Depression can increase menstrual pain

...by up to 50%, say researchers exploring the links between mental and reproductive health

Depression could be a cause rather than an effect of menstrual pain, according to a team of researchers from China and the UK, who explored links between mental and reproductive health.

The study, published in the journal Briefings in Bioinformatics, found that depression can increase the likelihood of experiencing menstrual pain by up to 50 per cent.

"We used a specialised technique called Mendelian randomisation to analyse genetic variation and identify specific genes that may mediate (explain) the effect of depression on menstrual pain," said lead author Shuhe Liu, a PhD student at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China.