The impact of oral contraceptives on the experience of perimenstrual mood, clumsiness, food craving and other symptoms.

Two-hundred and seventy-six oral contraceptive (o.c.) users (171 combine o.c. and 105 triphasic o.c.) were compared with 276 non-o.c. users. All women regarded themselves as PMS sufferers, and the groups were matched for age, parity and marital status. Each woman rated severity of 27 symptoms during the premenstrual, menstrual and postmenstrual phases of their last menstrual cycle. The o.c. users reported significantly less menstrual pain and premenstrual breast tenderness. When controlling for the severity of premenstrual depression, there were no differences between the three groups in the timing or severity of perimenstrual food craving or clumsiness. When controlling for the severity of menstrual pain, the o.c. users showed significantly less improvement in negative mood during the menstrual phase, compared with non-users. The apparent tendency for o.c. users to show either a delayed or more prolonged pattern of perimenstrual negative mood deserves further study.