Bakgrund: Kvinnor i fertil ålder drabbas i olika omfattning av premenstruella besvär i form av fysiska och psykiska symtom under perioden mellan ägglossning och mens. Forskning visar att menstruationsrelaterade frågor är underrepresenterade och det förekommer negativa uppfattningar om den menstruerande och premenstruerande kvinnan som svag och sjuk. ​​Sjuksköterskan har ett ansvar att bedriva en vård som främjar hälsa och lindrar lidande. Ökad kunskap och förståelse för erfarenheter av att leva med premenstruella besvär kan bidra till att sjuksköterskan kan vara ett bättre stöd för dessa kvinnor.  Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva kvinnors erfarenheter av premenstruella besvär​.   Metod: En allmän litteraturöversikt har gjorts med tio vetenskapliga artiklar hämtade från databaserna CINAHL och PubMed. Nio artiklar var kvalitativa och en artikel var mixad metod.  Resultat: ​I resultatet identifierades tre huvudteman: Påverkan på kvinnors vardag och arbetsliv till följd av premenstruella besvär, Hur kvinnor hanterar premenstruella besvär, Kvinnors erfarenheter av bemötande och attityder kring premenstruella besvär varav sista temat har två subteman: Bemötande från vården och Mäns och samhällets attityd.​  Slutsats: Kvinnors erfarenheter av premenstruella besvär påverkade dem såväl fysiskt som psykiskt och hade en inverkan på både vardag- och arbetsliv. Kvinnor upplevde att samhällets syn och mäns attityd kring premenstruella besvär var negativ och att det saknades kunskap och förståelse inom vården. Det framkom olika sätt att hantera sina besvär på och många sökte stöd och förståelse hos andra kvinnor. Erfarenheterna som beskrevs av kvinnorna kan ge sjuksköterskan kunskap och vara en bra grund för hur hon ska ge stöd och bemöta kvinnor med premenstruella besvär. / Background: ​Women in fertile age describe varying degrees of premenstrual discomfort in the form of physical and psychological symptoms during the period between ovulation and menstruation. Research shows that menstruation-related issues are underrepresented in general and there are negative perceptions of the menstruating and premenstruating woman as being weak and sick. The nurse has a responsibility to provide care that promotes health and alleviates suffering. Increased knowledge and understanding the experience of living with premenstrual discomfort can contribute to the nurse being better able to support these women.​  Aim: The aim was to describe women´s experiences of premenstrual discomfort​.  Method: A general literature review has been made with ten scientific articles taken from the databases CINAHL and PubMed. Nine articles were qualitative and one article was mixed method.​  Results: In the result three main themes were identified: Impact on women's private and professional lives as a result of premenstrual discomfort, How women deal with premenstrual discomfort, Women's experiences of treatment and attitudes around premenstrual discomfort, the last theme of which has two subthemes: Treatment from health care and Men's and society's attitude.  Conclusion: Women's experiences of premenstrual discomfort affected them both physically and psychologically and had an impact on both their private and professional lives. Women felt that society's view and men's attitude towards premenstrual discomfort were negative and that there was a lack of knowledge and understanding in healthcare. Different ways of dealing with their premenstrual discomfort emerged and many sought support and understanding from other women. The experiences described by the women can give the nurse knowledge and be a good basis for how the nurse should provide support and respond to women with premenstrual discomfort.

This essay researches current workings of medicine in relation to contested, female diagnoses. This is made by looking at the construction of the new psychological diagnosis Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) in Swedish media, and relating it to a current trend seen in medicine; to medicalize women’s underperformance. A qualitative content analysis of 19 articles is conducted, showing that PMDD is constructed as; a biomedical fact and individual problem; a serious disease owned by the sufferers; and as something written out of the women’s self-image as a “not me”. These constructions are analysed with a theoretical framework built around the concept biomedicalisation, which we conceptualise as an exertion of biopower that shapes subjects in line with neoliberal ideals. Biopower is a concept from the Foucauldian notion of Governmentality, and describes power working on micro levels, through for example truth discourses, to make individuals understand and work on themselves as biological subjects. Our analysis shows that biopower can be seen to work through the different constructions of PMDD to shape self-managing, healthy subjects that are willing to biomedically change themselves in accordance with an ideological normal, but that this normal differs from that seen in research on other contested female diagnoses. To conclude we suggest that it would be more fruitful to look at biomedicalisation to understand current workings on female contested diagnoses, than to look at the trend on medicalisation of underperformance.

