Pain perception in women with dysmenorrhea

OBJECTIVE: To determine if systemic processing of pain differs in women with and without dysmenorrhea. METHODS: Twenty-two dysmenorrheic women and 31 nondysmenorrheic women were studied by pain threshold and supra-threshold magnitude estimation to heat stimuli, pain-evoked potentials by laser stimuli, and anxiety scores four times across their menstrual cycles. RESULTS: Significant differences were found between dysmenorrheic and nondysmenorrheic women. In all four examinations across the menstrual cycle, dysmenorrheic women had longer latencies of pain-evoked potentials (383.08 +/- 6.8 msec versus 345.05 +/- 7.0 msec, P < .001), higher magnitude estimations on visual analog scale of supra-threshold pain (83.29 +/- 2.87 versus 63.50 +/- 3.82, P < .001), and higher state anxiety scores (37.69 +/- 1.7 versus 29.20 +/- 1.9, P = .002). CONCLUSION: Women with dysmenorrhea show enhanced pain perception compared to nondysmenorrheic women. This augmentation of pain perception may be part of the development of dysmenorrhea. (C) 2001 by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.