Impact of pregnancy on primary dysmenorrhea.
OBJECTIVE
Because it has been observed that dysmenorrhea can improve after childbirth, this investigation was intended to quantify the impact of both gestational length and mode of delivery on primary dysmenorrhea.


METHODS
This is an 8-year prospective observational study. Patients with a history of dysmenorrhea who later gave birth were evaluated for improvement on the severity of dysmenorrhea, with use of visual analogue scale (VAS), and Likert-type scale.


RESULTS
Final analysis involved 3694 patients. Women who had spontaneous delivery would have significantly more improvement than women with cesarean delivery per VAS (term delivery, 51 vs. 33, P<0.001; preterm delivery, 17 vs. 10, P<0.001). For first delivery, patients in the spontaneous delivery subgroup were the most likely to have improvement in severity of dysmenorrhea. For second delivery, only patients in the spontaneous delivery subgroup had statistically significant improvement.


CONCLUSIONS
Both length of gestation and mode of delivery have an impact on primary dysmenorrhea. The most significant improvement occurred after the first delivery.
Juang
Chi-Mou
CM
Division of General Gynecology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan. cmjuang@yahoo.com.tw
Yen
Ming-Shien
MS
Twu
Nae-Fong
NF
Horng
Huann-Cheng
HC
Yu
Hung-Chuan
HC
Chen
Chih-Yao
CY
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002585:Cesarean Section / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D036861:Delivery, Obstetric / Q000379:methods*; D004412:Dysmenorrhea / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008423:Maternal Age; D007752:Obstetric Labor, Premature; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010298:Parity; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000502:physiology*; D047928:Premature Birth; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D011788:Quality of Life; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index