Researchers are waking up, but in the meantime, women suffer. A recent newspaper article summed up part of the problem.

A survey by ResearchGate, a social networking site for researchers, of studies on the site found five times more research on erectile dysfunction, which affects 19 per cent of men, than on premenstrual syndrome, which affects 90 per cent of women.

The journey I had may serve as an illustration of medical information neglect. I was taken from a train at Grand Central Station in NYC, hauled off to the downstairs medical office, and scoffed and scolded by a nurse who said I would have to be quiet and lie there. OK, perhaps they had nothing for me in terms of a pill, but a few comforting words might have helped.

I had doubled over on the train, nauseous, unable to walk because of the intense pain, and this was the care I got. Hours later, I would be put on another train to go home alone after they gave me aspirin.

It wouldn’t be the first time the pain had incapacitated me, nor the only time I couldn’t go to work that day because of it. I’d suffer with it despite many visits to various physicians and medical centers. One famous NYC gynecologist insisted she’d only prescribe birth control pills to control the pain — didn’t help, but she refused anything else.

The situation in the professional literature is summed up as follows:

Primary dysmenorrhea, or painful menstruation in the absence of pelvic pathology, is a common, and often debilitating, gynecological condition that affects between 45 and 95% of menstruating women. Despite the high prevalence, dysmenorrhea is often poorly treated, and even disregarded, by health professionals, pain researchers, and the women themselves, who may accept it as a normal part of the menstrual cycle.

Yes, I’ve even had to depend on the kindness of strangers. Once, while at work, the pain and lowering of my blood pressure struck, and I had to go home via subway that time. Of course, to get to my home in my mother’s house, I’d have to change trains, and that was where a kindly Black woman came to my aid.

She saw how I looked and that I couldn’t possibly walk up the two flights of stairs to the next train, so she called my mother and asked her to come to get me. “I’ll stay with you until your mother arrives,” she said, and we sat on a bench together. We didn’t speak but knowing she was there provided more comfort than I had ever received while in this state. My mother came, and the woman left with a wish for me to feel better. I will never forget her.

After the unsatisfying appointment with the NYC OB/GYN (featured in Cosmo, BTW), I tried a major NYC medical center. The physician there told me he would be “your doctor now” and proceeded to put me into a clinical trial and “treat” me with a diuretic medication that lowered my potassium levels. Do you know what that does? It does nothing for menstrual pain, but it brings on a host of other problems instead. I stopped going back to him.

My next venture was to a physician (I can’t remember how I got his name), and he prescribed what turned out to be an addictive, highly effective medication that stopped the pain but increased my activity levels 100-fold and had me sweating profusely. It worked, and I was determined to stick with it until it was taken off the market because of its addictive qualities. Sorry, I can’t remember its name. I know a major NYC corporation’s onsite medical office regularly gave it to female employees.

Years later, I would be told how an aunt of mine had similar pain, and while taking her home, my mother met her future husband, who gave the two women a lift home. Yes, it ran in the family.

Still more years later, I discovered we have a genetic anomaly that may cause the pain as well as migraine, depression, miscarriage and a variety of other ailments. But, a researcher told me I shouldn’t worry because there’s a town in Australia where “half of the population has that genetic signature.” Oh, so comforting to know.

Menstrual Pain Known Causes

The evidence is there that women suffer, and there’s a paucity of research on why they suffer from this pain. But the literature has suggested several areas where some research has shown promise as to its roots in their research. Results of this work’s applicability to most women may be sadly limited.

After ruling out physical problems in adolescent females, such as endometriosis, fibroid tumors or underlying pathology, dysmenorrhea is often treated with NSAIDs, hormonal therapy, lifestyle changes and perhaps complementary medicine. The complementary medicines that are most usually recommended are peppermint, cinnamon, ginger and other herbs and supplements.

If endometriosis is a potential cause of the pain, referral to a gynecologist is recommended. The article, however, has an important caveat that indicates the etiology of primary dysmenorrhea is not completely understood…

The presence of a specific genetic configuration was found to be involved in a sample of women who experienced menstrual pain. Those with this genetic component were three times more likely to have pain than those who did not have the genetic condition. Not only did the condition cause pain, it had major implications for education and careers because of the lost days in school and work as a result of pain.

An investigation of a plethora of 566 articles on menstrual pain found that childhood adversity played a role. Sexual abuse and posttraumatic stress disorder appeared to be associated with dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain, and dyspareunia, but it was unclear whether this relationship was mediated by poorer mental health.

Now, those researchers brought in the factor of mental health. Are they intimating that the females had mental health issues that brought on their pain? Is this more “unconscious conflict” possibly about being female? Sounds like a throwback to me.