The aim of the study was to assess specific psychological aspects of the premenstrual syndrome, such as stress, attitudes towards menstruation, and past history of psychosomatic illnesses. Thirteen PMS subjects, were compared with 8 control subjects, who reported only minimal or no premenstrual symptoms. In comparison to controls, PMS subjects regarded menstruation as significantly more debilitating. No significant differences were found between the groups in levels of stress. However, the PMS group evidenced a significantly greater tendency to react to emotional stress, with overcontrol, i.e. the need to control and suppress emotions. In addition, the PMS group evidenced a significantly greater history of psychosomatic illnesses, than controls. Finally, there was a significant group reduction in symptom severity, within the PMS group, over the two month period of daily monitoring of symptoms. The results of this study suggest that certain psychological factors may be implicated in premenstrual symptom severity. / Psychology / M.A. (Social Science (Psychology))

Premenstrual symptoms are a universal event during a woman's reproductive life but little is known about the experience of emerging adulthood women aged 18-25 years. The purpose of this study was to determine feasibility of daily symptom data collection via an electronic diary and to examine the relationship between premenstrual symptom perception, severity and distress with academic stress. This sample consisted of 50 women with a mean age of 20(±.9) years living in campus housing of a private undergraduate rural college. Results determined it is feasible to utilize an electronic diary for daily prospective symptom and academic demand data collection. Surprisingly, in this sample of healthy undergraduate women, there were significantly higher numbers of symptoms perceived (7.16±3.8 follicular and 6.18±3.3 luteal, p=.001 and higher distress (.39±.3 follicular and .31±.3 luteal, p=.003) in the follicular phase than in the luteal phase. Academic stress findings indicated mild stress as measured by the Student-life Stress Inventory (Gadzella, 1991) and students overall perceived stress levels fell in the minimal to mild range. The academic demand component of academic stress measured daily frequency and distress associated with assignments, papers, projects/presentation and time studying. Within the follicular phase number of assignments due was significantly correlated to symptom perception and distress (.31, .37, respectively) and the number of projects/presentations due was correlated to symptom distress (.25) at p<.05. There were significant correlations between follicular phase symptom perception and distress, and luteal phase symptom distress with academic demand distress for assignments, papers, projects/presentations and time studying, indicating a relationship between distress components of symptom experience and some components of academic stress. These premier results about the relationship between symptom distress and academic stress warrants further exploration and development of a clearer conceptual definition of academic stress and clear and consistent operationalization of this phenomena.

Many women reporting PMS symptoms state their symptoms affect their mood, social, and family functioning. This study attempted to provide clinicians with information to assist in psychotherapeutic intervention, by determining the effect PMS has on marital satisfaction. Nineteen female subjects reporting PMS symptoms and their partners completed the study. The Marital Satisfaction Inventory - Revised (MSI-R) and the Moos Menstrual Distress Questionnaire-Form T (MDQ-form T) were used to determine if the nineteen couples reported marital distress as a result of the women's cyclical premenstrual symptoms. The results of the study suggested that the women and their partners, report high levels of marital distress that is not reflective of the cyclical nature of the PMS symptomatology. Scores on the MSI-R for the subjects and their partners indicated the couples perceived level of distress in the t-50 to t-70 range on scales 3-8 is consistent throughout the menstrual cycle. The couples reported higher levels of marital distress than would be the expected norm, suggesting that PMS may be a contributing factor to the level of distress they reported experiencing. This study did not include a control group, which would have provided a norm for couples who do not report PMS by which to compare the MSI-R scores.

The goal of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a marital systems approach to the treatment of women with self-referred premenstrual syndrome. The first purpose of the study was to identify any significant differences on the Global Distress Scale of the Marital Satisfaction Inventory and the Causal Dimension Scale between (PMS+) and (PMS-) married couples before and after marital treatment. The second purpose of the study was to determine any significant differences on dependent measures of averaged marital ratings between (PMS+) and (PMS-) wives during thecycle ratings between (PMS+) and (PMS-) wives.Nine married couples participated in a group comparison study through Community Hospitals of Indianapolis, Indiana. The study was conducted in two phases, including a three month assessment phase followed by a two month treatment phase. Four married couples whose wives met the DSM-III-R's diagnostic criteria for Late Luteal Phase Dysphoric Disorder were included in the (PMS+) group. Five married couples whose wives did not meet the diagnostic criteria for LLPDD were included in the (PMS-) comparison group.Statistical analyses revealed significant time effects; assessment and treatment purpose of the study was differences on dependent phase of the study. The third to identify any significant measures of averaged menstrual no three-way or two-way interactive effects for any of the three hypotheses. The results clinically support the notion of treating marriages with PMS versus solely treating women with PMS. Regardless of whether wives prospectively confirmed premenstrual symptoms, treatment involving the marriage impacted menstrual cycle symptom ratings and perceptions of the marriage positively. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

