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.