Effects of Kinesiotaping vs.Auricular Therapy in Primary Dysmenorrhoea.

Pharmacological treatments are not effective for all women and therefore, the objective of this study was to assess and compare the effectiveness of kinesio tape and auricular therapy to decrease pain and drug intake in women with primary dysmenorrhoea.

A randomized controlled trial was conducted. 114 university women from 18 to 30 years old were randomized to 5 groups: control, kinesio tape, placebo kinesio tape, auricular therapy and placebo auricular therapy. The study was carried out during 4 menstrual cycles of pre-treatment phase, 4 menstrual cycles of treatment phase and two follow up phases (first and third cycle after the treatments were completed). During the treatment phase, the techniques were applied during 72h in each cycle.

The primary outcome measures were: Mean pain intensity of the 3 first days of bleeding, maximum pain intensity, number of painful days and dose of drug intake measured with the Visual Analogue Scale.

Inclusion criteria

• Women between 18 and 30 years old affected by primary dysmenorrhoea grade 2 and 3 of Andersch y Milsom classification (Andersch y Milsom, 1982), to have attended gynaecologist consultation for a general revision in the last 2 years, to have menstrual pain, to have regular menstrual cycles of 21 to 38 days, to not have an intrauterine/inter-uterine) device or to be on oral contraceptive treatment.

Exclusion criteria

• To have been diagnosed with a condition that could influence menstrual pain perception, to know or have been previously treated with the techniques used in the interventions and pregnancy.