Premenstrual Symptoms in Females with Premenstrual Syndrome Attending the Family Medicine Outpatient Clinics in Kasr Al-Ainy

Objectives: To study the prevalence of premenstrual symptoms in women suffering from Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) attending the family medicine outpatient clinics in Kasr Al-Ainy and to determine the most distressing symptoms that need to be specially addressed during treatment of PMS.Subjects and Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study design was applied on 106 females suffering from PMS as defined by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) criteria for PMS. A questionnaire was designed by the researchers and included socio-demographic data, menstrual history as well as a checklist of 25 premenstrual symptoms (including the 10 symptoms present in the ACOG criteria).Results: The study included 106 females. Their ages ranged between 16 and 45 years with a mean of 31.3±8.3 years. The most common symptoms were fatigue, nervous tension, abdominal bloating, menstrual cramps and backache. The most distressing symptoms from the females point of view were abdominal bloating, backache and breast tenderness.Conclusion: From this study, it was found that the physical symptoms were the predominating and most distressing symptoms in the premenstrual syndrome in this studied group of females and thus, it should be properly addressed during management of PMS.