A Study of Minor Psychiatric and Physical Symptoms During the Menstrual Cycle
P. J. V. BEUMONT M.B., M.Phil., M.R.C.P.(E.), M.R.C.Psych.1,
D. H. RICHARDS M.A., M.B., and
M. G. GELDER D.M. F.R.C.P., F.R.C.Psych.2
1 Department of Psychiatry, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa
2 Professor of Psychiatry, University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry, The Warneford Hospital, Oxford, OX3 7JX
Twenty-five women with normal menstruation showed fluctuations in psychological and physical symptomatology during the menstrual cycle, symptoms being more intense during the premenstrual and menstrual weeks. Seven women who had undergone simple hysterectomy with conservation of the ovaries, and who were shown to have an apparently normal cyclical hormonal pattern, did not demonstrate similar significant changes in symptoms during the various phases of their cycles. The significance of these findings is discussed.
Submitted on July 29, 1974
