Review, 2009
How common are PMS and PMDD, and how much do they disrupt women's lives?
PMS causes distress in up to 20% of women and severe work or relationship problems in 3-8%. Women with PMDD experience about 3000 days of severe symptoms over their reproductive years.
What they did
This review examined how common PMS and PMDD are, what symptoms occur, how much they disrupt daily life and work, and treatment outcomes.
What they found
Premenstrual symptoms distress up to 20% of women; 3-8% have work or relationship impairment. Typical symptoms are irritability, anger, mood swings, depression, anxiety, bloating, breast pain, and fatigue, recurring for an average of 6 days monthly. For women with PMDD, symptoms can be as disabling as major depression and total nearly 3000 days during reproductive years. Effective treatments were unavailable until about two decades before this review.
What it means for you
PMS and PMDD are common and seriously disrupt many women's lives and work. Many women still do not receive help despite available treatments. The main limitation is this is a review summarizing existing data.
20%
women with distressing premenstrual symptoms
3-8%
women with work or relationship impairment
6 days
average symptom duration per month
About the study
- Original title
- Premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual dysphoric disorder: quality of life and burden of illness
- Authors
- Rapkin AJ, Winer SA
- Journal
- Expert review of pharmacoeconomics & outcomes research
- Year
- 2009
- Study design
- Review
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1586/erp.09.14
Topics
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