HOW DO WOMEN COPE WITH MENSTRUAL-CYCLE CHANGES

Very little is known about how women naturally cope with premenstrual and menstrual symptoms. A sample of 342 women was therefore surveyed to discover how they coped with menstrual cycle changes and how helpful these methods were. Principal components analysis of responses to a specially devised coping checklist revealed four components which corresponded to types of coping distinguished in the literature. These were termed: active-behavioural, active-cognitive, avoidance and menstrual cycle specific. There was no relationship between the extent to which particular coping strategies were used and how helpful they were thought to be. The most popular ways of coping were active-cognitive. The most helpful were active-behavioural and active-cognitive. Further analyses did not show any effect of parity or occupational group on the frequency or helpfulness of the different types of coping; nor was there any association with age. Modest correlations of coping methods with symptom severity emerged.