ED Medication Helps Menstrual Cramping?

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ED Medication Helps Menstrual Cramping?

– Reported December 11, 2013

(Ivanhoe Newswire) – A recent study out of Penn State College of Medicine finds that erectile dysfunction medication may help women who suffer from moderate to severe menstrual cramps.

Researchers recruited 29 women between the ages of 18-35 who suffered from moderate to severe primary dysmenorrhea (PD), the most common cause of pelvic pain in women. Twenty-five out of the 29 were randomized to receive a placebo drug, or sildenafil citrate, sold under the brand name Viagra. Patients rated their pain over four consecutive hours.

Sildenafil citrate administered vaginally alleviates acute menstrual pain with no reported side effects. Researchers hypothesized that the drug would alleviate pain, which it does, but also that is does so by increasing blood flow. However, because uterine blood flow increased from both sildenafil and the placebo, the reason it alleviates pain is not yet known.

For more information, go to: http://news.psu.edu/

SOURCE: Human Reproduction, December 2013