14 DAY TRIAL // A new study carried out by the Institute of Brain Science, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan and published in Pain, says that primary dysmenorrhea (PDM) more commonly known as menstrual cramps, may alter brain structure.
The research was carried out on 32 PDM patient and 32 control individuals, age and menstrual cycle matched.
When PDM patients did not experience pain, they had an MRI scan and maps of their gray matter (GM) were traced, allowing the monitoring of the total GM volume, as well as the gray matter volume of certain brain areas for both PDM patients and controls.
These precise mappings revealed important GM volume changes in PDM patients, like abnormal decreases in regions involved in pain transmission, in higher level sensory processing and affect regulation and increases in regions that modulates pain and endocrine function.
PDM is very common in women of childbearing age, but it is rather problematic as the onset of menstrual flow triggers lower abdominal pain that can cause alterations to the nervous system.
This latest study called “Brain morphological changes associated with cyclic menstrual pain” is published in the September issue of PAIN, and reveals that whether PDM patients experience pain or not, the structure of the brain suffers abnormal changes.
Professor Jen-Chuen Hsieh, lead investigator on the study said: “Our results demonstrated that abnormal GM changes were present in PDM patients even in absence of pain [and] this shows that not only sustained pain but also cyclic occurring menstrual pain can result in longer-lasting central changes.
“Although the functional consequences remain to be established, these results indicate that the adolescent brain is vulnerable to menstrual pain.”
He adds that several studies are needed to experience hormonal interaction and fast-changing adaptation and see if these brain changes are reversible or not.
Hsieh collaborated with Cheng-Hao Tu, David M. Niddam, Hsiang-Tai Chao, Li-Fen Chen, Yong-Sheng Chen, Yu-Te Wu, Tzu-Chen Yeh and Jiing-Feng Lirng.