Premenstrual Complaints: II. Influence of Oral Contraceptives

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Abstract
The prevalence of individual premenstrual symptoms was studied in a randomly selected group of 217 women taking oral contraceptives (OC). The results were compared with corresponding data from 595 women not using the pill. The analyses included six different mental and somatic symptoms defined and graded in severity and related to age. It was found that OC had a beneficial effect on the premenstrual tension symptoms (PMT) in all age groups except in the youngest group (18 years), in which the tendency was rather the opposite. Within the total sample of women, users of OC were significantly less frequently absent from work. The present results are in agreement with those of most earlier studies, provided that age is taken into account.