Clinical occurrence and management of abdominal pain in adolescent girls

Introduction The objective of this retrospective study was to investigate abdominal pain and its clinical symptoms in teenage girls.

Population and method From 01.04.2008 to 30.04.2016, 250 adolescent girls between 9 to 14 years old were examined at the Department of Adolescence and Family Planning center in Democritus University in Greece. They referred that suffer from abdominal pain and analysed: age, menarche, rebound abdominal tenderness and menstrual disorders.

Results These 250 participants from group A (123 Christian and 127 Muslims) were compared with 140 adolescent girls aged 13-16 without symptoms (control group B) which underwent in first screening Pap smears. In group A, 87 % had clinical symptoms, 47 % pathological ultrasound and 1.5 % underwent surgery treatment, simple tumour resection. Abdominal pain was more often in Muslims (86.5 % vs 62.9 %, p < 0.001), in coexistence with other risk factors (77.3 % vs 52.5 %, p = 0.029), in early menarche < 12 years (64.4 % vs 32.7 %, p < 0.001), menstrual cycle abnormalities (72.6 % vs 59.6 %, p = 0.011) and in teenagers with early age (12.45 ± 1.39 vs 13.49 ± 1.28, p < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that higher risk for abdominal pain was associated with muslin religion (aOR = 10.3, 95 % C.I. = 3.9-27.0, p < 0.001, age of menarche < 12 years (aOR = 6.2, 95 % C.I. = 1.9-20.3, p = 0.002), menstrual cycle abnormalities (aOR = 4.7, 95 % C.I. = 1.5-15.2, p = 0.009), age of mother’ s menarche < 12 years (aOR = 3.2, 95 % C.I. = 1.1-9.3, p = 0.036).

Conclusions Based on our results, we identified specific symptoms of abdominal pain in adolescent girls in relation to their menarche status and abnormal menstrual cycles.

Publication History

Article published online:
07 October 2020