Frequency of premenstrual syndrome symptoms and relationship
with various factors in Turkish women
I. Gönenç, E.Z. Tuzcular Vural, C. Aygün,
G. Köse, N. Aka
Haydarpaca Numune Education and Research Hospital, Family
Planning Unit, Istanbul, Turkey
Objectives Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a set
of physical, emotional, and behavioral symptoms that occur during the last week
of the luteal phase (a week before menstruation) in menstruating women. In this
study, we aimed to investigate the relationship of the symptomatology of PMS
with sociodemographic features, menstrual cyclicity, habbits and systemic
illnesses.
Design and methods A questionnaire based on Premenstrual Assesment
Form (PAF) was applied to 381 randomly selected reproductive women. The
questionnaire consisted of two parts with sociodemographic data collected in the
first part and premenstrual symptomatology evaluated in the second part. PMS
symptoms were accepted to be positive if 5 or more of 11 depression, anxiety,
cognitive or physical symptoms and at least one of the 4 specific symptoms (
affective lability, irritability, anxiety and depressive mood ) were present
during the last two menstrual cycles. Associations with socioeconomic,
demographic and behavioral variables were investigated using the student t test
, ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation and x2 tests in SPSS 10.0 for Windows programme.
Results Premenstrual symptoms were present in 82.2 % of the study group. We
found a high incidence of dysmenorrhea. The relation between PMS symptomatology
and pain, before and during menstruation, or between two cycles was
statistically significantly correlated (p<0.005). Likewise, family history of dysmenorrhea was also significantly correlated with the premenstrual symptoms (p<0.005). PMS symptomatology positivity was associated with a high incidence of drug usage and doctor visits. Interference with social, occupational, or daily life activities by PMS symptoms was statistically significant (p<0.005). We could not find a significant relationship between PMS symptomatology and contraceptive methods.
Conclusion Premenstrual syndrome
symptomatology was a common problem in our study group. Other studies show that
the premenstrual condition is universal. Doctors should adopt comprehensive
measures to reduce its incidence and improve the quality of life in the affected.