[Preventive treatment of primary dysmenorrhea with ibuprofen]

An open, prospective study, including 15 young women with primary dysmenorrhea was carried out to asses the prophylactic administration of Ibuprofen for the treatment of severe and disabling primary dysmenorrhea. The study lasted six months, representing a total of 90 cycles, the inclusion criteria were: 1) severe and disabling primary dysmenorrhea, 2) Failure with previous conventional treatments, 3) regular menstrual cycles, 4) without active sexual life, 5) voluntary participation. The treatment schedule included 400 mg of ibuprofen every 8 hours, starting 24 hours before the menstrual cycle during 4 days of menstruation for six consecutive cycles. The intensity of the pain was recorded every eight hours using a linear analogue scale from 0 to 10 where 0 was absence of pain and 10 was severe or disabling pain. Results showed that the mean of initial intensity of the menstrual cramp experienced in the cycle before the treatment (control) was 9.47 +/- 0.5. During the prophylactic treatment the means of initial intensity of the pain were significantly lower, between 7.84 +/- 0.37 and 7.21 +/- 0.52. A statistically significant progressive decrease of pain was recorded during the duration of treatment. After 48 hours of treatment the intensity of the pain was recorded as three (mild). We conclude that the prophylactic administration of ibuprofen is an effective treatment for selected women experiencing severe and disabling primary dysmenorrhea.