Survey study, 2005
What are the main symptoms and impacts of severe period pain in teenage girls?
The most common symptoms are cramps, tiredness, backache, swollen belly, and tender breasts. Teenagers with worse symptoms miss more school and take more painkillers.
What they did
198 teenage girls from a technical college in Taiwan answered questionnaires about their period symptoms, pain levels, and attitudes toward menstruation.
What they found
The five most common symptoms were cramps, tiredness, backache, swollen abdomen, and tender breasts. Four factors together explained 59% of girls' period distress: age, mother's job, pain level, and attitude toward periods. The worse the distress, the more girls missed class and the more painkillers they used.
What it means for you
Understanding these symptoms can help schools create better health programs for girls with bad period cramps. The main limitation is that the study only included girls from one college in Taiwan, so results may not apply to all teenagers in other settings.
198
teenage girls studied
59%
of period distress explained by age, mother's job, pain, and attitude
About the study
- Original title
- Related factors and consequences of menstrual distress in adolescent girls with dysmenorrhea
- Authors
- Chen HM, Chen CH
- Journal
- The Kaohsiung journal of medical sciences
- Year
- 2005
- Study design
- Survey study
- Participants
- 198
- What was tested
- None (observational study).
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/s1607-551x(09)70288-8
Topics
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