--- title: How do women with PMDD think about themselves, other people, and the world? description: Women with PMDD report deeply negative thoughts during their premenstrual period. They see themselves as shameful and anxious, feel unsure in relationships, a url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/perception-of-self-others-and-the-world-in-women-with-premenstrual-dysphoric-2025/ --- - [Niyora](https://niyora.com/) - [Research](https://niyora.com/research/) - [Library](https://niyora.com/research/library/) - How do women with PMDD think about themselves, other people, and the world? Interview study, 2025 # How do women with PMDD think about themselves, other people, and the world? Women with PMDD report deeply negative thoughts during their premenstrual period. They see themselves as shameful and anxious, feel unsure in relationships, and view the world as cruel and meaningless. Early or limited evidence Women with PMDD diagnosed by clinical interview and symptoms confirmed by screening tool ## What they did Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with women who had PMDD symptoms confirmed by clinical interview. They used qualitative content analysis to identify recurring themes in how the women talked about themselves, others, and the world. ## What they found Three main themes emerged: self-perception (women described themselves as ashamed, anxious, and destructive), perception of others (seeing them as unreliable and distant), and perception of the world (viewing it as cruel and meaningless). These negative perceptions were most prominent during the premenstrual period. ## What it means for you Women with PMDD experience deeply negative thinking patterns during their symptom phase that affect how they view themselves, relationships, and life. This is a small qualitative study describing real experiences but cannot measure how many women have these specific patterns or compare them to women without PMDD. 3 main themes about self, others, and world 8 types of negative perception identified ## About the study Original title Perception of self, others and the world in women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder: A qualitative study Authors Ahmad Ashouri, Saeideh Izadi Dehnavi, Seyede Salehe Mortazavi et al. Journal Psihologija Year 2025 Study design Interview study What was tested None Open access Yes Read the paper [doi.org/10.2298/psi231031007a](https://doi.org/10.2298/psi231031007a) Original abstract Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a debilitating and complex disorder that signifies physical and psychological symptoms occur periodically and remit following the onset of menstruation. The present research aims to clarify perception of self, others and the world in women suffering from PMDD in their premenstrual period. This study was performed based on Hsieh and Shannon?s Qualitative Content Analysis. Participants were chosen through purposive sampling from women with PMDD. The inclusion criteria were manifestation of mood, physical and behavioral symptoms with impacts on life which indicated PMDD based on the premenstrual symptoms screening tool (PSST). The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM?5 (SCID-5) was used for final diagnosis and data was collected through in-depth interviews which continued until saturation. Based on the matrix, three themes of self-self, self-other and existential concepts led to extracting the categories of ashamed self, anxious self, destructive self, confident self, insecure other, distant other, cruel world and meaningless world on the basis of 24 final codes. Understanding of women with PMDD during their premenstrual period expresses a negative perception toward self, in a way that being exposed to feelings of shame and insecurity leads them to have the same perception towards relations as well as the world. Reproduced under CC-BY-SA. ## Topics [Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pmdd/)[Low mood and depression](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-depression-mood/)[Stigma, attitudes and culture](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-stigma-culture/) Research tells you what helps on average. Niyora helps on the day it hits. Calm down, see it another way, and decide what to say, with a PMS and PMDD app built by a doctor. ## Related studies Case-control study, 2026 Do women with PMS handle emotions differently at different times of the cycle? Cohort study, 2023 Is PMDD a valid medical diagnosis? Randomised trial, 2000 How should PMDD be diagnosed and treated? Study, 2026 What do women in Lahore know about PMDD and do they seek help for it? Survey study, 2025 Is the Chinese uncertainty anxiety scale reliable for measuring PMS-related anxiety? Study, 2025 Do women with PMDD who experienced childhood trauma have more trouble recognizing emotions? Ask AI about this page Copy prompt ChatGPT ↗ Claude ↗ Perplexity ↗ Google AI Mode ↗ Grok ↗