Melbourne, Nov 18 (IANS): Women who take up smoking during their teenage years run a significantly heightened risk of developing chronic severe period pain, finds new research.

Starting smoking by age of 13 may have the greatest impact, the findings showed.

“Smoking and early initiation of smoking are associated with increased risk of chronic dysmenorrhoea (painful periods),” said one of the study authors Hong Ju from University of Queensland in Australia.

Cigarette smoking is known to constrict arterial blood flow, which could potentially cause pain.

“Alternatively, it might have a direct effect on the hormones involved in menstruation, which may be particularly important before the onset of puberty and regular monthly periods,” the study authros noted.

The researchers studied a large population sample of 9,000 women, all of whom were taking part in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, from 1996 onwards.

In 2000, when the women were aged between 22 and 27, over half (59 percent) were non-smokers and around one in four (26 percent) were current smokers.

One in four women said they regularly experienced period pain every month. The prevalence of period pain was slightly higher in current smokers than in non-smokers.

Some 14 percent of the women were categorised as the 'chronic' group, defined as a high prevalence of period pain of between 70 percent and 80 percent throughout the monitoring period.

Compared with women who had never smoked, current smokers who had started smoking by the age of 13 were 60 percent more likely to fall into the chronic group.

The study appeared online in the journal Tobacco Control.