Study, 1993
What kinds of changes do women experience before their period?
Most women experience a mix of both positive and negative feelings before their period, not just negative symptoms. Only nine women out of 112 had severe changes, and none had PMDD.
What they did
112 women without complaints filled out questionnaires about their experiences before their period (positive experiences on one form, distressing experiences on another). Responses were analyzed to find patterns.
What they found
27 percent reported no or minimal changes. 20 percent reported predominantly negative experiences. 18 percent reported predominantly positive feelings. 35 percent reported a mixed picture with both positive and negative feelings. Nine women had severe premenstrual changes. None had PMDD. Four main types of premenstrual experiences emerged: negative feelings, positive feelings, physical changes (like sleep and bowel changes), and sexual feelings.
What it means for you
Most women have mixed experiences before their period, not just negative ones. Research should focus on understanding the range of women's experiences, not just the negative ones. The limitation is this study only included women without complaints, so it may not represent all women.
112
women studied
35%
had mixed feelings
9
women with severe changes
About the study
- Original title
- Premenstrual experiences: the four profiles and factorial patterns
- Authors
- Chaturvedi SK, Chandra PS, Issac MK et al.
- Journal
- Journal of psychosomatic obstetrics and gynaecology
- Year
- 1993
- Study design
- Study
- What was tested
- None - observational study
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.3109/01674829309084444
Topics
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