Interview study, 2002
How do women actually experience and talk about PMS compared to public discussion?
Women's private experience of PMS is very different from public discussion. Men and media often talk negatively about PMS, but women's own experiences are often less severe. Many women think PMS is important to discuss, but they rarely talk about their own PMS.
What they did
Researchers interviewed 17 healthy women about how PMS is discussed and what they think about it. They analyzed the interviews to find common themes in what women said about PMS.
What they found
Three main themes emerged. First, public discussion uses negative male stereotypes about PMS, and women reinforce these stereotypes by talking negatively about other women's PMS. Second, PMS is something women live with quietly but do not openly discuss. Third, women reported different things publicly versus privately: publicly they said PMS is a big problem for women in general, but privately they said other women's PMS is worse than their own and they do not need to discuss their symptoms.
What it means for you
There is a gap between how women experience PMS and public discussion. Public talk is based on negative male views, and women reinforce this by talking negatively about other women's PMS while downplaying their own. Healthcare workers should help change public and media discussion. A key limit is this included only 17 women and used interviews, not measured symptoms.
17
women interviewed
3
main themes found
public/private
gap in how women talk about PMS
About the study
- Original title
- Whose voice? Whose experiences? Women's qualitative accounts of general and private discussion of premenstrual syndrome
- Authors
- Sveinsdóttir H, Lundman B, Norberg A
- Journal
- Scandinavian journal of caring sciences
- Year
- 2002
- Study design
- Interview study
- Participants
- 17
- What was tested
- None, this was an interview study.
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1046/j.1471-6712.2002.00077.x
Topics
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