Degree

BS (Social Sciences & Liberal Arts)

Faculty / School

School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS)

Department

Department of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts

Date of Award

Spring 2025

Date of Submission

2025-07-21

Advisor

Ms Amna Tufail

Committee

Dr Hiba Zaheer

Project Type

SSLA Culminating Experience

Access Type

Restricted Access

Keywords

PMDD, Pakistan, Medicalization, Feminist Theory, Reproductive Mental Health

Abstract

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) remains an underrecognized and poorly understood condition, particularly in non-Western healthcare settings. This qualitative study explores how healthcare professionals in Pakistan perceive, diagnose, and engage with PMDD, using semi-structured interviews with six female practitioners across psychiatry, gynecology, and clinical psychology. Anchored in the Biopsychosocial Model, Feminist Theory, and Medicalization Theory, the study offers a multi-layered analysis of the cultural, clinical, and institutional dynamics shaping PMDD’s visibility. Thematic analysis revealed four key themes: widespread lack of awareness and underdiagnosis; stigma and cultural resistance; the paradox of medicalization; and the need for integrated, compassionate care. Rather than evidence of psychiatric overreach, findings reflect a structural silence: PMDD is absent from curricula, diagnostic frameworks, and institutional discourse. Professionals expressed uncertainty not out of denial, but due to stigma, lack of training, and interdisciplinary ambiguity. The study stresses the urgent need to incorporate reproductive mental health more deliberately into medical education and policy in Pakistan. It also highlights the limitations of binary debates around medicalization and instead calls for a more context-sensitive approach that validates suffering without reducing it to pathology. Ultimately, this thesis contributes to a growing body of work that reclaims space for women’s cyclical pain within global and local frameworks of care. Keywords: PMDD, Pakistan, Medicalization, Feminist Theory, Reproductive Mental

Pages

68

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