Prevalence of menstrual pain in young women: what is dysmenorrhea?

Figures & data

Table 1 Mean (±SD) characteristics of women stratified by presence of menstrual pain

	All women (n = 408)	Women with pain (n = 343)	Women without pain (n = 65)
Age	22.90 ± 3.03	22.89 ± 2.95	22.92 ± 3.44
Height (m)	1.66 ± 0.06	1.66 ± 0.06	1.66 ± 0.06
Weight (kg)	57.88 ± 7.99	57.83 ± 8.02	58.11 ± 7.88
BMI (kg/m^2)	20.94 ± 2.77	20.89 ± 2.81	21.17 ± 2.56
Births (n)	0.03 ± 0.24	0.03 ± 0.25	0.03 ± 0.17
Miscarriages (n)	0.01 ± 0.11	0.01 ± 0.09	0.03 ± 0.17
Abortions (n)	0.01 ± 0.14	0.02 ± 0.15	0.00 ± 0.00
Menarche (years)	12.56 ± 1.32	12.45 ± 1.36	13.13 ± 1.17*
Cycle length (days)	28.91 ± 4.12	28.97 ± 4.40	28.62 ± 2.03
Flow length (days)	4.56 ± 1.19	4.63 ± 1.21	4.18 ± 1.03**

Notes:

* P = 0.0002;

** P = 0.006 versus women with pain, by Student’s t-test.

Table 2 Prevalence of familiar, educational, dietary, physical activity, and obstetrical-gynecological features in women stratified by the presence of menstrual pain

	Women with pain (n = 343)	Women without pain (n = 65)	P-value
Stable sentimental relationship	195 (56.85%)	38 (58.46%)	0.801
Active smoking	109 (31.78%)	12 (18.46%)	0.031
Physical exercise	273 (79.59%)	52 (80%)	0.940
Coffee consumption	316 (92.13%)	57 (87.69%)	0.242
Attitude to have breakfast	317 (92.42%)	60 (92.31%)	0.975
Alcohol consumption	275 (80.17%)	52 (80%)	0.974
Excessive sugar consumption	72 (20.99%)	16 (24.61%)	0.424
Excessive salt consumption	29 (8.45%)	6 (9.23%)	0.837
Fish consumption	326 (95.04%)	62 (95.38%)	0.907
Gynecological visits	274 (79.88%)	53 (81.54%)	0.759
Contraception users	96 (27.99%)	28 (43.08%)	0.015
Regular cycle	285 (83.09%)	54 (83.08%)	0.998
Past gynecological pathology	68 (19.82%)	10 (15.38%)	0.461
Past gynecological surgery	11 (3.21%)	5 (7.69%)	0.087

Table 3 Major features of menstrual pain

Pain onset versus menarche
With menarche	67.4%
After 6–12 months	21%
After 1 year	11.6%
Pain onset versus menstrual flow
2 days before	18.7%
1 day before	22.2%
With menstrual flow	50.7%
After beginning of menstrual flow	8.4%
Duration of pain during menstrual flow
1 day	49.8%
2 days	38.5%
3 days	9.6%
All flow	2.1%
Associated symptoms	83.7%
Depression	36.7%
Headache	34.7%
Acne	33.5%
Nausea/vomiting	16.8%
Lack of appetite	10%
Use of medicines	65.6%
School performance reduced	47.8%
Social performance reduced	44.6%
Absenteeism	37.9%

Figure 1 Prevalence of disturbances associated with menstrual pain in all women and in women stratified by intensity of menstrual pain as evaluated by a visual analogic scale.