Pain Across the Menstrual Cycle: Considerations of Hydration

Abstract

Chronic pain – pain that persists for more than 3 months – is a global health problem and is associated with tremendous social and economic cost. Yet, current pain treatments are often ineffective, as pain is complex and influenced by numerous factors. Hypohydration was recently shown to increase ratings of pain in men, but studies in this area are limited ( n = 3). Moreover, whether hypohydration also affects pain in women has not been examined. In women, changes in the concentrations of reproductive hormones across menstrual phases may affect pain, as well as the regulation of body water. This indicates potential interactions between the menstrual phase and hypohydration on pain, but this hypothesis has yet to be tested. This review examined the literature concerning the effects of the menstrual phase and hypohydration on pain, to explore how these factors may interact to influence pain. Future research investigating the combined effects of hypohydration and menstrual phase on pain is warranted, as the findings could have important implications for the treatment of pain in women, interpretation of previous research and the design of future studies.

Changes in sex hormones and their interactions are related to pain perception between different menstrual subphases

“…In studies of the relationship between menstrual cycle subphases and pain perception in healthy females, the definition of menstrual subphase is important ( 42 ). Many studies did not verify the menstrual phase by confirming that the participants had ovulated but only simply counted days starting with the first day of menses ( 43 – 47 ); this fails to account for the wide variability in menstrual cycle duration and does not confirm that ovulation has occurred ( 16 ).…”

“…Third, the effects of hydration on pain perception have also been reported, and hydration may also be linked to changes in the phases of the menstrual cycle ( 42 , 56 , 57 ). This study mainly observed the correlation between changes in sex hormones and changes in pain threshold but not including hydration in the analysis, which is also one of the limitations of this study.…”

Contributions of Pain Interference and Affect to Patient-Reported Opioid Benefit in Chronic Pain Management

“…Further, despite adequate power for the present analyses as determined per our power analysis, our modest sample size prevented us from additionally controlling for menstrual cycle phase and hormonal factors (e.g., birth control). Given well established differences in pain and affect across the menstrual cycle, [38][39][40][41] menstrual cycle-related variability is a vital consideration for future research aimed to characterize contributors to perceived opioid benefit. Finally, the perceived opioid benefit questionnaire is not yet a validated measure; psychometric studies verifying the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of this novel measure will provide an asset to future research examining opioid benefits.…”

Quantitative changes in the microstructure of the pancreas under the influence of sublethal dehydration, subsequent readaptation and correction

“…Water is necessary for the development of life and survival [1,8,10,13,24], this is its participation in metabolism, facilitation of cellular metabolism [3,22], modulation of normal osmotic pressure, maintenance of electrolyte balance, regulation of body temperature and many others physiological processes [9,19,23]. It has been proven that both excessive and insufficient water consumption has a negative effect on the health of our body [2,11,14,26,28].…”