PMS: Ways to Record Your Symptoms
Topic Overview
There are several ways to
keep a menstrual diary of your
PMS symptoms. Diaries that require daily recording are
more reliable in tracking your symptoms. Calendars without marks for a day may
mean you forgot to record for that day rather than a day when you didn't have
any symptoms.
Most bothersome symptom scoring
You can choose your
five most bothersome PMS symptoms and record their severity daily with a score
from 0 to 3 (0 being the absence of that symptom, 3 being most severe). See
example below.
| Day of month |
Symptom 1 |
Symptom 2 |
Symptom 3 |
Symptom 4 |
Symptom 5 |
| 1 |
Score 2 |
Score 1 |
Score 3 |
Score 0 |
Score 2 |
| 2 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
| 3 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
| Continue days |
|
|
|
|
|
Variety of symptoms scoring
You can keep a calendar
that lists a wide variety of symptoms. You record the severity of each symptom
daily on a scale of 1 to 3 (1 being mild and 3 being severe). If the symptom is
not present on any day, you don't record anything. See example below.
| Day of month |
Symptom A |
Symptom B |
Symptom C |
Symptom D |
Continue symptoms |
| 1 |
1 (mild) |
1 |
1 |
2 (moderate) |
|
| 2 |
-- |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
| 3 |
-- |
-- |
2 |
3 (severe) |
|
| Continue days |
|
|
|
|
|
Symbol scoring
You can use symbols to indicate the
presence and severity of a list of symptoms or just the ones most bothersome to
you. If you don't have a symptom that day, you don't mark the diary for that
day. A mild symptom is indicated with a dot. Moderate symptoms are indicated by
a circle. Severe symptoms are indicated by an X. See example below.
| Day of month |
Symptom A |
Symptom B |
Symptom C |
Continue symptoms |
| 1 |
· |
° |
× |
|
| 2 |
· |
|
× |
|
| 3 |
· |
° |
× |
|
| Continue days |
|
|
|
|
Credits
|
By
|
Healthwise Staff |
|
Primary Medical Reviewer
|
Sarah Marshall, MD - Family Medicine |
|
Specialist Medical Reviewer
|
Kirtly Jones, MD - Obstetrics and Gynecology |
|
Last Revised
|
June 8, 2012 |
Last Revised:
June 8, 2012