Association of menopausal symptoms and menopausal quality of life with premenstrual syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Premenstrual symptoms at reproductive age resemble menopausal symptoms and have symptomatic commonalities. We hypothesized that women with previous premenstrual syndrome may be more prone to develop menopausal symptoms and aimed to investigate the association of menopausal symptoms and menopausal quality of life with premenstrual symptoms.

METHODS: The study included 120 postmenopausal women. We evaluated the current menopausal symptoms with menopause rating scale (MRS) and quality of life with menopause-specific quality of life scale (MSQoL), previous premenstrual symptoms with premenstrual syndrome scale (PMSS) retrospectively and compared the associations statistically.

RESULTS: According to retrospective PMSS, participants were divided into two groups; with and without premenstrual syndrome (PMS). PMS group included 29 (24.2%) participants and 91 (75.8%) participants were in group without PMS. Sociodemographic characteristics of groups were similar. Somatic and psychological symptoms were higher in MRS of PMS group. Evaluating the MSQoL; psychosocial and physical symptoms were impaired in the PMS group. Vasomotor, urogenital and sexual symptoms were similar in both groups.

CONCLUSION: Premenstrual and menopausal symptoms were related in terms of somatic, and psychosocial symptoms but not in vasomotor, urogenital, and sexual symptoms. It seems that women with previous premenstrual symptoms are more likely to develop menopausal symptoms in some ways. However, a prospective longitudinal study may be needed for more conclusive results.