PMS Is a Pain > Endeavors, Spring 2000

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PMDD

Newsmakers:
PMS Is a Pain
by Angela Spivey

Jokes aside, the mood swings and anxiety of PMS are well known. But for some women, premenstrual syndrome actually makes life more painful. A recent study showed that women who suffered from a severe form of the disorder were more sensitive to pain and more likely to have lower blood levels of beta-endorphins, the body’s pain-killing hormones.

The study compared 27 women diagnosed with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) with 27 control subjects without the disorder. PMDD affects 5 to 10 percent of women in their child-bearing years. Among its symptoms are severe depression, irritability, and anxiety during the second half of the menstrual cycle. Physical pain is also a major part of PMDD.

Researchers determined beta-endorphin levels using blood samples taken before and during pain testing. Pain sensitivity was measured by inflating a blood pressure cuff on the subject’s arm while she opened and closed her fist. This caused arm pain by restricting blood flow. Researchers assessed the time it took for pain to begin and how long subjects could tolerate it.

Women with PMDD had significantly lower pain thresholds and shorter tolerance times than the control subjects. Their beta-endorphin levels were also significantly lower, both during rest and during pain testing. These differences occurred throughout the entire menstrual cycle—not just in the three to seven days before menstruation, as one preliminary study had suggested.

“These and other findings lead us to reconceptualize PMDD as a disorder with a biological basis that lasts across the menstrual cycle and not just something that occurs in the very late phase,” says Patricia A. Straneva, study coauthor and a doctoral student in psychology. The study was led by Susan S. Girdler, assistant professor of psychiatry.

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