Symptoms and distress across the menstrual cycle in a representative sample of Austrian and German people who menstruate: A cross-sectional study

Background People who menstruate may experience a range of symptoms, which, fluctuating throughout the different cycle phases, can interfere with their normal functioning. To date, research mostly investigated pain and psychological changes in the menstrual and premenstrual phases. Objectives This survey aimed to broaden the understanding of the frequency and interference with daily living (i.e., distress) of a wider array of symptoms (e.g., gastrointestinal, physiological) throughout the cycle, including the intermenstrual phase. Design Cross-sectional online survey of representative samples (in terms of education, gender and age). Methods Menstruating participants ( N = 336) from Germany and Austria reported the frequency and distress of 25 symptoms occurring in the three cycle phases and rated how often the symptoms impaired their daily functioning. Results The symptom distress remained modest across all phases. Nevertheless, a repeated-measures ANOVA showed that distress was higher during menstruation ( M = 1.41, SD = 0.62) compared to the other two phases ( ps