The young people who at 15 years of age report a painful cycle will be more subject to chronic pain released by adults: intervening (soon) is important.
The teenagers who at 15 years of age suffers from menstrual pain (intense, but also moderate) are more at risk of suffering from chronic pain in adulthood.
A study by the University of Oxford sheds light on a connection between dysmenorrhea and persistent future pain, and invites specialists and health systems to take charge of a disorder that is too often considered “normal”, physiological, if not completely ignored.
Not only can cycle pain be debilitating in here and now: it can also heavily influence the overall future health.
Dismenorrhea: a taboo that hurts
Dysmenorrhea is the set of painful symptoms associated with menstruation. In some cases cramps in the lower abdomen and back pain and legs are easily controllable with drugs, in others they are so intense as to interfere with normal daily activities.
Often menstrual pain is not associated with specific pathologies and is simply due to inflammatory processes, but in some cases it can be the warning light of the reproductive system, such as endometriosis. That’s why it should never be underestimated or considered an exaggeration, especially if it forces to change the routine everyday.
The antechamber of another pain
A group of scientists from the University of Oxford analyzed the data of over 1100 participants in the AVON Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a well -known database often used in health studies.
Compared to the peers not affected by painful cycles, the teenagers who at 15 years of age suffered from severe dysmenorrhea ran a 76% higher risk of being affected by chronic pain at the age of 26; For those who suffered from moderate menstrual pain (but regular), the risk of chronic future pain was 65%.
Chronic pain is a pain that persists for a time of more than three months, and beyond normal terms of healing, up to becoming a disease in its own right. It is a public health problem that has worldwide relevance and that only in Italy affects 10 million people.
In the study, the pain from moderate to intense cycle was strongly associated with the risk of developing chronic pain in the lumbar area of the back and the abdomen in adulthood.
But not only: the girls who suffered from severe dysmenorrhea ran a risk more than twice higher than developing headache or evil in the knees, wrists, hands, feet or adult ankles, a risk of 81% higher than chronic pain to the hips and 78% higher than chronic pain in the upper part of the back.
A hyperstimulated brain
Even if anxiety and depression for an already existing painful condition can contribute to chronic pain, the study has found that they are only a part of the explanation. Repeated exposure to painful adolescence signals could make the brain of those suffering from dysmenorrhea more sensitive to nociceptive stimuli and change the way these inputs are processed.
The phenomenon of neuroplasticity has to do with the brain’s ability to reorganize synapses, brain connections, modifying structure and functions in response to stimuli.
“It is possible that the experience of moderate or serious menstrual pain can alter the structure of the brain and its operation in response to painful stimuli, making chronic pain more likely in the future” explains Rachel Reid-McCann, an expert researcher in the epidemiology of the pain that led the study.
Search (and provide) help immediately
For this reason, it is important that the girls who feel a pain from the debilitating cycle and who do not pass with the common painkillers turn to their general practitioner, and that the management of symptoms related to menstruation is made a priority of health systems.
To fill the gap of women already existing in medicine, and prevent health and quality of life disorders of millions of people.
