Survey study, 2017
Does painful menstruation affect adolescent girls' mood, emotions, sleep, and thinking?
Yes. Girls with painful periods had higher depression, aggression, and sleep problems compared to girls without painful periods. However, thinking ability was not affected. Girls with only PMS (without pain) were similar to girls without either condition.
What they did
Cross-sectional study of 897 adolescent girls. Girls were divided into four groups based on whether they had painful periods (dysmenorrhea), PMS, both conditions, or neither. Researchers tested thinking ability, emotional function, and sleep patterns.
What they found
35.9% had painful periods only, 14.9% had only PMS, 32.7% had both, and 16.5% had neither. Girls with painful periods had significantly higher depression, aggression, insomnia, daytime sleepiness, and sleep apnea compared to girls without painful periods. Thinking ability did not differ. These differences were strongly linked to pain intensity.
What it means for you
Painful periods are associated with mood and sleep problems in adolescent girls, suggesting pain is the key factor rather than hormones alone. The main limit is this is observational, so we cannot prove pain causes the emotional problems. The study location is not specified.
897
girls studied
35.9%
had painful periods only
32.7%
had both painful periods and PMS
About the study
- Original title
- Neuropsychological function in relation to dysmenorrhea in adolescents
- Authors
- Bahrami A, Sadeghnia H, Avan A et al.
- Journal
- European journal of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology
- Year
- 2017
- Study design
- Survey study
- Participants
- 897
- What was tested
- None
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/j.ejogrb.2017.06.030
Topics
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