One review on the latest etiology research progress of primary dysmenorrhea

Abstract

Primary dysmenorrhea (PDM) is the painful menses with spasmodic cramping in the lower abdomen in the absence of any discernable macroscopic pelvic pathology. The prevalence of dysmenorrhea changes between 16% and 91% in women. About 2%-29% of the women studied suffer from severe pain. This review focuses on the current knowledge, particularly with regard to the latest research on the etiology of PDM. Full-text manuscripts on PDM were searched on PubMed and Google Scholar. One or more of the following search terms were used to obtain articles published: PDM, pain, functional magnetic resonance imaging, brain image, etiology, epidemiology, metabolism, hormone, gene variation, and quality of life. In this review, we detailed four potential etiology aspects of PDM: brain abnormality, gene expression, metabolism, and hyperalgesia. We highlighted the latest brain research on PDM patients and investigated genetic aspects. We are dedicated to identifying more metabolic variations and expand the previous knowledge on the sensitive pain threshold.