Dysmenorrhea or painful menstrual cramps affect many women. I suffer from dysmenorrhea and wanted to know more. Having had very painful menstrual cramps every month since I was fifteen, I wanted to know more about their causes and what some treatments are. I have two younger sisters who may also be going through the same thing and I want to know everything I can so I can help them and myself. K-12 health classes never talked much about extremely painful periods and I think it's important to know what's normal and what's not when it comes to your period. body. Most women experience some form of cramping, but there is a difference between this and dysmenorrhea. Dysmenorrhea is a painful cramp during a woman's period. The pain is usually dull or stabbing and is located in the lower abdomen and may extend to the lower back and thighs. It is women of menstruating age who suffer from it and more than half of girls and women are affected. It's common for women and girls to experience some form of cramping during their periods, but dysmenorrhea occurs when the pain is so severe that it limits a woman's daily activities and may even require medical treatment. The pain ranges from mild to extreme and can cause discomfort that lasts for several days and interferes with activities of daily living. In the United States, approximately 48% of women experience pain so severe that it disrupts their daily lives and 18% miss one or more days of work or school (Tran & Odle, 2009). There are two types of dysmenorrhea, primary and secondary. “Primary dysmenorrhea is recurrent menstrual cramps and not due to other illnesses. Secondary dysmenorrhea is pain caused by a disorder of the female reproductive organs, such as endometriosis, adenomyosis, uterine fibrosis, or infection” (“Dysmenorrhea,” 2012). Who is affected by dysmenorrhea?