Is dysmenorrhea a disease?

Menstruation is a normal physiological phenomenon for women. Since everyone's physical condition is different, the symptoms during menstruation are also different. Some women have severe abdominal pain during menstruation, while some women only have mild pain, which is usually tolerable. In fact, there are many reasons for women to have dysmenorrhea, but is dysmenorrhea a disease?

Is dysmenorrhea a disease?

Whether dysmenorrhea is a disease needs to be decided based on the actual situation. Not all dysmenorrhea in women is caused by disease. Sometimes it is just simple pain.

Dysmenorrhea may be a sign of abnormal health.

1. Chronic pelvic inflammatory disease

Because pelvic inflammatory disease involves all internal parts of the reproductive organs, including inflammation of the uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries. Inflammation can be confined to one area or occur in several areas simultaneously. Therefore, the range of dysmenorrhea caused by chronic pelvic inflammatory disease is wide.

Dysmenorrhea caused by chronic pelvic inflammatory disease is mainly manifested by persistent pain in the bilateral upper abdomen, which may radiate to the waist, and is sometimes accompanied by a feeling of heaviness and distension in the anus. In addition to aggravated abdominal pain during menstruation, clinical manifestations may also be aggravated by fatigue, sexual intercourse or bowel movements, and may be accompanied by symptoms such as frequent urination, excessive and yellow leucorrhea or abnormal menstruation and infertility. Sometimes there is low fever and fatigue. Some patients develop clinical manifestations of neurasthenia due to the long course of the disease, such as insomnia, lack of energy, and general discomfort.

2. Pelvic congestion syndrome

Pelvic congestion syndrome is also an important factor leading to dysmenorrhea. The main manifestations are widespread chronic stasis dysmenorrhea, with symptoms such as lower abdominal pain, low back pain, sexual discomfort, extreme fatigue and premenstrual breast pain. The pain often worsens a few days before menstruation and eases on the first or second day after menstruation. There are also a few cases of persistent pain. The pain often worsens after the patient has stood for a period of time, runs, jumps, or sits down suddenly, and after sexual intercourse, and is more severe in the afternoon than in the morning. Deep dyspareunia is a common yet unspeakable symptom.

3. Adenomyosis

The uterine wall is divided into three layers from the inside to the outside: the innermost layer is the mucosal tissue, namely the endometrium, and the periodic shedding and bleeding of the endometrium forms menstruation; the middle layer is a thick muscle layer, and the outermost layer is the serous layer. For some reason, endometrial tissue enters the uterine muscle layer and "takes root and grows", which will cause adenomyosis. The endometrial tissue that enters the myometrium will also grow and shed periodically under the action of estrogen, forming "menstruation". However, if menstrual blood cannot be discharged from the body in the myometrium, it will accumulate in the basal layer of the uterus, causing pain and enlargement of the uterus.

The peak incidence period of adenomyosis is between 30 and 40 years old. Women with no history of dysmenorrhea should be alert if they suddenly experience gradually worsening secondary dysmenorrhea at this age, accompanied by increased menstrual volume.

4. Endometriosis

The most typical symptom of endometriosis is dysmenorrhea. The pain is mostly located in the lower abdomen and lumbosacral region, and sometimes spreads to the anus or thighs. In severe cases, patients will experience nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, and need to rest in bed or take pain relievers to relieve the pain.

In addition to cyclical pain that is closely related to the menstrual cycle, you should also pay attention to whether the dysmenorrhea is progressively worsening, whether there is pain during sexual intercourse, pulling pain, pain during defecation, and rectal bleeding during menstruation. These symptoms are caused by the different locations of the endometrium and present different manifestations.