Impact of premenstrual disorders on women’s health and working life

Premenstrual disorders (PMDs), including premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), affect millions of women of reproductive age around the world. The estimated prevalence of PMS is 20%-30%, while PMDD ranges from 2.1% to 6.4%.

Although the symptoms restrict to the days before menstruation, these chronic and cyclic conditions may have a profound impact on long-term quality of life.

Our recent studies illustrated that women with PMDs often had first symptom onset before age 20 and are at 80% increased risk of suicidal behavior.

Yet, the burden of living with PMDs from young ages is poorly documented in women’s health and working life.In this proposal, we will utilize a register-based national cohort including women with PMDs (N>20,000), their unaffected sisters and population controls, as well as a population-based longitudinal cohort, LifeGene (N=30,000), in Sweden to assess the impact of PMDs on women’s working life and wellbeing.

Specifically, we will 1) evaluate the risks of unemployment, sick leave, and disability benefit claims among women with PMDs, compared to women without PMDs; 2) examine the risks of psychiatric and cardiometabolic disorders, and premature deaths in PMD women, compared to PMD-free women; and 3) examine if pharmaceutical treatments reduce long-term disease burden in women with PMDs.

Our data will comprise follow-up of up to 20-years, ascertainment both through clinical management and questionnaire self-assessment, as well as of subtypes (PMS and PMDD), and linkages to working-/health-related outcomes.

This proposal leverages the unique Swedish register resources and a large-scale prospective cohort to address common, debilitating yet under-studied conditions among young women.

Our findings will be the first to illustrate the negative impact of PMDs on long-term health and wellbeing, and may provide concrete evidence for health policies targeted to improve the quality of life among women living with PMDs.