When a girl goes through puberty, she faces changes both big and small in her life, making it a challenging time. One of the biggest changes is the start of menstruation, which brings on regular periods that can take some getting used to.
If period pain is part of the picture — and it is for between 70% and 90% of girls under the age of 24 — the transition into womanhood can be even bumpier. Making matters worse, one-third of girls who report period pain have significant pain, and 20% to 30% regularly miss school.
Given this landscape, the skilled team of all-female women’s healthcare providers at Beyond Women’s Care thought it would be a good idea to discuss painful periods in adolescent girls.
It’s hard to qualify what we consider painful, as people perceive pain differently. If the pain is new, it can be felt more acutely since it’s foreign. What this means is that teenage girls can be caught off guard by painful cramps, which can feel a lot worse than they really are.
We bring this point up because it’s important to let girls experience a few periods before evaluating whether they’re problematic.
In most cases, painful periods in teens are caused by primary dysmenorrhea, which means that the cramping is abnormally uncomfortable thanks to high levels of the hormone prostaglandin, which controls the contractions in the uterus.
Less commonly, painful periods in teens are secondary, which means they’re a result of other gynecologic conditions, such as endometriosis. Bear in mind, though, that gynecologic conditions like endometriosis take time to build and are rarely symptomatic in teens.
While we talk about painful periods, and that is the symptom that girls feel the most, other symptoms can arise from primary dysmenorrhea, including:
So, if your teen complains of painful periods, it’s a good idea to ask about other symptoms, too.
If your teen is in pain every month and her school and social lives are being negatively affected, we want you to see us. We know that teens can feel embarrassed about their periods, at first, and they might not know how to talk about them, which is where we come in.
Our team is well-versed in treating adolescents, and we can talk them through their menstruation and periods to determine whether there’s a problem.
Based on what we learn, we can perform further tests to rule out other issues. If we find that your teen has primary dysmenorrhea, there’s good news and bad — the condition will likely last throughout her reproductive years, but the pain tends to peak during adolescence and drops off in adulthood.
In the meantime, we can review strategies that can better manage the period pain each month so that your teen isn’t completely sidelined.
If we find that her painful periods are due to another issue, the good news is that we can treat that problem to relieve her pain.
The bottom line is that period pain in teenage girls is common, and it shouldn't be ignored. By coming to see us for this problem, we can not only help her get more comfortable, but we can also better educate her about her menstrual cycles.
To set up a consultation with one of our adolescent health specialists, we invite you to call our Rochester Hills, Michigan, office at 248-284-4859 or contact us through our website to schedule an appointment.