We are reminded, however, of the paucity of research (as noted in the ResearchGate investigation) on the subject and question the potential skewing of the pool of subjects for the studies. How many of those studies included a genetic component?

Another study looked at postural stability and menstrual pain. Did women who had this pain have difficulties in this area? It seems they concluded they did, but how would that account for the pain? More research needed and they recommended preventive rehabilitation strategies can be given to improve postural stability. Suppose they had included a genetic evaluation and didn’t concentrate solely on postural stability? Would they have come to a different conclusion?

The jury is still out on this one and there is no question that women deserve better information to provide relief that will benefit every area of their lives.

The post Women Suffer Because of Medical Misinformation About Debilitating Menstrual Pain appeared first on Medika Life.

During that time, I suffered from painful primary dysmenorrhea (menstrual cramps without other underlying diseases). It was especially bad on the first day of menstruation. Without a pain reliever and heating pad, I would have been rendered debilitated in a fetal position and unable to carry out most of the daily activities.

In recent years, I made an effort to live a healthier life. Besides sleeping more and eating more balanced meals, I also started exercising again. I started small, with short jogs a few times a week, and worked up to additional full-body exercise sessions accompanying longer runs most days of the week. Since I started exercising, within 1 month or two, I started noticing various improvements, such as improved energy level, better concentration, better mood. On top of all that, I also noticed that my dysmenorrhea symptom has become so minor that it was barely noticeable at all.

Pleasantly surprised and curious, I did some reading on published research in this space to see if exercising can really significantly alleviate menstrual cramps or I have simply ‘outlived’ my dysmenorrhea. Below, I will share my findings with you.

Menstrual Cramp is very common, and most who suffer from it suffer severe pain.

What struck me first was how common primary dysmenorrhea (menstrual cramp) is among women. Usually starting anywhere from 1–2 years to 6–12 months after the first period and remaining until around 40 years of age, this issue is affecting close to 80% of women worldwide, and about 60% of women have severely painful dysmenorrhea¹²-¹³.

This means, if you are currently suffering from a painful menstrual cramp, about 2.3 billion women worldwide are suffering along with you¹⁴.

There are treatments for it that are well studied.

NSAID (such as Asprin, Advil, ibuprofen, Pamprin, etc.) and oral contraception are two well-studied treatments that have shown significant pain reduction in most women¹². Most of the NSAIDs that were studied and are effective can be found over the counter. The downside of NSAID is that it does not have a preventative effect. Although it provides a significant pain reduction, NSAID does not always decrease the pain to an extent that normal daily activities can carry on uninterrupted. Additionally, the common side effects that come with the medication are applicable. Oral contraception on the other hand are prescription medications, so you will only be able to acquire them with your doctor’s prescription. Since it is hormonal-based contraception with side effects, not everyone sees it as the best option.

Neither are good options for you or looking for an alternative way to manage the menstrual cramps? Maybe give exercise a try!

Many studies currently have been published in this space. When there are a few studies that did not show a clear effect, the vast majority of the studies’ results showed significant positive effects of exercise on period pain reduction¹.

What else do you need to know about exercise as a treatment for menstrual cramps?

1. You don’t have to limit yourself to a single form of exercise. The methods of studied exercise are diverse, and the ones that have shown positive effects include stretching, isometric exercises, yoga, running, and other aerobic exercise¹-¹¹.
2. You may have to keep up the exercise for 8 weeks to see significant results. Several studies have shown that when it is possible to show a significant effect in 4 weeks, starting from 8 weeks and on is when additional improvements start to show²-³ ⁸ ¹¹. Therefore, if you are giving the exercise a try, try doing it consistently for 8 weeks.
3. You may not need to spend a lot of time exercising each time. When the duration of the exercise regime being studies varies from 10–40 minutes, most studies that have shown significant improvement have employed 30 minutes sessions with a frequency of 3 times a week⁷.
4. The lightest exercise regime studied and shown effect involves pelvic stretching for 10 minutes, 3 times a week⁹.
5. If it is not comfortable to exercise during the period, you can choose to only exercise during the luteal phase (the time before your period)⁴ ⁶.

Other things to consider or to rule out

Secondary dysmenorrhea can also manifest as painful periods, but the cause is different from that of primary dysmenorrhea. If you suspect that you may have secondary dysmenorrhea, it would be important to get it properly diagnosed and treated.

Some points to consider are the onset timing of the dysmenorrhea, pelvic abnormality, infertility, heavy or irregular cycles, or the pain has little to no response to NSAID or oral contraceptive medications¹². If you are in doubt, it would be important to consult with your physician.

Other methods have been studied and shown some effects as well, such as massage, aromatherapy, TENs units, herbal remedies, etc.

