Women have a period monthly prior to menopause and especially 80% of women have menstrual cramps.

Do we take it naturally as a monthly event? No. Menstrual cramps – even painkillers do not effective, means a red light that your uterus is not healthy.

Let’s find out the characteristics of menstrual cramps and how to improve in our daily life.

■ 80% of women having ‘menstrual cramps’

Menstrual cramps are subjective and it taxes women. It’s hard to make precise figure, about 80% of women have period cramps and 40~50% among them have troubles in their daily life due to serious pain.

The ratio of cramp appearance is higher in Western countries than Eastern countries and the reason is that western people eat more instant food and meat containing omega 6 which increases vasopressin and prostaglandin known as pain-causing substances. Menstrual pain is divided into primary and secondary. Primary menstrual pain occurs between 6 months to a year in first period at the earliest.

Menstrual cramps are divided into primary and secondary. Primary menstrual cramps happened during period and most cases of cramps are included. Primary menstrual cramps occur between 6 months to 1 year at the beginning.

Primary menstrual cramps are generated following process. During the period, pain trigger such as Prostaglandin, Vasopressin, Leukotriene is generated in the endometrium. These substances make a uterus’ blood flow decrease and cause pain to contract the uterus. Primary menstrual cramps mostly appear to teenage girls and young women but also to late forties.

■ Secondary menstrual cramps can be related to health problem such as endometriosis

Secondary menstrual cramps are caused by surrounding cell’s health problem of uterus and pelvis and especially endometriosis and adenomyosis uteri are main cause of secondary menstrual cramps. Endometrium is normally emitted outside during the period but

Endometriosis means that endometrium spread surrounding the uterus through the fallopian tubes. Endometrium penetrates uterus muscle and cause infection.

Also, other abnormal symptoms can also affect to period cramps such as uterine myoma, pelvis inflammation, blockage of uterus entrance and uterine malformation. Adenomyosis is a symptom that a uterus gets bigger by endometrium cells and it causes excessive menstruation and menstrual cramps.

Intrauterine contraceptive device can affect menstrual cramps and copper component used in making it can cause inflammation.

■ Risk of sterility when neglecting a menstrual cramp

If you neglect a menstrual cramp not improving can aggravate the problem related to uterus. It can lead to sterility and other disease. If the menstrual cramps do not get better or if the painkiller’s dosage increases, you should carefully think whether it’s secondary cramps or not. And you’d better to take tests such as ultrasound and endoscopy to find clear cause. If you want to decrease menstrual cramps, making the healthy lifestyle is the most important factor, especially relieving stress. Stress affects to female hormone and make the cramps worsen. If you can manage the stress well, you can reduce the primary menstrual cramps.