Study, 2006
How should we think about menstruation and PMS differently?
The author argues that women need accurate information about their bodies instead of myths, and that treating PMS as a collection of symptoms rather than a biological process could help us understand and support women better.
What they did
This work reviewed ideas and literature about how menstruation and PMS are understood, looking at both feminist critiques that say PMS is socially constructed and women's real experiences of menstrual changes.
What they found
The author describes how PMS has become divided into emotional symptoms called PMDD and physical pain during menstruation called dysmenorrhea, making it harder to understand the full picture of what women experience. The author calls for moving away from seeing these symptoms as signs of mental illness.
What it means for you
Accurate information and less stigma around menstrual changes could improve women's health care. However, this is a conceptual work analyzing existing ideas, not a study measuring whether changes actually happen.
About the study
- Original title
- Period, Interrupted: An Intervention in PMS and Menstruation Discourse
- Authors
- Nicole N. Bufanio
- Year
- 2006
- Study design
- Study
- What was tested
- None - this is a conceptual analysis
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.7916/d8gm8f8k
Topics
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