How to Measure “Short-Term Hormonal Effects”?

Table 1

Conceptual framework and grouping of the complaints or symptoms possibly relevant for measuring short-term effects of hormones (raw scale). These “multicausal symptoms” were arbitrarily allocated to one of the five groups, that is, the groups are not mutually exclusive.

	Groups where symptoms or complaints might be related to
	Psychological complaints	Somato-vegetative complaints	Menstrual, abdominal disturbances	Sexually related symptoms	Problems with hormone-sensitive Organs
Total number of symptoms	10	5	8	13	7
Listing of items of the raw scale	Reduced general well-being	Episodes of sudden sweating	Abdominal boating or swelling	Reduced sexual desire / libido	Breast tenderness or pain
	Depressive mood	Increased appetite, food craving	Abdominal pain	Reduced enjoyment of books or movies associated with sex	Temporary weight gain
	Sensation of loneliness	Nausea, dizziness	Cramps of guts or bladder	Less sexual fantasies/ thoughts	Swelling of extremities
	Easily anxious	Joint and muscular discomfort	Cyclic bleeding from guts or bladder	Sexual life less enjoyable/ satisfying	Greasy skin or acne
	Feeling worried	Heart discomfort	Irregular menstrual bleeding	Less satisfaction / enjoyment with sexual act	Hair disorders or problems
	Restlessness or irritability		Strong menstrual bleeding	Reduced vaginal lubrication during sex	Unexpected growth of body or facial hair
	Physical exhaustion		Painful menstrual period	Reduced sexual arousal	Suffering from cellulite
	Impaired capacity to concentrate		Significant premenstrual complaints that improve when menstrual flow began	Less sexual activity
	Impaired memory			Lower frequency of orgasm
	Sleep problems			Less satisfaction with orgasm
				Pain during or after sex
				Bladder problems
				Dryness or burning vagina