Medical expert of the article
New publications
Forms of pubertal dysmenorrhea
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025

All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Primary dysmenorrhea is a disease that does not have an organic cause. Secondary dysmenorrhea is usually acquired and is caused by an organic disease of the internal genital organs. If anatomical changes in the genital organs are detected in a patient suffering from primary dysmenorrhea during further observation, then a diagnosis of secondary dysmenorrhea is made.
Yu.A. Gurkin (2000) identified the following forms of dysmenorrhea:
- genital:
- primary;
- secondary.
- extragenital:
- somatic;
- psychoneurogenic.
- mixed.
V.N. Prilepskaya and E.A. Mezhevitinova (1999) propose to distinguish:
- compensated form - the severity and nature of the disease do not change over time;
- uncompensated form - characterized by an increase in pain intensity over the years.
E. Deligeoroglu et al. (1997) proposed to classify the disease according to severity:
- 0 degree - absence of pain during menstrual days that affects daily activity;
- Grade I - mild pain during menstruation, very rarely leading to decreased activity;
- Stage II - daily activity is reduced, school absences are rarely noted, since painkillers have a good effect;
- Grade III - pain syndrome is maximally pronounced, motor activity is sharply reduced, analgesics are ineffective, vegetative symptoms (headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea).