---
title: Do women with worse PMS symptoms feel more stressed before their period?
description: Women with high levels of PMS symptoms experienced significantly higher perceived stress before their period compared to after. Women with low levels of PMS s
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/cycle-phase-changes-in-perceived-stress-in-women-with-varying-levels-of-1993/
---

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- Do women with worse PMS symptoms feel more stressed before their period?

Survey study, 1993

# Do women with worse PMS symptoms feel more stressed before their period?

Women with high levels of PMS symptoms experienced significantly higher perceived stress before their period compared to after. Women with low levels of PMS symptoms did not show this pattern.

 Early or limited evidence

104 women with varying levels of premenstrual symptoms

## What they did

Cross-sectional study. Perceived stress was measured in 104 women before and after menstruation. Women were grouped by how severe their premenstrual symptoms were.

## What they found

Women with high levels of premenstrual symptomatology demonstrated significantly greater perceived stress in the premenstrual phase compared to the postmenstrual phase. Women with low levels of premenstrual symptomatology showed no cycle-phase difference in perceived stress.

## What it means for you

Women with worse PMS symptoms experience more stress before their period. However, the study was cross-sectional, so we cannot tell whether stress causes worse PMS symptoms or whether PMS symptoms cause women to feel more stressed.

104

Women studied

## About the study

Original title Cycle-phase changes in perceived stress in women with varying levels of premenstrual symptomatology Authors Brown MA, Lewis LL Journal Research in nursing & health Year 1993 Study design Survey study Participants 104 What was tested None Read the paper [doi.org/10.1002/nur.4770160606](https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.4770160606)

## Topics

[Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Stress](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-stress/)

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