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.