Attitudes of general practitioners towards premenstrual symptoms and those who suffer from them

Abstract

General practitioners' views about premenstrual symptoms and about the women who suffer from them were sought by means of a postal questionnaire. An hormonal aetiology was favoured by the majority of the doctors and significantly more female than male doctors held this view. There was a diversity of opinion about the most appropriate management; the most favoured treatments were with progesterone analogues, pyridoxine and diuretics. Approximately half of the practitioners thought that women who suffer from premenstrual symptoms are no different from women in general. Those practitioners who felt that differences do exist claimed that sufferers from such symptoms are more likely than women in general to be more hypochondriacal, introverted and intelligent, as well as being more likely to be married, to have small families and to be from a higher social class. In general, the views of the doctors were not related to their years of experience, their practice base (that is, rural or urban) or their sex.