Case-control study, 1987
Does PMS affect how well women can do detailed manual tasks?
Women with PMS showed worse fine motor skills during the phase just before their period, while women without PMS showed better skills at that time, suggesting PMS affects manual ability.
What they did
12 women with PMS and 9 without were tested on manual dexterity and perception tasks at four different times in their menstrual cycle: menstrual phase, early follicular, early luteal, and late luteal.
What they found
On a test of fine motor skills, women with PMS performed worse during the late luteal phase compared to the early follicular phase. In contrast, women without PMS performed better at late luteal. This pattern was clearly different between the groups. Tests of perception and other manual dexterity showed no clear differences.
What it means for you
PMS may affect fine motor function just before the period. However, the sample is very small and only one test showed this effect, so larger studies are needed to confirm this finding.
12
Women with PMS studied
4
Phases of menstrual cycle tested
About the study
- Original title
- Detecting changes in functional ability in women with premenstrual syndrome
- Authors
- Posthuma BW, Bass MJ, Bull SB et al.
- Journal
- American journal of obstetrics and gynecology
- Year
- 1987
- Study design
- Case-control study
- What was tested
- None - observed performance across menstrual cycle phases
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/0002-9378(87)90267-5