Premenstruellt syndrom, även kallat PMS, är något som 20-30% av alla menstruerande kvinnor uppskattas lida av. De premenstruella symtomen uppkommer i den senare delen av menstruationscykeln och återkommer vanligtvis varje månad. Symtomen kan yttra sig såväl fysiskt, psykiskt som emotionellt. Syftet med studien var att beskriva kvinnors premenstruella erfarenheter. Studien är genomförd som en litteraturstudie och baseras på 10 vetenskapliga artiklar. Ur artiklarnas resultat kunde tre huvudteman urskiljas. Resultatet av litteraturstudien visar att många kvinnor har erfarenheter av att mötas med misstro då de beskriver sin PMS. Denna misstro beskrivs i möte med såväl närstående, arbetskollegor som med hälso- sjukvårdspersonal. I studien framkommer att okunskapen kring PMS är stor, samtidigt som fenomenet ofta framställs negativt och förlöjligas. Många kvinnor beskriver värdet i att få samtala om sina premenstruella erfarenheter utan att bli dömda och misstrodda. För att utveckla en bättre omvårdnad av kvinnor som lider av PMS är det av stor vikt att genom utbildning öka kunskaperna hos hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal om detta fenomen. För att fler kvinnor skall få hjälp att lindra det lidande de premenstruella symtomen kan orsaka är det av vikt att vidare forskning bedrivs. / Premenstrual syndrome, also known as PMS, is a phenomenon that is estimated to effect 20-30% of all menstruating women. The premenstrual symptoms appear in the lutheal phase of the menstrual cycle and usually recurs monthly. The aim of this study was to describe the experiences of women with premenstrual syndrome. This study is conducted as a literature study, based on ten scinentific articles. Three major themes were identified from the results of the articles. The results of the literature study illustrates that women often experience disbelief when they try to describe their premenstrual experiences. The disbelief often occurs in relation to describing PMS to partners, co-workers and health care professionals. The study also shows that there is a great ignorance about PMS and the phenomenon is often portrayed negatively and ridiculed. Many women described the value of getting to talk about their premenstrual experiences without being judged and met with disbelief. It is of great importance that through education develops the nursing care and increase awareness among health care professionals about female phenomena such as PMS. To help women relieve the suffering the premenstrual symptoms can cause, it is important that further research is conducted.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2004. / Härtill 4 uppsaatser.

The aim of the study was to assess specific psychological aspects of the premenstrual syndrome, such as stress, attitudes towards menstruation, and past history of psychosomatic illnesses. Thirteen PMS subjects, were compared with 8 control subjects, who reported only minimal or no premenstrual symptoms. In comparison to controls, PMS subjects regarded menstruation as significantly more debilitating. No significant differences were found between the groups in levels of stress. However, the PMS group evidenced a significantly greater tendency to react to emotional stress, with overcontrol, i.e. the need to control and suppress emotions. In addition, the PMS group evidenced a significantly greater history of psychosomatic illnesses, than controls. Finally, there was a significant group reduction in symptom severity, within the PMS group, over the two month period of daily monitoring of symptoms. The results of this study suggest that certain psychological factors may be implicated in premenstrual symptom severity. / Psychology / M.A. (Social Science (Psychology))

M.Tech. / Premenstrual syndrome affects millions of premenopausal women and has been described as one of the most common disorders in women. Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is defined as the cyclic recurrence of symptoms such as anxiety, depression, food cravings, bloating, breast tenderness, and headaches during the luteal phase (from day fourteen to day one) of the menstrual cycle (Nel, 1995). PMS has been estimated to affect 75% of women of reproductive age, and there are no optimal conventional treatment options available (Steiner et al., 2006). Research has found an increased incidence of PMS in black women (Deuster et al., 1999). Due to the high number of women suffering from PMS and side-effects of conventional medicine, a safe alternative treatment for PMS is required. The homoeopathic similimum method involves prescribing one remedy at a time in optimal potency and repetition based on the totality of the individual patient’s mental, emotional and physical symptoms (Vithoulkas, 1985).