Stressful Parental-Bonding Exaggerates the Functional and Emotional Disturbances of Primary Dysmenorrhea.

BACKGROUND

Some evidence suggests that women with primary dysmenorrhea (or painful period) often have traumatic experience with parental attachments, but the exact relationship is still unclear.

PURPOSE

This study aims to investigate associations between styles of the parental bonding and the detailed aspects of the disorder in Chinese university-student women.

METHODS

From university-student women, we have invited 50 primary dysmenorrhea patients and 111 healthy volunteers, to undergo tests of the Functional and Emotional Measure of Dysmenorrhea (FEMD), the Family Relationship Questionnaire (FRQ), and the visual analogue scale for the pain intensity experienced.

RESULTS

Besides the high scores of the FEMD Functional and Emotional scales, the dysmenorrhea patients also scored significantly higher than the healthy controls on the FRQ scales of Paternal Dominance and Maternal Abuse. In patients, the FEMD Emotional scale was negatively predicted by the Paternal Freedom Release scale, and the FEMD Functional scale was positively predicted by the Maternal Dominance scale.

CONCLUSIONS

Inappropriate parental bonding or chronic traumatic attachment styles have respective relationships with the functional and emotional disturbances experienced by the primary dysmenorrhea patients.