American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
ResearchGeneral gynecologyThe association of dysmenorrhea with noncyclic pelvic pain accounting for psychological factors
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
The NorthShore University HealthSystem Institutional Review Board approved all phases of this study. We obtained a waiver of written informed consent due to the anonymous nature of participation.
Data in this study were originally collected as part of the development of a self-report measure of menstrual distress. We followed the strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology (STROBE) requirements for cross-sectional studies18 and guidelines for self-report measures.19 In
Results
Seventy-one subjects met the criteria for noncyclic pelvic pain. The remaining 941 participants served as controls for the purposes of our analyses. This community-based sample was diverse with regard to socioeconomic and racial status: 55% of the subjects participating in this survey had below the median household US income ($51,413) and our cohort included 17% racial minorities. There were no significant differences in menstrual phase at the time of participation, income, or education between
Comment
Our findings indicate that menstrual pain, even after controlling for depression and anxiety, is associated with the severity of noncyclic pelvic pain. Additionally, self-reported pain complaints in other systems are associated with the magnitude of noncyclic pelvic pain. Thus, our findings provide strong support for involvement of neurophysiological end-organ dysfunction, such as dysmenorrhea, as opposed to psychological dysfunction, in noncyclical pelvic pain.
Our cross-sectional study is
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Cited by (0)
Financial support for this work was provided by the NorthShore University HealthSystem Clinical Collaborative Research Program (F.T., J.W.G.), National Institutes of Health grant K23HD054645 (F.T.).
The authors report no conflict of interest.
Reprints not available from the authors.
Cite this article as: Westling AM, Tu FF, Griffith JW, et al. The association of dysmenorrhea with noncyclic pelvic pain accounting for psychological factors. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2013;209:422.e1-10.