Heavy Periods, Period Pain, and School: A Teen Girl Cohort Study

Overview

Paper Summary › Explain Like I'm Five › Conflicts of Interest › Identified Limitations › Rating Explanation › Good to know › Topic Hierarchy › File Information ›

Paper Summary

Paperzilla title

In a longitudinal study of ~2,700 adolescent girls in England, both heavy/prolonged bleeding and menstrual pain were associated with increased school absences and lower exam scores. Heavy bleeding had a stronger association with lower attainment than pain. More research is needed to understand underlying mechanisms and potential solutions.

Explain Like I'm Five

Heavy periods and period pain are linked to more school absences and slightly lower exam scores in teen girls. More research is needed to understand why and how to help.

Possible Conflicts of Interest

None identified.

Identified Limitations

Selection bias

While linked administrative data reduced missing data for the outcomes, it also introduced selection bias, as those participants without administrative data were excluded.

Limited sample size, despite imputation

The limited sample size, even with imputation, limits the generalizability of findings and may reduce statistical power, especially for subgroup analysis.

Self-reported menstrual symptoms

Menstrual symptoms were self-reported, which can be subject to recall bias and social desirability bias, especially about sensitive topics like heavy bleeding.

Limited detail in measurement of menstrual symptoms

The study did not collect detailed data on the frequency and severity of pain and bleeding which could have important implications for school functioning.

Limited considerations of other important factors

This study doesn't fully consider the influence of social factors, access to products, support from schools, or management strategies, which may impact attendance/attainment.

Rating Explanation

This is a well-conducted longitudinal study utilizing a valuable dataset with linked administrative outcomes. The analyses were robust and addressed potential confounders. The study acknowledges limitations, strengthening its conclusions. The sample size is a bit limited, dropping to ~2,700 after exclusions, but this is a common challenge in longitudinal cohorts, and they used imputation to address some missing confounder data. The lack of more specific data on symptoms and potential interventions is a limitation but leaves room for important future work.

Good to know

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Topic Hierarchy

Domain: Health Sciences

Field: Medicine

Subfield: General Medicine

File Information

Original Title: Associations of adolescent menstrual symptoms with school absences and educational attainment: analysis of a prospective cohort study.

Uploaded: August 22, 2025 at 05:54 AM

Privacy: Public