Impact of perceived menstrual pain on emotional well being on young indian women

Author : Riddhi Jain, Malvika Prajapati, Aarna Bhosale, Dr. Heenakshi Bhansali

Abstract : Dysmenorrhea commonly referred to as menstrual pain affects 50–87.8% of Indian adolescents and young women and has been associated with significant psychological distress . In Indian context, menstruation is shrouded in a 'culture of silence' and reinforced through secrecy, concealment, and isolation. Though existing literature on dysmenorrhoea talks about bidirectional relationship of menstrual pain and depression/anxiety symptoms, no study measures pain intensity and its association with emotional well-being in Indian women using an affective measure. This study aims to examine the relationship between perceived menstrual pain intensity and emotional well-being, specifically positive and negative affect in young Indian women aged 18–25 years. The hypothesis tested here is that higher pain intensity will positively correlate with Negative Affect and negatively correlate with Positive Affect (α = 0.05) which will be measured through Pearson;’s Co-relation coefficient. The scales used are NRS (Downie) for pain intensity and PANAS (David Watson, Lee Anna Clark, and Auke Tellegen)for emotional well-being. This is a cross section correlational study where participants are recruited via convenience sampling. Target sample of 80-100 participants is taken considering the requirements of the co-relation analysis. It is expected that women with higher perceived pain intensity scores will score higher on negative affect thus confirming positive relationship between pain intensity and negative affect. The main goal of this study is to understand the pain-emotion link and help create policies that favor women’s well-being and improve productivity.

Keywords : Dysmenorrhea, emotional well-being, indian women, positive and negative affect.

Conference Name : International Conference on Mental Health, Psychiatry and Psychological Wellbeing (ICMHPW-26)

Conference Place : Goa, India

Conference Date : 5th Apr 2026