ArticleEvolution, medicine, and public health2018
Do sexually transmitted infections exacerbate negative premenstrual symptoms? Insights from digital health.
Article in Evolution, medicine, and public health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Decoding menstrual health across the lifespan: a scoping review of digital health tools in research.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Decoding menstrual health across the lifespan: a scoping review of digital health tools in research.npj women's health · 2026Article
- Motivations for Use, User Experience and Quality of Reproductive Health Mobile Applications in a Pre-Menopausal User Base: A Scoping Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination on Menstrual Cycle: An Italian Survey-Based Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- "GONE WITH THE WIND": The Transitory Effects of COVID-19 on the Gynecological System.Journal of personalized medicine · 2023Review
- The DIY IVF cycle-harnessing the power of deeptech to bring ART to the masses.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2023Review
- Effect of COVID-19 on Menstruation and Lower Reproductive Tract Health.International journal of women's health · 2023Article
- The COVID-19 pandemic and the menstrual cycle: research gaps and opportunities.International journal of epidemiology · 2022Article
- COVID-19-Associated Mental Health Impact on Menstrual Function Aspects: Dysmenorrhea and Premenstrual Syndrome, and Genitourinary Tract Health: A Cross Sectional Study among Jordanian Medical Students.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Menstrual cycle changes and mental health states of women hospitalized due to COVID-19.PloS one · 2022Article
- Daily, weekly, seasonal and menstrual cycles in women's mood, behaviour and vital signs.Nature human behaviour · 2021Article
- Menstrual Cycle Tracking Applications and the Potential for Epidemiological Research: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature.Current epidemiology reports · 2021Article
- Predicting pregnancy using large-scale data from a women's health tracking mobile application.Proceedings of the ... International World-Wide Web Conference. International WWW Conference · 2019Article
- Assessment of menstrual health status and evolution through mobile apps for fertility awareness.NPJ digital medicine · 2019Article
- Discovery cycle.Nature medicine · 2018Article
- "UPDATE: I'm pregnant!": Inferring global downloads and reasons for using menstrual tracking apps.Digital healthArticle
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectivesThe underlying reasons why some women experience debilitating premenstrual symptoms and others do not are largely unknown. Here, we test the evolutionary ecological hypothesis that some negative premenstrual symptoms may be exacerbated by the presence of chronic sexually transmitted infections (STIs). METHODOLOGY: 34 511 women were recruited through a digital period-tracker app. Participants were asked: (i) Have you ever been diagnosed with a STI? (ii) If yes, when was it, and were you given treatment? Those data were combined with longitudinal cycle data on menstrual bleeding patterns, the experience of pain and emotions and hormonal contraceptive use.
results865 women had at least two complete menstrual cycle data and were eligible for analysis. Before diagnosis, the presence of an infection predicts a ca. 2-fold increase in the odds of reporting both headache, cramps and sadness during the late luteal phase and sensitive emotions during the wider luteal phase. After diagnosis, the odds of reporting negative symptoms pre-menstrually remain unchanged among STI negative individuals, but the odds of reporting sensitive emotions decrease among STI positive individuals receiving a treatment. No relationships between STIs, pain and emotions are observed among hormonal contraceptive users. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The results support the idea that a negative premenstrual experience might be aggravated by the presence of undiagnosed STIs, a leading cause of infertility worldwide. Caution is warranted in extrapolating the results as the data are self-reported, inflammatory levels are unknown and the tracker is biased towards recording negative premenstrual symptoms among Western individuals.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.