Study, 2025
How do premenstrual symptoms change throughout the menstrual cycle?
Premenstrual symptoms fall into six different groups: emotional, thinking, relationship, pain, and body changes. Each group follows its own pattern through the cycle. Body symptoms change most sharply and quickly, while emotional and relationship symptoms stay milder throughout.
What they did
85 female university students who weren't taking hormonal birth control and had regular periods completed an electronic daily diary for 4 months. The researchers looked at how symptoms varied together and how each type of symptom changed through the cycle.
What they found
Six symptom domains were identified that tend to occur together: emotional, thinking, relationship, pain, and body symptoms. Body symptoms increased and decreased most sharply and quickly compared to other symptoms. Emotional and relationship symptoms stayed milder throughout the cycle.
What it means for you
Premenstrual symptoms don't all change in the same way. Body symptoms appear and disappear quickly, while emotional symptoms stay more constant. This suggests that different types of symptoms may need different treatments or explanations. The study only looked at women not on birth control, so we don't know if birth control affects these patterns.
85
female students
4
months of tracking
6
symptom groups
About the study
- Original title
- Using natural spline models to explore the trajectories of empirically derived domains of premenstrual symptoms
- Authors
- Baez LM, Heller AS
- Journal
- Psychological assessment
- Year
- 2025
- Study design
- Study
- Participants
- 85
- What was tested
- None - observation of symptom patterns over time
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1037/pas0001356
Topics
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