IS SEVERITY OF PREMENSTRUAL SYMPTOMS RELATED TO ILLNESS IN THE CLIMACTERIC

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether women in the clim acteric who have previously had severe premenstrual problems have a di fferent pattern of reporting sick than other women. The material in th e study comprised women with different degrees of severity of premenst rual symptoms who participated in an epidemiological study in 1982 on patterns of reporting sick and those women who at this time were of pr emenopausal or menopausal age were included Women who previously had h ad such serious Premenstrual problems that they had to be put on the s ick-list were compared with women who had had moderate or no premenstr ual problems. Information about to which extent these women have repor ted themselves sick has been obtained from the Regional Social Insuran ce Office in Uppsala County The results show that women who have previ ously had severe premenstrual problems and who ave now of menopausal a ge have a significantly greater number of diagnoses and occasions and have more long-term absences from work than women in the two control g roups. They also have a greater number of sick days per year compared with statistics from the National Social Insurance Board on all women in the country.