1.Carroquino-Garcia, P., Jiménez-Rejano, J. J., Medrano-Sanchez, E., De La Casa-Almeida, M., Diaz-Mohedo, E., & Suarez-Serrano, C. (2019). Therapeutic Exercise in the Treatment of Primary Dysmenorrhea: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Physical Therapy, 99(10), 1371–1380. https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/pzz101

2. Samy A, Zaki SS, Metwally AA, Mahmoud DSE, Elzahaby IM, Amin AH, Eissa AI, Abbas AM, Hussein AH, Talaat B, Ali AS. The Effect of Zumba Exercise on Reducing Menstrual Pain in Young Women with Primary Dysmenorrhea: A Randomized Controlled Trial. J Pediatr Adolesc Gynecol. 2019 Oct;32(5):541–545. doi: 10.1016/j.jpag.2019.06.001. Epub 2019 Jun 11. PMID: 31195099.

3. Kannan P, Chapple CM, Miller D, Claydon-Mueller L, Baxter GD. Effectiveness of a treadmill-based aerobic exercise intervention on pain, daily functioning, and quality of life in women with primary dysmenorrhea: A randomized controlled trial. Contemp Clin Trials. 2019 Jun;81:80–86. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2019.05.004. Epub 2019 May 7. PMID: 31071464.

4.Rakhshaee Z. Effect of three yoga poses (cobra, cat and fish poses) in women with primary dysmenorrhea: a randomized clinical trial. J Pediatr Adolesc Gynecol. 2011 Aug;24(4):192–6. doi: 10.1016/j.jpag.2011.01.059. Epub 2011 Apr 21. PMID: 21514190.

5. Kannan P, Claydon LS, Miller D, Chapple CM. Vigorous exercises in the management of primary dysmenorrhea: a feasibility study. Disabil Rehabil. 2015;37(15):1334–9. doi: 10.3109/09638288.2014.962108. Epub 2014 Sep 22. PMID: 25243766.

6. Yang NY, Kim SD. Effects of a Yoga Program on Menstrual Cramps and Menstrual Distress in Undergraduate Students with Primary Dysmenorrhea: A Single-Blind, Randomized Controlled Trial. J Altern Complement Med. 2016 Sep;22(9):732–8. doi: 10.1089/acm.2016.0058. Epub 2016 Jun 17. PMID: 27315239.

7. Dehnavi ZM, Jafarnejad F, Kamali Z. The Effect of aerobic exercise on primary dysmenorrhea: A clinical trial study. J Educ Health Promot. 2018 Jan 10;7:3. doi: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_79_17. PMID: 29417063; PMCID: PMC5791467.

8. Kirmizigil B, Demiralp C. Effectiveness of functional exercises on pain and sleep quality in patients with primary dysmenorrhea: a randomized clinical trial. Arch Gynecol Obstet. 2020 Jul;302(1):153–163. doi: 10.1007/s00404–020–05579–2. Epub 2020 May 15. PMID: 32415471.

9. Shirvani MA, Motahari-Tabari N, Alipour A. Use of ginger versus stretching exercises for the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea: a randomized controlled trial. J Integr Med. 2017 Jul;15(4):295–301. doi: 10.1016/S2095–4964(17)60348–0. PMID: 28659234.

10. Motahari-Tabari N, Shirvani MA, Alipour A. Comparison of the Effect of Stretching Exercises and Mefenamic Acid on the Reduction of Pain and Menstruation Characteristics in Primary Dysmenorrhea: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Oman Med J. 2017 Jan;32(1):47–53. doi: 10.5001/omj.2017.09. PMID: 28042403; PMCID: PMC5187401.

11. Mohebbi Dehnavi Z, Jafarnejad F, Sadeghi Goghary S. The effect of 8 weeks aerobic exercise on severity of physical symptoms of premenstrual syndrome: a clinical trial study. BMC Womens Health. 2018 May 31;18(1):80. doi: 10.1186/s12905–018–0565–5. PMID: 29855308; PMCID: PMC5984430.

12. Duigan, C. V. (1999). Primary Dysmenorrhea. Australian Journal of Physiotherapy, 12(2), 55–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0004-9514(14)60961-2

13. Heidarimoghadam, R., Abdolmaleki, E., Kazemi, F., Zahra Masoumi, S., Khodakarami, B., Mohammadi, Y., & Moghadam, H. R. (2019). JRHS Journal of Research in Health Sciences journal homepage The Effect of Exercise Plan Based on FITT Protocol on Primary Dysmenorrhea in Medical Students: A Clinical Trial Study. J Res Health Sci, 19(3), 456.

14. https://countrymeters.info/en/World

The post Have You Tried Exercising to Reduce Your Menstrual Pain? appeared first on Medika Life.