Journal
JOURNAL OF WOMENS HEALTH
Volume 25, Issue 9, Pages 865-874Publisher
MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC
DOI: 10.1089/jwh.2015.5529
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Funding
- National Institutes of Health (NIH), DHHS, through the National Institute on Aging (NIA)
- National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)
- NIH Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) [U01NR004061, U01AG012505, U01AG012535, U01AG012531, U01AG012539, U01AG 012546, U01AG012553, U01AG012554, U01AG 012495]
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Background: About 80% of women experience premenstrual symptoms (PMSx), and about 50% of women seek medical care for them, posing a large medical care burden. However, despite women's use of antiinflammatory agents for relief from these symptoms, and the fact that anti-inflammatory agents provide relief from some PMSx, the relationship of inflammation to PMSx has not been well investigated. Methods: We, therefore, undertook the present cross-sectional analyses using baseline data from the longitudinal Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), a racially/ethnically diverse cohort of midlife women (n = 2939), to determine if a biomarker of inflammation, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), was associated with PMSx. We performed factor analyses with Varimax rotations to determine five groupings of eight symptoms to develop a parsimonious set of outcome variables. We conducted backward stepwise multiple logistic regression models for each grouping, eliminating non-significant (p > 0.05) covariates. Results: Having an hs-CRP level >3 mg/L was significantly positively associated with premenstrual mood symptoms (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] =1.27, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.02-1.58), abdominal cramps/ back pain (aOR =1.40, 95% CI 1.09-1.80), appetite cravings/weight gain/bloating (aOR =1.41, 95% CI 1.041.89), and breast pain (aOR =1.26, 95% CI 1.02-1.55). Elevated hs-CRP level was not associated with premenstrual headaches or reporting three or more PMSx. Conclusions: The significant relationships of specific groups of PMSx with elevated hs-CRP levels have potential clinical implications for treatment and possibly for prevention by advising women about the factors associated with inflammation and the potential for treatment with anti-inflammatory agents.
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