In the school health service's health survey, a third of all girls in the upper secondary school year answered that their everyday lives are affected by menstrual pain.
They miss school as well as training and other leisure activities.
- We had hoped that we would get lower numbers, but it is on par with international and national studies, says Anna Jurzyk, school doctor in Sundsvall municipality.
How serious is it?
- I think it is serious that so many state that they are hindered in their everyday lives by menstrual pain.
It affects girls' quality of life, she says.
Taboo and ignorance
Anna Jurzyk wrote a report on menstrual pain in connection with her specialist medical education.
- I focused on menstrual pain because there is still a lot of ignorance in society in general and in some cultures also a taboo around the issue that makes us not talk so much about it.
She points out that it is important to catch problems with severe menstrual pain in time.
- Some of the girls can develop the disease endometriosis, but the earlier you start treatment, the greater the possibility of stopping the development of the disease.
Normalization - "You should tolerate a little menstrual pain"
The high proportion of girls who state that they have problems motivates Anna Jurzyk in her work.
- It is a confirmation that we must continue to work actively with the issue.
What we can do is create an understanding of the problem.
Today it is so normalized - "a little menstrual pain you have to endure".