Study, 1997
Does having severe period problems earlier in life affect how much sick leave women take during menopause?
Yes. Women who had severe premenstrual problems in their earlier years took more sick leave when they reached menopause than women who did not have severe premenstrual problems.
What they did
Researchers looked at records from 1982 of women in midlife or later life. They grouped women by severity of premenstrual symptoms: those placed on sick leave, those with moderate symptoms, and those with no symptoms. They checked sick leave records from the local insurance office to see who took more time off work.
What they found
Women who had been severely affected by premenstrual problems had more diagnoses, more occasions of sick leave, and more long-term absences from work than the other groups. They also took more sick days per year than the national average for all women in the country.
What it means for you
If you have severe premenstrual problems now, you might be at higher risk for work absences later in life when you reach menopause. The main limit is that the study looked back at records from 1982, which is now several decades old, and we don't know exactly how many more sick days we're talking about.
1982
Year of study
3
Comparison groups
About the study
- Original title
- Is severity of premenstrual symptoms related to illness in the climacteric
- Authors
- Larsson C, Hallman J
- Journal
- Journal of psychosomatic obstetrics and gynaecology
- Year
- 1997
- Study design
- Study
- What was tested
- None - this was observational.
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.3109/01674829709080693
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