A survey on premenstrual syndrome / 대한산부인과학회지

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the epidemiology of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and actual status of women with PMS seeking a medical advice. METHODS: The survey included a total of two hundred healthy women visited to Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (n=78) or working at the same hospital (n=122) in reproductive age during March to June 2004. The subjects were asked to fill-up PMS sheet developed by our Department as giudance by one interviewer. Diagnosis to PMS was made by DSM-IV algorithms. RESULTS: PMS was noted in 8%. The major five symptoms were low abdominal discomfort or pain, easy fatigability, breast tenderness, and irritability. The following factors were not different statistically between PMS and non-PMS group; mean age, dysmenorrhea, menstrual cycle characteristics, occupation, education, marrital status, smoking or alcohol habit. In PMS group, 7 women out of 16 had a need for treatment (43.8%), in contrast, a few women had seeked a medical advice (12.5%). Moreover, a few women had experienced prescribing medications (12.5%) or non-prescribing medications (12.5%). In non-PMS group, the corresponding figures were 11.4%, 4.9%, 2.7% and 20.1%. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that women diagnosed as PMS seldom seek a medical advice. The women with various premenstrual complaints commonly use non-prescribing medications.