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.
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
Topics
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