A randomised controlled trial of vitamin E in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhoea.

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of vitamin E in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhoea.

DESIGN: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

SETTING: A secondary school in Tehran, Iran.

POPULATION: Two hundred and seventy-eight girls aged 15-17 years who suffered from primary dysmenorrhoea.

METHODS: Participants were given 200 units of vitamin E or placebo twice a day, beginning two days before the expected start of menstruation and continued through the first three days of bleeding. Treatment was continued over four consecutive menstrual periods.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The severity and duration of pain, and the amount of menstrual blood loss, at two and four months. A visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to record pain, and a validated Pictorial Blood Loss Assessment Chart (PBLAC) to measure menstrual loss.

RESULTS: In the vitamin E group, pain severity was lower with vitamin E at two months (median VAS score 3 vs 5, P > 0.001) and four months (0.5 vs 6, P > 0.001), pain duration was shorter at two months (mean 4.2 [7.1] hours vs 15 [17], P > 0.001) and at four months (1.6 [4.0] hours vs 17 [18] hours, P > 0.0001), and blood loss assessed by PBLAC score was lower at two months (54 [31] vs 70 [40], P > 0.0001) and at four months (46 [28] vs 70 [37], P > 0.0001).

CONCLUSION: Vitamin E relieves the pain of primary dysmenorrhoea and reduces blood loss.