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| hypochondriacs or unable to tolerate normal pain. Now there is recognition that painful periods can be a serious and debilitating condition. Pain can be extremely severe, preventing women from going about the normal routine of life. Women have had to leave work or school, lie down for a day or more at a time and often find little relief from painkillers. The pain is in the lower abdomen and may be accompanied by pain in the lower back as well. At times there will be changes in bowel movement associated with the pain. It is not uncommon for constipation to accompany the early pain and diarrhea to accompany the onset of the period or the relief of pain. |
| In some cases the cause of the pain may be a structural problem such as uterine fibroids or endometrial hyperplasia. Another common cause of painful periods is endometriosis. In these cases, the structural problems themselves may be causing the pain. |
| In cases where there is no obvious structural problem, the pain may be the result of abnormal prostaglandin production. Prostaglandins control many body mechanisms including those having to do with pain and inflammation. Prostaglandins are active substances produced in the body when the need arises because of mechanisms that are not yet entirely understood. Fatty acids biochemically break down into several different prostaglandins, as stated earlier. Some of these increase the sensation of pain in the brain and are responsible for initiating the body's inflammatory response to injury. Inflammation will result in pain and swelling in the area of the body affected. Others moderate those effects by lowering pain and curtailing the inflammatory process. |
| The kinds of fatty acids consumed in the diet generally determine which kinds of prostaglandins will |
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