EVALUATION OF ENDOCRINE THERAPY IN PRIMARY DYSMENORRHEA

Abstract

This paper concerns that type of painful menstruation known as primary dysmenorrhea, for which there seems to be no adequate explanation. The clinical picture is well known. It is characterized by spasmodic pains beginning from thirty-six to forty-eight hours prior to or with the onset of the flow and subsiding during the first twenty-four hours of menstruation. Nausea and vomiting often accompany the attack. The very nature of the pain suggests its uterine origin. Such colic may arise from either heightened uterine contractions or painful spasm of the cervical sphincter. Evidence that both mechanisms may play a rôle has appeared recently in the literature. However, if uterine colic per se is the cause of the pain, the primary cause of the disorder is still hypothetical. Some of the theoretical explanations are plausible, yet not one has attained universal acceptance, because of insufficient proof. The manifold forms of treatment that have