RoADPain Clinical Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding the Role of Adolescent Dysmenorrhoea as a risk factor for the transition to chronic Pain: Clinical Cohort Study
IRAS ID
315427
Contact name
Katy Vincent
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford, Research Governance, Ethics and Assurance
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Chronic pain ( pain that lasts for more than 3 months) is really common, affecting up to 30% of people worldwide. It is difficult to treat once it has developed. Therefore, understanding which people might be at risk of developing chronic pain and protecting them from it starting, would be a really positive step forward.
We know that women are more likely to develop chronic pain than men and this sex difference starts after puberty. One important change at puberty is periods starting. Despite periods often being very painful, period pain has traditionally been dismissed as “normal” and something girls must learn to live with.
However, in adult women with period pain we see many differences across a range of body systems when compared to women without period pain. Similar changes are also seen in other chronic pain conditions. We don’t know whether these changes are caused by repeated/continuous pain or if they are part of the reason why chronic pain develops, or a combination of both.
This project aims to see whether the differences in other body systems seen in adult women with period pain are also seen in girls with period pain in the first few years of having periods and how quickly they develop. To explore this, we will recruit a group of adolescents, with and without period pain, 1, 3 and 5 years after starting their periods; each of the six groups will aim to have 20 participants. With their agreement, we will undertake tests to understand more about their body systems and pain. All the tests we will use have been previously used in children and adolescents and do not involve significant pain. Participants will need to attend 4 times to complete these tests and they will also complete questionnaires at the beginning and end of the study.
REC name
London - Bloomsbury Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/LO/0971
Date of REC Opinion
29 Jan 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion