Study, 2022
What traditional and natural remedies do women use for PMS?
Most women with PMS use natural remedies. The most common are heat on the belly (86.4%), listening to music (72.1%), and massage (61.7%).
What they did
Researchers surveyed 154 female health science students in Turkey about their premenstrual symptoms and what traditional or complementary treatments they used. They collected data from May to August using a standard PMS measurement scale.
What they found
About 80.5% of the students had PMS. Among treatments they used: 86.4% applied heat to the abdomen, 72.1% listened to music, 61.7% used massage, and 20.8% took vitamin supplements. These were the most commonly used practices within each category of traditional and complementary medicine.
What it means for you
Most women with PMS try natural remedies before or instead of seeing a doctor. Heat, music, and massage are the most popular methods. However, this study only included health science students, so results may differ in other groups. The study didn't test whether these methods actually reduce symptoms.
154
women studied
80.5%
had PMS
86.4%
used heat on abdomen
About the study
- Original title
- Sağlık Bilimleri Fakültesi Öğrencilerinin Premenstrual Sendrom İle Baş Etmede Kullandığı Geleneksel ve Tamamlayıcı Tıp Uygulamaları
- Authors
- Didem Şimşek Küçükkelepçe, Fatma Nur Duman, Zehra Gölbaşı
- Journal
- Mersin Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Lokman Hekim Tıp Tarihi ve Folklorik Tıp Dergisi
- Year
- 2022
- Study design
- Study
- What was tested
- Assessing use of traditional and complementary medicine practices for PMS.
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.31020/mutftd.984778