Personality and menstruation

An attempt was made to relate personality to premenstrual tension (PMT), using two groups of 40 parous and 40 mulliparous women, respectively composed of 20 single and 20 married subjects with an age range of 21 to 30 years. The menstrual instruction group had identical age range and means with the nonmenstrual group. Control for pregnancy, use of contraceptives, and irregularity of periods was by exclusion. The influence of civil status and parity was also examined. Standard measures of personality and anxiety were utilized. It was found that: 1) The menstrual instruction group had higher scores in state anxiety than the nonmenstrual group. 2) State anxiety scores were positively and significantly correlated with trait anxiety scores. 3) The differences in state anxiety between the menstrual and nonmenstrual groups manifested in the form of exaggeration of symptomm reporting. 4) The Maudsley Personality Inventory did not discriminate between our menstrual and nonmenstrual groups. 5) The global scores of the premenstrual sympto checklist did not discriminate between our menstrual and nonmenstrual groups but the sections on breast, urinary, and pelvic symptoms did. 6) Neither marital status nor parity by itself had any significant effect on the performance of our menstrual and nonmenstrual groups.