New York, Sep 7 : More than 64 percent of women are now experiencing anxiety and mood swings during premenstrual periods which is an “key public health issue across the world,” according to a new study.The majority of women have premenstrual symptoms at the beginning of each menstrual cycle.
At least 61 percent of women in every age group experienced mood-related symptoms each menstrual cycle.the researchers conclude that “premenstrual mood-related symptoms are a major public health problem across the globe”.
“Our study shows that premenstrual mood issues are extremely common in the world,” said Jennifer L Payne director of the Reproductive Psychiatry Research Programme at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
“More important, a majority of women said that the symptoms of their menstrual cycle affected with their daily lives at least a portion of the time.” she added.
The study, which was published in Archives of Women’s Mental Health The study analyzed more than 238,000 responses to surveys from women between the ages of 18 and 55 from 140 countries using the Flo app which aids women keep track of their menstrual cycle or monitor their mood or physical symptoms throughout and after pregnancy.
The most frequently reported symptoms were cravings for food (85.28 percent) which was followed by mood fluctuations or anxiety (64.18 percent) as well as fatigue (57.3 percent) According to the research.
Additionally, 28.61 per cent said that their premenstrual symptoms affected with their everyday lives throughout every menstrual cycle and an additional 34.84 percent reported that their premenstrual symptoms caused problems with their everyday lives at times.
“The frequency of premenstrual mood and anxiety-related symptoms varied greatly according to the nation”, Payne said.
“Understanding what differences in the biology or in the culture are responsible for the country-level rates will be a key future direction for research.” she added.
Researchers hope that this information will aid women receive better care by making healthcare professionals more aware of how often these symptoms occur, particularly mood-related and anxiety-related symptoms occur.
“There are a variety of treatment options available to treat premenstrual issues that can interfere with women’s daily activities,” she said.
“Increasing awareness of how prevalent these symptoms are and also that if they interfere with functioning, there are treatments that can assist women enhance their quality of life,” the researcher added.
rpd/na/
