The thing that all husbands and boyfriends fear the most- PMS. Besides the emotional roller coaster and need to indulge in chocolate, PMS may have serious impacts on the health of women. The headaches, fatigue, and many other symptoms may signal an increase in future health problems.
What is PMS?
Unfortunately, the exact cause of PMS (premenstrual syndrome) is unknown. Scientist can assume it is related to fluctuating levels of hormones, such as estrogen and progesterone. Symptoms include fatigue, bloating, aggression, headaches and backaches, mood swings and many more. Up to 40% of menstruating women experience these symptoms. Most women can live with the small annoyance of symptoms, but for some women the symptoms are so severe they may lead to violence or attempted suicide.
How it relates to blood pressure?
Elizabeth Bertone-Johnson and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Harvard School of Public Health were the first to study PMS as a possible sign for hypertension. The study tracked 1,260 women who had significantly clinical PMS from 1991 to 2005. They compared this group of women to a control group of 2,500 women who had few menstrual symptoms. The women aged from 25-42 years old. The study assessed PMS symptoms with a Calendar of Premenstrual Experiences, which includes an abundance of possible symptoms. Every two years, the study examined each women’s diagnosis for blood pressure. After following the women for 6-20 years, hypertension was reported in 342 women with PMS and 541 without. The study took into account the adjustments of age, smoking, body mass index, and other risk factors for hypertension. After the adjustments it was found that women with PMS had a hazard ratio for hypertension of 1.4. The researched found the link between high blood pressure and PMS was strongest among women below the age of 40. The women in this age group were 40% more likely to experience high blood pressure than women in the control group of mild symptoms.
Is this experiment valid?
There are many aspect to consider when trying to determine if the experiment is valid. This study was a randomized and also proposed a control group which allowed the researchers to compare the two groups. The researchers also took into account confounding variables, such as age, smoking etc. and adjusted the results accordingly. Another aspect is the internal validity, which is based off of how the experiment follows the scientific method. Throughout my research I found that the experiment lacked a lot of analysis. The design of the experiment and observations seem to be correct, but there was very little analysis of why the results were found. I would assume this is because of the lack of knowledge on the cause of PMS. This lack of analysis prohibited me from further explaining the science behind this experiment. This also makes me question whether the correlation equals causation. Is reverse causation possible? These are the questions that are unable to be answered due to the lack of knowledge on the causes of PMS within our body. I would conclude that this experiment posses strong evidence that there is a relationship between between severe PMS and hypertension, but there is still much more research to be done in order to prove this experiments validity even more.
Sources:
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/111105/20151127/pms-may-raise-womens-risks-for-high-blood-pressure.htm
https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/pms-early-marker-future-high-blood
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/got-pms-you-might-have-high-blood-pressure-in-the-future-says-study_56562d82e4b079b2818a2cd1
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/11/20/aje.kwv159.abstract
https://explorable.com/validity-and-reliability
http://www.webmd.com/women/news/20151124/could-pms-raise-womens-risk-for-high-blood-pressure