Women with painful periods have heightened sensitivity

Women who suffer from painful periods show increased sensitivity to pain throughout their menstrual cycles, according to a new analysis.

Imaging data found that the brains of women who experience period pain showed changes in activity in areas that are involved in the pain response.

Researchers at Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain tested 12 women with painful periods and 12 women who do not suffer with the problem, while they were in an MRI scanner.

It was found that women who suffer bad period pains were more sensitive to heat when they had hot pads applied than those who do not suffer from it.

The findings, published in the journal Pain, came after the brain’s responses to the painful stimulus were compared at three different points in the women’s menstrual cycles.

The changes in sensitivity and pain processing of pain are similar to what is seen in patients with chronic pain conditions, the researchers said, including lower levels of cortisol, a hormone connected to the body’s stress response.

The low levels persisted throughout the women’s menstrual cycles and were correlated with the length of time women had experienced period pain.

“Many of the features of chronic pain conditions are present in women with painful periods, even though the pain is experienced for just a few days every month,” says Dr Katy Vincent, a clinical lecturer in the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Oxford University and first author on the paper.

Dysmenorrhoea is associated with central changes in otherwise healthy women. Katy Vincent and colleagues. Pain on-line.