Survey study, 2023
Is stress linked to premenstrual syndrome?
Yes, there was a clear link between stress and PMS. Among women with stress, 62.2% had PMS compared to 31.3% of women without stress.
What they did
138 female medical students answered questionnaires measuring their stress level using a standard stress scale and their PMS symptoms using criteria from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
What they found
Of women with stress, 62.2% experienced PMS and 37.8% did not. Of women without stress, 31.3% experienced PMS and 68.8% did not. The most common emotional symptom was irritability in 77.54% of women. The most common physical symptom was joint or muscle pain in 49.28% of women.
What it means for you
Stress is clearly linked to PMS, though it is not the only cause. Some women with high stress did not have PMS, and some women with PMS had low stress levels. Mood symptoms like irritability were more common than physical symptoms. The study was limited to medical students at one university.
138
female medical students
62.2%
stressed women had PMS
77.54%
had irritability
About the study
- Original title
- Hubungan Tingkat Stres dengan Sindrom Pramenstruasi pada Mahasiswi Fakultas Kedokteran Angkatan 2021 Universitas Tarumanagara
- Authors
- Windy Hazmi Fadhilah, Julia Herdiman
- Journal
- Jurnal Kesehatan Andalas
- Year
- 2023
- Study design
- Survey study
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.25077/jka.v11i3.2086
Original abstract
Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is physical and non-physical symptoms experienced by women of the reproductive age two to fourteen days before menstruation. One of the factors can cause PMS is stress. Objective: To determined the correlation between stress and premenstrual syndrome among year 2021 Faculty of Medicine students at University of Tarumanagara. Methods: This research was an observational analytic study with a cross-sectional research design. The stress variable was measured using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21) questionnaire and the premenstrual syndrome variable was measured based on prospective questionnaire by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). The number of respondents obtained was 138 and the chi-square test was analyzed as a hypothesis test. Results: There were 56 (62,2%) respondents classified as having stress and experienced PMS, while 15 (31,3%) respondents not having stress experienced PMS. The 34 (37,8%) respondents were classified as being stressed but not experiencing PMS, and 33 (68,8%) respondents were not stressed and not experiencing PMS. The affective and somatic symptoms most often experienced irritability (77,54%) and joint or muscle pain (49,28%). There was a significant relationship between stress and premenstrual syndrome with p-value = 0,001 (p-value <0,05). Conclusion: There is a statistically significant relationship between stress and PMS (p<0,05). Affective symptoms were felt more than the somatic ones.Keywords: DASS-21, diagnostic criteria of PMS, premenstrual syndrome, stress
Reproduced under CC-BY-SA.
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