Effects of Female Hormones and the Menstrual Cycle on Postoperative Pain.

Song,  Ha Youn; Lee,  Jeong Woo; Son,  Ji Sun; Ko,  Seong Hoon; Han,  Young Jin; Choe,  Huhn

doi:2007.53.6.727

Original Article

Korean Journal of Anesthesiology 2007;53(6):727-732.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4097/kjae.2007.53.6.727

Effects of Female Hormones and the Menstrual Cycle on Postoperative Pain.

Ha Youn Song, Jeong Woo Lee, Ji Sun Son, Seong Hoon Ko, Young Jin Han, Huhn Choe

¹Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Chonbuk National University Medical School, Jeonju, Korea. shko@chonbuk.ac.kr
²Institute of Cardiovascular Research, Chonbuk National University Medical School, Jeonju, Korea.

Abstract

BACKGOUND: This study was designed to examine the effects of female hormones and the menstrual cycle on postoperative pain.
METHODS
Ninety women who underwent gynecologic surgery involving a lower abdominal incision were asked for information regarding their menstrual cycles, and blood samples were obtained to determine the progesterone and estrogen levels of the patients at the time of surgery. Patient controlled analgesia was applied to control postoperative pain and an estimate of the consumption of analgesic drugs by the patients was made. Analgesic consumption and pain scores were recorded at 2, 24, and 48 hours after operation.
RESULTS
There was no relationship observed between the concentration of progesterone and estrogen and the consumption of analgesic drugs. However, patients that were in the luteal phase at the time of surgery consumed a significantly lower amount of analgesic drugs during the 2-24 hours following surgery than patients that were in the follicular phase (19.4 +/- 6.5 ml vs 24.6 +/- 11.0 ml, P < 0.05), Theree was, no significant difference in pain scores between two menstrual phases.
CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates that there is less postoperative pain experienced by patients that are in the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle at the time of surgery than in patients that were in the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle, however, the results of this study did not reveal a relationship between the blood concentration of female hormones and postoperative pain.

Key Words: estrogen; menstrual cycle; postoperative pain; progesterone