Prevalence and severity of premenstrual changes after tubal sterilization

Many women report an association between tubal sterilization and the premenstrual syndrome. While early reports suggested such a linkage, more recent studies failed to confirm this association. In an attempt to elucidate the alleged association of tubal sterilization with premenstrual changes, we compared the severity of symptoms and their possible correlates with hormonal levels in 78 sterilized and nonsterilized women with prospectively confirmed premenstrual syndrome. No significant difference could be demonstrated between the groups in both the retrospective and prospective evaluation of the severity of premenstrual syndrome symptoms as well as in luteal hormonal levels. Our data confirm that premenstrual symptoms probably are not associated with tubal sterilization.