Cohort study, 1987
How accurate is a woman's memory of her PMS symptoms?
A woman's memory of symptoms during a specific cycle is fairly accurate, correctly predicting 72% of daily recorded symptom scores, but symptoms vary significantly from cycle to cycle, making future predictions less reliable.
What they did
Compared what women remembered about PMS symptoms to daily symptom records tracked over two menstrual cycles. Symptoms included tension, depression, cognitive problems, and physical symptoms.
What they found
Women's recall of a specific cycle predicted 72% of that cycle's daily recorded scores. Reports of usual PMS symptoms predicted 21% of the next cycle's scores and 12% of the following cycle's scores. Prospective scores from one cycle predicted only 14% of the next cycle's variance, indicating high inter-cycle variability.
What it means for you
Women generally remember their PMS symptoms reasonably well for a specific month, but symptoms fluctuate substantially between cycles. Doctors should track at least two cycles before making treatment decisions. The limit is that sample size is not specified.
72%
accuracy of recall for a specific cycle
21%
prediction of next cycle from usual reports
14%
prediction between consecutive cycles
About the study
- Original title
- Assessment of premenstrual symptomatology: a re-evaluation of the predictive validity of self-report
- Authors
- Hart WG, Coleman GJ, Russell JW
- Journal
- Journal of psychosomatic research
- Year
- 1987
- Study design
- Cohort study
- What was tested
- None; observational study
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(87)90075-4