is not known if these changes are caused by repeated or continuous pain, or if they are part of the reason why chronic pain develops, or a combination of both.
Dr Katy Vincent from the University of Oxford is leading new research which aims to understand whether period pain during adolescence increases the risk of developing chronic pain as a young woman. Dr Vincent and her team will investigate if the differences in other body systems in adult women with period pain are also seen in girls in the first few years of having periods, and to find out whether there are any factors present in childhood that increase the risk of period pain developing.
She will use both data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) – a large research resource monitoring children born in the early 1990s - and a study group of adolescent girls. Dr Vincent hopes this work will reduce the risk of both adolescent girls and adult women suffering with period pain and other chronic pain conditions. The team will use their findings about the long-term risks of period pain to make sure period pain is taken seriously and to produce advice and guidance for those with period pain, health professionals, policy makers and educators.
A better understanding of the risk factors for developing period pain when periods start will allow girls at risk of early-onset period pain to be identified, ensuring they are educated and empowered to seek treatment early.
Dr Vincent’s findings on how period pain leads to chronic pain will be developed into novel strategies to prevent chronic pain, including future work with other researchers and drug companies to maximise the benefits of the findings.