Lee Swanson Research Update

Vitamin E Intake Helps Ease Menstrual Pain in Teenage Girls

September 2005

vitamin E

Vitamin E may be a monthly aid for young girls who suffer pain associated with menstruation, according to a study reported in the British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted on 278 teenage girls to assess the effects of vitamin E on those with primary dysmenorrhoea (difficult and painful menstruation). The girls, 15-17 years old, were given 200 units of vitamin E or placebo twice daily, beginning two days before the expected start of menstruation and continuing through the first three days of bleeding. Treatment continued over four consecutive menstrual periods.

Researchers assessed the severity and duration of pain, and the amount of menstrual blood loss, at two and four months. In the vitamin E group, pain severity was lower with vitamin E at two months and four months. This led researchers to conclude that vitamin E may relieve the pain of primary dysmenorrhoea and reduce blood loss.

British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology 112(4):466-469, 2005

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