More than a quarter of women who buy menstrual products also buy painkillers at the same time, but women in low-income areas are significantly less likely to do so, according to a new study published this week in an open-access journal. PLOS Digital Health A study by Dr Victoria Civil from the University of Bristol and colleagues used supermarket loyalty card data to map disparities in menstrual pain across the UK.
Menstrual pain is a common problem that affects many people around the world. Existing research highlights negative effects on daily activities such as school attendance and work.
In the new study, researchers analyzed anonymised loyalty card data from a major UK health and beauty retailer, including 211 million transactions by 3.4 million people between 2006 and 2015. They analyzed how often shoppers purchased menstrual products at the same time as painkillers and how that compared to customers’ baseline rates of painkiller purchases.
The analysis found that 26.7% of customers who purchased menstrual products also purchased painkillers in the same transaction. These customers are almost four times more likely to purchase painkillers when purchasing menstrual products compared to other purchases. As a validation of our approach, the most common interval between consecutive menstrual purchases across the dataset was exactly 28 days, matching the average menstrual cycle.
Regional income was found to be the strongest predictor of menstrual pain purchases. Customers in low-income areas were 32% less likely to purchase painkillers at the same time as menstrual products compared to customers in higher-income areas. The authors note that lower purchase rates of painkillers in poorer areas likely reflect an inability to afford over-the-counter medications rather than lower rates of menstrual pain itself.
”This study highlights the high prevalence of menstrual pain and the need for greater awareness and policy interventions to address the socio-economic aspects of menstrual pain.say the authors.Public health efforts must include menstrual pain relief as part of broader efforts to improve health equity.”
Co-author Dr James Golding said:It’s great to see smart data research in the UK uncovering issues that may have previously been overlooked by science, such as the scale and impact of menstrual pain. This is already too late.”
Co-author Dr Anya Skatova added:Like many women, I knew how common menstrual cramps were, but the scale of purchasing painkillers alongside menstrual products was still surprising. Using shopping data, we can see how widespread pain relief needs really are. This type of evidence helps visualize menstrual pain at a population level and provides a strong foundation for systemic changes in the recognition, treatment, and prioritization of menstrual pain in public health.”
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Reference magazines:
Sybil, V. Others. (2026) What does shopping transaction data reveal about the relative prevalence of menstrual pain and period poverty in the UK? PLOS Digital Health. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0001308. https://journals.plos.org/digitalhealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pdig.0001308
