# Perceived stress is associated with primary dysmenorrhea in Brazilian women: a cross-sectional study

## TL;DR

This study found that Brazilian women with primary dysmenorrhea experience higher levels of perceived stress, especially when menstrual pain is more severe.

## Contribution

The study establishes a novel association between the severity of primary dysmenorrhea and increased perceived stress in Brazilian women.

## Key findings

- Women with primary dysmenorrhea are 2.8 times more likely to report high perceived stress.
- Moderate to severe interference from dysmenorrhea increases the likelihood of reporting perceived stress by 4.8 times.
- Higher menstrual pain intensity correlates with increased stress levels in affected women.

## Abstract

to evaluate the association between perceived stress and Primary Dysmenorrhea (PD) in Brazilian women.

We used data from 2,505 participants, a prospective cohort of Brazilian women. The eligibility was restricted to women who had their last three periods and were over 18 years, the exclusion criteria was 1) women with secondary dysmenorrhea and that did not have a period. We measured stress with the Perceived Stress Scale; the interference of PD with the Dysmenorrhea Symptom Interference, and the PD with the Numerical Rating Score. This study used the chi-square test (χ²) to assess associations between perceived stress and binary logistic regression, considering odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). All statistical tests were two-tailed, with a significance level of p ≤ 0.05.

The average perceived stress score was 25.1 ± 6.6, and the average menstrual pain in the last period was 5.1 ± 2.8. Women with PD are 2.8 (95% CI 1.9 to 4.1) times more likely to have perceived stress and in women with moderate to severe interference of PD, there was 4.8 (95% CI 2.72 to 8.60) increase in the chance to report perceived stress.

Women with PD have higher rates of moderate to high stress. The higher the intensity of menstrual pain, the greater the number of Brazilian women who report mild to high stress.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-025-21804-6.