Researchers say stomach pains are ''the norm'' for Australian women after a survey found three-quarters routinely suffered pain around the time of their period or during sex.

The nation's first population-based study of chronic pelvic pain shows the problem is more widespread than previously thought, but the majority of women experiencing it have never sought advice from a doctor.

Melbourne researchers questioned almost 2000 women aged 16 to 49 and found 71 per cent experienced pelvic pain with their period. Among teenage girls, the rate was 84 per cent.

''This condition can clearly be considered to be the norm for Australian women,'' the director of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, at La Trobe University, Professor Marian Pitts, said.

About 14 per cent reported suffering pain in the 24 hours after having sex, and 22 per cent said they regularly experienced other pain in their lower abdomen, according to the study published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Women who had been diagnosed with depression or who had suffered anxiety were more likely to have pelvic pain, she said.

The problem was also linked to higher rates of sexual difficulties, infertility and problems in pregnancy. Drug treatments like the contraceptive pill and heavy-duty painkillers were most commonly prescribed for younger women with severe pelvic pain. AAP