The effect of manipulated information about premenstrual changes on the report of positive and negative premenstrual changes

Abstract

Although women predominantly report negative premenstrual changes, a substantial portion of women also reports positive changes. Little is known about factors related to report of positive and negative premenstrual changes. The aim of this experimental study at the Philipps-University of Marburg from January and February 2015 was to investigate the effect of manipulated information about premenstrual changes on the retrospective report of premenstrual changes. A total of 241 healthy women were randomly assigned either to an experimental group (EG) reading: (1) text focusing on negative and positive premenstrual changes (EG1 (+/−)); (2) text focusing on negative changes (EG2 (−)); or (3) control group (CG) text. At least one positive premenstrual change was reported by the majority of the participating women. The results of the MANOVA and discriminant analysis showed that, after having read the text, EG2 (−) reported more negative and fewer positive premenstrual changes in a retrospective screening compared to EG1 (+/−) and CG. No significant difference was observed between EG1 (+/−) and CG. The results show the negative influence of information focusing on negative premenstrual changes on the retrospective report of both negative and positive premenstrual changes.