Uncovering moderators of pain perception by women with endometriosis from Latin America and Spain: the roles of sociodemographics, racial self-identity, and pain catastrophizing

Idhaliz Flores, Annelyn Torres-Reverón, Eduardo Navarro, Cristina I Nieves-Vázquez, Ariana C Cotto-Vázquez, Joanne M Alonso-Díaz, Nabal Bracero, Nabal J Bracero, Katy Vincent
Pain · 2024 · vol. 165(9) , pp. 2111–2118 · doi:10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003230 · PMID:38564184 · PMC11333178 · W4393542623
article OA: green CC0 ⤵ 1 in-corpus citation
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This study found that in women with endometriosis from Latin America and Spain, pain catastrophizing strongly predicted severe pelvic pain, while self-identified race did not, although demographic clusters showed differences in dysmenorrhea severity.

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Abstract

A cross-sectional multinational collaborative study on women with endometriosis from Latin America and Spain uncovered high levels of painful symptomatology and high pain catastrophizing scores. Associations between pain perception/catastrophizing and race/ethnicity have been documented. This study was conducted to uncover factors moderating pelvic pain severity, including socioeconomic variables, self-identified race, and pain catastrophizing in women with endometriosis from Latin America and Spain, a population encompassing diverse racial and sociocultural contexts. Self-reported data on demographics, clinical history, Ob-Gyn history, pelvic pain intensity, and pain catastrophizing were collected with the Spanish World Endometriosis Research Foundation (WERF) Endometriosis Phenome Project (EPhect) Clinical Questionnaire (ECQ). Multiple logistic regression was conducted to analyze effects of self-identified race, demographic clusters (defined as countries with similar racial population distribution), socioeconomic factors, and pain catastrophizing on reporting severe vs moderate-mild levels of dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, and pelvic pain. Self-identified race did not affect the likelihood of reporting severe pelvic pain; however, there were significant differences in reporting severe dysmenorrhea at worst among demographic clusters. Older age was associated with severe dyspareunia at worst and recent pelvic pain. Pain catastrophizing score was highly predictive of reporting most types of severe pelvic pain, regardless of race and demographic cluster. These results negate a role of racial categories as moderator of pain in women from Latin America and Spain and support integration of pain catastrophizing assessments and psychological interventions into the pain management plan to enhance therapeutic outcomes and QoL for patients with endometriosis.

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Condition tags

endometriosischronic_pelvic_paindysmenorrheadyspareunia

MeSH descriptors

Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Catastrophization Endometriosis

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (51)

Cited by (1)

SciLite annotations

organisms 2
noordeloos 2009062 homo heidelbergensis

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europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-13T17:20:28.795615+00:00
openalex
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pubmed
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