Menstrual cycle symptoms in infertile and control subjects: A re-evaluation of the evidence for psychological changes

It seems possible that many of the 30–40% of women reported to suffer cyclic emotional changes peaking around menstruation may show maximal symptoms at this time through chance variation, and theories of a psychological factor in cyclic complaining are supported.

Abstract

Negative cultural values surrounding menstruation may be important in causing premenstrual and menstrual symptoms. If this were the case, then involuntarily infertile women may be expected to experience more severe changes, in view of the additional negative significance of their bleeding phases. This would, if found, support theories of a psychological factor in cyclic complaining. Daily data was recorded from a non-volunteer sample of women and fitted to least mean squares cosine waves. Few differences were found between infertile and control groups in symptom levels or timings. Therefore, the experimental hypothesis was unsupported. Significant cycles for physical symptoms tended to peak perimenstrually. However, surprisingly, peaks for psychological symptoms appeared to occur almost randomly through the cycle in both infertile and control groups. It seems possible that many of the 30–40% of women reported to suffer cyclic emotional changes peaking around menstruation may show maximal symptoms at this time through chance variation. Careful consideration of reliable literature suggests that, while cyclic emotional change is regarded as established fact, the evidence is still equivocal.