The Consequences of Premenstrual Syndrome on the Quality of Life from the Perspective of Affected Women: A Qualitative Study

Premenstrual syndrome is one of the most common disorders of reproductive age which impact on affected women lives but how this syndrome affects the quality of life not well described. Understanding health-related quality of life from affected womens perspective is essential to support them and improve their quality of life. Thus, this study aimed to discover the experiences of affected women about quality of life. The qualitative study using conventional content analysis method. For data collection, semi-structured and in-depth individual interviews of 21 iraniain women in reproductive age were performed at Tehran university and some high schools in Tehran. Interviews continued until to saturation data. The MAXQDA10 software was used to manage qualitative data analysis. Four main categories were extracted from the study discovered that the most effective consequences on quality of life quality in affected women with the data included:(1) Physical consequences with 7 subcategories including "Cardiovascular", "Genitourinary", "Neurological", "skin and hair", "Digestive", "Musculoskeletal" and "General health disorder", (2) Psychological consequences with 3 subcategories including "Mood", "Cognitive " and " Emotional disorder" (3) Behavioral consequences with 2 subcategories "Sleep patterns changes", "Nutritional patterns changes" and (4) Familial-Social consequences with 3 subcategories " Defective interpersonal relationships", "Sexual dysfunction" and "Social isolation". The results of the study identified challenges at quality of life in women with Premenstrual syndrome. Therefore, it is necessary to create a supportive setting that improves the quality of life in affected womens.