Pre-menstrual phase survey

Press, 16 September 1987, Page 34

Pre-menstrual phase survey

PA Dunedin Many women in the Wellington region have pre-menstrual symptoms which affect their lives, according to a report in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

A survey of 1826 women in the Wellington region, who were representative of the New Zealand adult female population, was made by Drs Susan Pullon, Judith Retaken, and Margaret Sparrow, of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners.

The participants were aged between 16 and 54. Most volunteered one or more pre-menstrual symptons, and half said that these affected their lives.

The affected women were more likely to have had some tertiary education, and to have enjoyed good health in pregnancy. Irritability, bloated feelings and breast discomfort

were the most common of the one or more symptoms volunteered by 85 per cent of the women, but a wide variety was reported. Most of the women <75 per cent) began having symptoms before their thirtieth birthday, and in 89 per cent they lasted no more than a week. .Half the women reported that the symptoms affected their lives, while 18 per cent said they were affected markedly. Most women said there was no particular event when they started having symptoms; but there was a clear association between increasing age and the worsening of the symptoms. The symptoms were moderate or severe in less than one-third of women under 20, but in women over 35 nearly one-half reported moderate to severe symptoms.