Is Premenstrual Syndrome a Uterine Inflammatory Disease? Retrospective Evaluation of an Etiologic Approach

摘要

Objective: To retrospectively evaluate the efficacy of local uterine antibiotic and anti-inflammatory injections combined with cryotherapy for the treatment of severe Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). To validate the hypothesis of a uterine infectious/inflammatory etiology of PMS/PMDD. Methods: Clinical files of 161 women sequentially treated from September 1995 to April 2005, were collected for study. A subset of 148 patients (mean: 36.7 ± 7.8 years, range: 20.1 - 53.8 years) were eligible for statistical analysis. The ten most relevant PMS symptoms, namely depression, irritability, anxiety, fatigue, headache, edema, breast tenderness, abdominal bloating, pelvic pain and dysmenorrhea, were self-rated before and three menstrual cycles after treatment, using a 0 to 5 scale. The treatment consisted of cervical stromal antibiotic/anti-inflammatory injections combined with intracervical cryotherapy. Scores were compared using non-parametric tests for matched samples. Results: Before treatment, mean severity scores for the 10 symptoms were 3.97 ± 1.17, 4.26 ± 0.88, 3.41 ± 1.23, 3.91 ± 0.94, 3.35 ± 1.71, 2.28 ± 1.69, 2.13 ± 1.63, 4.51 ± 0.63, 2.28 ± 1.30, and 2.28 ± 1.88, respectively. Mean values after treatment were 0.54 ± 0.91, 0.51 ± 0.91, 0.32 ± 0.70, 0.42 ± 0.74, 0.43 ± 0.96, 0.22 ± 0.53, 0.39 ± 0.73, 1.01 ± 0.94, 0.28 ± 0.69, and 0.44 ± 0.92. All tests were statistically significant (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Both PMS physical and psycho-affective symptoms respond to local anti-inflammatory and antibiotic treatment of the uterus, showing a stable improvement after the treatment has ended. The results of this study suggest that the clinical pattern of PMS can be explained as an inflammatory mediated response to uterine infectious or traumatic insults. Further evidence is urgently needed in order to validate this innovative approach for widespread use in severe PMS/ PMDD cases.