The invisible pain: Gaps in Brazil’s public health system data on Menstrual and Pelvic Pain

Menstrual and pelvic pain affect millions of women and girls throughout their reproductive lives. However, these conditions are often neglected health information systems, especially in primary health care in Brazil. This is one of the main conclusions of an exploratory study supported by Alana Institute and conducted by Vital Strategies in partnership with the FrameNet Brasil Laboratory of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF).

The study analyzed data from more than 469,000 Brazilian girls and women between 10 and 49 years of age attended in primary care in Recife, a city in the Northeast of Brazil, over almost a decade (2016-2025). The study analyzed data from e-SUS (primary care), SIH/SUS (hospital admissions system) and Sinan (violence notification system). Based on the records identified in the databases, the participants were classified into two groups for analysis purposes: women with a history of pain and women with no history of pain.

The work, presented at the 70th UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), in New York, in March 2026, sheds light on four dimensions that are still little discussed in Brazilian public health:

• The invisibility of menstrual health data;
• The weaknesses of structured data from medical records and traditional forms of data analysis in identifying menstrual health issues, pointing to the need for innovative approaches;
• The transformative potential of new methodologies based on text processing with artificial intelligence;
• When pain and violence co-exist, the data point to the need for an integrated, cross-sectoral approach to women’s health care.