Case report, 1995
Can we predict a woman's PMS symptoms from one menstrual cycle to the next?
Yes. This woman's premenstrual symptoms followed a clear repeating pattern from cycle to cycle.
What they did
Researchers tracked one woman daily for 1 year across 13 menstrual cycles. Each day she rated her symptoms and wrote notes about her experiences.
What they found
Her symptoms showed a predictable pattern that repeated from cycle to cycle. Her symptoms also affected how she interpreted her environment and herself, including a repeated theme about death in her thoughts.
What it means for you
This shows that PMS symptoms can repeat in a pattern within one person, which might help her anticipate when symptoms will occur. The limit is that this is only one woman, so we don't know if other women's symptoms follow the same patterns.
1 year
study duration
13
menstrual cycles tracked
26.7 days
average cycle length
About the study
- Original title
- One year in the life of a woman with premenstrual syndrome: a case study
- Authors
- Lewis LL
- Journal
- Nursing research
- Year
- 1995
- Study design
- Case report
- What was tested
- None. This was observational tracking.
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1097/00006199-199503000-00009