Title: 'Squaring the circle' of the menstrual cycle? An interdisciplinary approach to the premenstrual problem
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: The primary aim of the proposed ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship is to consolidate and build upon my PhD research experience, in order to develop an important and impactful body of socio-legal work for my future career in academia. The key objectives are: -To establish and develop my publication track record by producing three separate but intrinsically linked academic articles for publication (details below). -To enhance existing stakeholder relations, widen my networks and participate in public engagement by holding a workshop/roundtable session with medical professionals, menstrual activists and members of the public (details below). -To maximise the wider impact and relevance of my research by collaborating with existing networks, e.g., policy@manchester, and future connections, e.g., ESRC Festival of Social Science 2020. -To extend my work's national and international reach by publishing a monthly social media blog tailored towards a non-academic audience. -To advance my methodological research contribution by using this blog to also explore the value of feminist legal narrative in the contemporary context. -To enhance my existing expertise by engaging in archival research training at the National Archives, for the purposes of further developing my legal history research skills. -To draw on my existing network at the University of Manchester in order to engage in some (limited) postgraduate level research-led teaching in relation to my existing PhD research. -To identify and develop future career opportunities and funding proposals, with the assistance of my mentor. The ESRC Fellowship project is thematically structured around the idea of 'Squaring the circle of the menstrual cycle'. Famously, the concept of 'squaring the circle' is a reference not only to an age-old problem - though here it is the premenstrual malady, not a mathematical conundrum that is the nub of the debate - but it is also a metaphor for attempting to do the seemingly impossible. In this context therefore, 'squaring the circle' of the menstrual cycle also represents the complex problem of seeking to bring together the disparate interdisciplinary interests - medical, legal, socio-political and personal - that are fundamental to this project's scholarly consideration of women's premenstrual and mental health. The key outputs that form the cornerstones of the project are all generated from my existing doctoral research and are set out below: -I. Article 1: 'The premenstrual malady: taking a medical history of a modern medicalised disorder' - A contextualised medico-legal analysis of the historical background and contemporary approach to the medicalisation of the premenstrual disorders (6,000 word article for 'Health Care Analysis'). -II. Article 2: 'The premenstrual disorders on trial: a complex case history' - A socio-legal study of the so-called 'premenstrual defence', situated in the context of the historical, legal, criminological and feminist literature that relate to a series of murder/diminished responsibility defence cases in the English criminal courts during the late twentieth century (12,000 word article for 'Journal of Law and Society'). -III. Article 3: 'Telling stories about the premenstrual sufferer: a case study for a new feminist narrative within the women's healthcare context': A contemporary methodological analysis of the merits and disadvantages of feminist legal storytelling as an approach to awareness raising in the context of women's health issues (10,000 word article for 'Feminist Legal Studies'). -IV. A stakeholder workshop, 'What's stopping society from taking premenstrual disorders seriously?', to build on existing academic and non-academic networks established during my PhD and to widen the Fellowship's impact. This will be run in tandem with a project blog entitled, 'Premenstrual MATTERS', which will also increase the reach of this event and allow for the communication of findings as the project develops.

Lay abstract: 'Oh! Menstruating woman, thou'rt a fiend, From whom all nature should be closely screened!' (Anon) The primary aim of this Fellowship is to advance our current socio-scientific understanding of the relationship between the female menstrual cycle and the 'wicked' problem of mental health (Henderson and Gronholm, 2018). Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), or severe premenstrual syndrome (PMS) as it is also known, is a debilitating clinical condition that can cause serious suffering to some individuals during a specific phase of their menstrual cycle. Moreover, the dilemma of many premenstrual sufferers is exacerbated by the stigmatising nature of their premenstrual condition - as encapsulated in the ancient verse set out above, which is itself cited in Simone de Beauvoir's pioneering work 'The Second Sex'. Conceptually - and in reality - the premenstrual sufferer represents a complex and problematic phenomenon. As such, 'squaring the circle' of her multiple and variegated medical, legal and socio-political issues is a fundamentally important endeavour, particularly in the light of both recent scientific developments and a perceived contemporary shift in twenty-first century social attitudes towards the female menstrual cycle. This project aims to build upon and develop my PhD study, which focused more especially on the conceptualisation of a premenstrual defendant's criminal responsibility, but also provided the impetus for this project. According to recent research (Schmidt and others, 2017), women with PMDD have a different susceptibility to the effect of their sex hormones (Baller and Ross, 2019), and this can cause sufferers to experience altered brain network activity. To date, PMDD has now been recognised by the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-5, 2013), the UK-based clinical community (RCOG, 2016) and the World Health Organization (ICD-11, 2019). But questions still remain as to the precise nature, diagnosis and potential treatment of this 'new' mental health disorder. In terms of context then, this project is timely and highly significant. Not only does it seek to address a fundamental gap in research on the relationship between women's menstrual/reproductive health issues and their mental health, but it fulfils a further objective, by adding to a growing body of UK-based policy work on the disproportionate impact of women's experiences of mental ill-health (Department of Health and Social Care, 2018), as compared to men (McManus and others, 2016). Ultimately, the Fellowship will advance current knowledge by undertaking a novel interdisciplinary study of our evolving social, clinical and legal understandings of premenstrual dysphoric disorder. In doing so, the project will examine the 'problem' of the premenstrual disorders as contextualised by reference to existing medico-legal and socio-historic debates about PMDD, alongside the negative narratives that circumscribe the premenstrual disorders and the women who suffer from them. The integrated set of publications generated from the Fellowship will be the first such interdisciplinary study of PMDD in the UK context. Drawing on an established international biomedical, legal and ethical research framework to steer the research (Ginsburg and Carter, 1984), the project will provide an up-to-date interdisciplinary understanding of PMDD, which links to wider research questions about the social role of medicine and science, the socio-historic meaning of criminal responsibility and the complexities of feminist agendas. In addition, the project also aims to connect more directly with those who have personal experience of PMDD, by creating opportunities for meaningful impact among clinicians, activists and, most importantly, premenstrual sufferers. Conceptually then, the aim of the Fellowship is to 'square the circle' of this particular menstrual problem, by asking 'How can we change the story that surrounds the premenstrual disorders?'.

Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES;8.3 POLICY, ETHICS AND RESEARCH GOVERNANCE
Health categories: REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND CHILDBIRTH;MENTAL HEALTH