Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Teenagers who experience moderate or severe period pain are significantly more likely to develop chronic pain in adulthood – including pain beyond the pelvis – according to a major new study from the University of Oxford, funded by the Medical Research Foundation.

A teenager is taking a sanitary pad from her school bag.

As children and young people return to school this week, the findings offer a timely reminder of the urgent need to take adolescent menstrual pain seriously and improve the support available to young people.

Published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, the study is the first large-scale investigation into how painful periods (dysmenorrhoea) in adolescence are linked to pain in young adulthood.

 

Key points about the study:

  • Data from 1,157 participants in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)
  • Period pain recorded at age 15; chronic pain assessed at age 26
  • Severe adolescent period pain = 76% higher relative risk of chronic pain in adulthood; moderate pain = 65% higher relative risk compared to no period pain
  • As severity of adolescent period pain increased, the risk of developing chronic pain increased
  • Chronic pain included headaches, back pain, joint pain, abdominal pain, and other non-pelvic sites
  • First large-scale, UK population-based evidence of the link

 

Read the full story on the Nuffield Department of Women's & Reproductive Health website.