Not All Healthcare Professionals Understand Premenstrual Distress in Women

The research firm Ipsos conducted a study on healthcare professionals to examine their perceptions of various conditions, including premenstrual syndrome (PMS) experienced by women.

The results showed that 46% of healthcare professionals felt their colleagues did not fully understand the premenstrual turmoil experienced by women. Furthermore, 13% felt that healthcare workers did not understand it at all. Ipsos combined these percentages as "poorly understood."

"Premenstrual tension is even poorly understood (59%)," Ipsos wrote in its report.

Despite this, some healthcare workers were considered to have a sufficient (29%) and very good (7%) understanding of the condition.

Ipsos noted several possible interpretations of these findings. These include a lack of understanding among male healthcare workers. On a larger scale, there is a systemic lack of information on gender. This means that the transfer of knowledge regarding conditions experienced by women is still lacking in this environment.

In this perception study, Ipsos asked respondents to rate the level of understanding of their peers, those holding similar roles and positions. The study involved 250 healthcare professionals in the UK, interviewed online between September 28 and October 24, 2022.

This research, titled *Hysterical Health, Unpicking the cultural beliefs that shape women’s healthcare*, was published on February 6, 2023.