The debilitating effects of menstrual pain in adolescent girls and how schools can respond — EducationHQ

Analysis of a long-term Australian study of menstrual pain and its effect on the regular activities of 1,600 adolescent girls found that around a third of 14-year-olds experienced severe menstrual pain – defined as “very painful » or “quite painful”. – while about half of girls aged 16 to 18 have experienced it.

The researchers also found that experiencing this level of period pain was linked to girls missing more activities, including school, work, social activities, sports and exercise.

Additionally, teens with painful periods were three to five times more likely than those who didn't or had “a little” pain to miss school or college.

Co-author of the Deakin University study, Dr Marilla Druitt, says the statistics only confirm what she and her colleagues in the reproductive health sector have long discovered in their own experience.

“This is what we see all the time, we know it, but unless it's documented in a newspaper, it's really difficult to lobby and change policies in this area,” she says. EducationHQ.

“It’s a thing, it’s probably been around for millennia. This is not a new problem.

Druitt is an obstetrician-gynecologist specializing in pelvic pain at Geelong Hospital and, for much of her career, has practiced and studied the treatment of pain and ways to prevent it.

She believes that better understanding, acceptance and earlier recognition of reproductive pain would have many beneficial outcomes.

“When you go through gynecology training, it's part of the normal training: figuring out what to do for children and adolescents,” she says.

“It has always interested me, but after doing my laparoscopic training for endometriosis surgery in Monash about 12 to 14 years ago, it was clear that so many people were not improving after treatment for their “endo”, and that’s when I became more and more interested in pain.

She says she now cares for countless people with persistent pain.

“And because it's a real tsunami of people, then you wonder, 'well, how did we get here?' “, she explains.

The study concluded that recognition of menstrual pain in adolescent girls is important not only to improve girls' immediate quality of life with appropriate support and interventions, but also as part of early detection of chronic health conditions such as endometriosis.

Highlighting the prevalence of these experiences is also key to reducing the stigma of female pain, as well as raising awareness among healthcare professionals of its frequency.

“Simply put, if we can help teens get treatment faster, I won't have as many people in my pain clinic,” Druitt says.

The Deakin University researcher says that, unsurprisingly, parents fear what happened to them will happen to their daughters.

“A lot of 12- to 13-year-olds have bad periods and their mothers are worried because they had endometriosis and it took them up to 20 years to get better,” Druitt says.

But while it's clear that parents are aware of the problem, schools have been slower to adopt it.

In the past, they've been what Druitt calls “pretty desperate” to solve this problem, but most are now “pretty good.”

“But it depends on each school: do they have a nurse? Do they have the PPEP Talk program or not? ” she asks.

The PPE Talk Druitt refers to is provided by the Pelvic Pain Foundation of Australia. This is a fun, medically accurate, age-appropriate information session that incorporates modern pain neuroscience.

This is beneficial for all students, but particularly for the many girls suffering from severe menstrual pain, and most importantly, to help them know when they need to see a doctor.

Druitt is a big fan of the national initiative.

“It's a fantastic school education program for children of all genders in Year 10 that we're desperately trying to get into Victoria, because it's really good,” Druitt says.

“I would like all schools to hold PEP conferences every year for years 10, 11 and 12.”

The specialist explains that for many years, schools have seen different people giving different lectures.

“I think it works a lot better when you have a high-quality product and they come into your school, rather than relying on people in the school to do, you know, 50,000 tasks, which the Teachers are always asked, in addition to being expected to provide education on pain and menstruation.

Although the Victorian Government has not yet agreed to fund the PEP rollout in the state, it is already making waves in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia due to its effectiveness .

Fortunately, she says health literacy, especially reproductive health, is improving significantly.

“Being able to talk about the periods in the media, all these broader societal changes absolutely helps people deal with the problem, because if all sectors are aware of an issue, then you can call it out and understand it better,” says- She.

Ideally, Druitt would like to see well-trained nurses in all schools to deal with menstrual issues.

“That would be amazing,” she said.

“It would also be amazing if all schools had a standardized curriculum where we proactively asked the children in the school about their problems, rather than waiting for them to tell us, because many of them They think it (the pain) is normal, so they don't complain.

She said her research also found that pain in many cases precedes mental discomfort.

“So if you can start treating the pain early, you won't get a little depressed, a little anxious, get a little fat, stop playing sports, withdraw from activities, and your mental health will deteriorate,” she says.

“So we might have another way to help kids stay healthy.”

One thing that is certain, the expert says, is that we can't count on health professionals to change, because there are a plethora of systemic barriers to changing what they do.

“Education is key,” she says.

“Scandinavia did it. They did it really well. They succeed with all health matters. They changed their entire sexual well-being, their STIs, their attitude towards contraception… They did it in a generation, almost.

“You can't go to the milk bar in Norway without being measured – they have very good data – but they wanted it too, and I think there's a real appetite in Australia right now to improve things. So it's very exciting.

• For more information on integrating PPEP Talk into your school, click here.
• The Victoria Pelvic Pain Symposium will take place on November 16-17 this year. Click here for more details.