What menstrual cycle symptoms do people experience and how much do they interfere with daily life?

BackgroundPeople who menstruate may experience a range of symptoms, which, fluctuating throughout the different cycle phases, can interfere with their normal functioning. To date, research mostly investigated pain and psychological changes in the menstrual and premenstrual phases.ObjectivesThis survey aimed to broaden the understanding of the frequency and interference with daily living (i.e., distress) of a wider array of symptoms (e.g., gastrointestinal, physiological) throughout the cycle, including the intermenstrual phase.DesignCross-sectional online survey of representative samples (in terms of education, gender and age).MethodsMenstruating participants ( N = 336) from Germany and Austria reported the frequency and distress of 25 symptoms occurring in the three cycle phases and rated how often the symptoms impaired their daily functioning.ResultsThe symptom distress remained modest across all phases. Nevertheless, a repeated-measures ANOVA showed that distress was higher during menstruation ( M = 1.41, SD = 0.62) compared to the other two phases ( ps F (1.79, 526.15) = 91.19, p 2 p = .24. The psychological-cognitive, discomfort and physiological symptom clusters were the most frequent across all phases. Compared to participants without gynaecological conditions, individuals with a self-reported diagnosis of endometriosis exhibited significantly higher discomfort, pain and impairment across specific cycle phases (i.e., across all phases, during the premenstrual and intermenstrual phases, during the menstrual and premenstrual phases, respectively). Pain predicted impairment of daily functioning in the premenstrual and menstrual phase, together with discomfort. Age, contraception use, and gynaecological conditions were not related to changes in distress.ConclusionA broad range of symptoms occurred, going beyond symptoms typically studied, (i.e., discomfort with vaginal bleeding, feeling dirty, concentration impairment). Although with minimal interference, symptoms stereotypically linked to the (pre-)menstrual phase were also reported in other phases. However, given the methodological constraints of this study, this pattern must be interpreted with caution.

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