How common is PMS among university medical students?

INTRODUCTION: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is the advent of physical and psychological symptoms related to the menstrual cycle, the symptoms of this syndrome start in luteal phase and ends at the end of menstrual period. During the last decades, the patterns of PMS (PMS) have studied in a wide range. But those researches had had different methodologies and definitions and the results were not well comparable. Hence, the researchers decided to conduct a study with the aim of investigation of the prevalent of PMS among the students of the Zahedan University of Medical Sciences. MATERIALS & METHODS: This descriptive–analytical study was done on 200 students of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Iran. A two-part questionnaire was used in order to collect data. The first part related to the demographic features and the second part was related to the PSTT standard questionnaire. After collecting data, the data was analyzed by using SPSS 19 software through the statistical descriptive tests, Chi square test, Fisher’s exact test and t-test. FINDINGS: The mean age of subjects was 21.9 ± 2.61. A total of 89 subjects were diagnosed with PMS. The most percentage of moderate to severe PMS was for students of medicine and the least percentage was for students of nursing. The highest percentage of mild PMS was in nursing students while the lowest percentage was for students of medicine. CONCLUSION: Regarded to the fact that PMS is from the common problems of premenopausal ages in women and a high percentage of them are with psychological and physical symptoms, and since this condition can cause adverse effects on the quality of women’s life; hence, it is necessary to consider the supportive and therapeutic strategies in order to reduce the severity of its symptoms and adverse effects.

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