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Factors Related to Self-reporting of the Pre-menstrual Syndrome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Pamela Warner  and
John Bancroft
Pamela Warner*
Affiliation:
MRC Reproductive Biology Unit, 37 Chalmers Street, Edinburgh EH3 9EW
John Bancroft
Affiliation:
MRC Reproductive Biology Unit, Edinburgh
*
∗Correspondence
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Extract

Menstrual health questionnaires were completed by a self-selected sample of the readership of a woman's magazine (n = 5457). Sixty-one per cent of subjects described themselves as suffering from pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) and this was largely corroborated by ratings of symptoms pre-menstrually, menstrually and post-menstrually for the most recent cycle. Mood symptoms were more strongly implicated than physical ones. Self-report of PMS was found to be modestly associated with aspects of parity and oral contraceptive use, but strongly and positively related to the duration of ‘natural’ menstrual cycles (i.e. uninterrupted by pregnancy or steroidal contraception) and to psychosocial stress. There were interactions among psychosocial factors and between psychosocial load and duration of natural cycles.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 157 , Issue 2 , August 1990 , pp. 249 - 260
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990 

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