Dr Lynsay Matthews MBChB MSc PhD PGCert LTHE FHEA

Research interest: Women’s mental health

Lynsay researches the link between menstrual health and mental health, with a particular interest in Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD).

Lynsay is Trustee of the International Association for Premenstrual Disorders UK (IAPMD UK).

Lynsay and colleagues have won funding to: 

• co-develop the UK’s first research agenda for PMDD (funded by Research England)
• develop a PMDD suicidal behaviour model (funded by the ESRC)
• explore how people with PMDD seek support from the UK welfare benefits system (funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh)
• explore how PMDD impacts mothers and their children (funded by the UWS Crucible)
• explore hormonal trigger events for people with PMDD (Medical Research Scotland)

Other projects include PMDD and disordered eating, and PMDD and physical activity.

To see Lynsay and colleague's research, visit www.pmddresearch.com. Here you can sign up to the PMDD insight group or the professionals' Special Interest Group. 

Memberships

• International Association for Premenstrual Disorders (IAPMD Global)
• National Association for Premenstrual Syndromes (NAPS)
• 4M - Menarche, Menstruation, Menopause and Mental Health Consortium
• UK Society for Behavioural Medicine (UKSBM)
• Steering group for UCL's premenstrual core outcome set project
• NIHR's Women's Mental Health working group
• Scottish Government's Health of Women and Girls Research Network
• Women's Health Wales Coalition
• Faculty for Sexual and Reproductive Health (FSRH)
• University College London’s eating disorder interest group
• Scottish Government’s Cross-Party Group for Women’s Health

Outside of women’s mental health, Lynsay is:

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Member of the Trial Steering Committee for the CHARMER trial

MRC/NIHR Framework for Developing and Evaluating Complex Interventions 

Lynsay is co-author of the updated framework, funded and published by the MRC and NIHR. The framework (and its BMJ summary paper) provides a guide for developing and evaluating complex interventions. 

Lynsay is co-applicant on two current NIHR grants, helping align the research with the MRC/NIHR Framework. These include:

• Exploring the feasibility and acceptability of conducting a study comparing the effectiveness of colpocleisis with sacrospinous fixation in women with pelvic organ prolapse (the C-POP study) (funded by NIHR HTA programme).
• UNiTY: A randomised controlled trial evaluating the clinical and cost effectiveness of IVF versus IUI for UNexplained infertiliTY (funded by NIHR HTA programme).

Book chapters

• Evaluation of Behaviour Change Interventions in Cambridge’s Handbook of Behaviour Change (Cambridge Press).
• Editor of 12 chapters in Physiology in Childbearing (Elsevier). 

 Postgraduate supervision

• PhD (ongoing): The impact of PMDD on mothers and their children
• PhD (ongoing): Menstrual cycle and management of diabetes
• Prof Doc (ongoing): Health visiting experiences during COVID lockdown
• Master of Public Health, examples include:
  • Disordered eating in women with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder 
  • Suicide risk in women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder 
  • The impact of premenstrual symptoms on the sleep quality of women
  • The impact of premenstrual syndrome on adolescent mental health 
  • The effects of physical activity during peri-menopause 
  • Risk factors associated with suicidality in the perinatal period 
  • Sociocultural factors associated with intimate partner violence and postpartum depression among Ethiopian women 

Teaching

Lynsay is lecturer on the Master of Public Health programme, and its Women's Health pathway, leading the Women's Mental Health module, and the Statistical Methods for Public Health module. Outside of UWS, Lynsay teaches on complex intervention research, process evaluation, and programme theory.

Recent public engagement and media

• BBC News. "Living with PMDD is like having the Grim Reaper visit every month" (2026)
• The Conversation. "Premenstrual dysphoric disorder is associated with higher risk of suicide – here’s how we hope our new tool will help" (2026)
• STV News. Launch of IAPMD UK (2026)
• The Happy Menopause podcast. Mood and menopause: Managing PMDD in Perimenopause (2024)
• The Conversation: "Suicide Risk is Higher in Certain Phases of the Menstrual Cycle" (2024)

Awards

• UK Society of Behavioural Medicine, 2023: conference poster prize for 'Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder: a UK research agenda' (Authors: Matthews L, Riddel J)
• Royal College of Psychiatry Eating Disorder Faculty, 2022: conference poster prize for ‘Disordered eating in women with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder’ (Authors: Matthews L, Ebesoh Nkeng R, Miranda M).
• Diabetes UK Education and Self-Management Award, Diabetes UK (2016)
• Quality in Care Diabetes award (2015 & 2016)

Publications

A selection of recent outputs:

Matthews L, Riddell J, Cleare S, Harkess-Murphy E, O’Connor R.C. (2026) The Applied IMV Model of Suicidal Behaviour for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (IMV-PMDD). University of the West of  Scotland. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17279172

Henderson, A., et al., Cognition and behaviour across the menstrual cycle in individuals with premenstrual dysphoric disorder - A systematic review. J Affect Disord, 2025. 371: p. 134-146. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.11.033.

Matthews, L. and J. Riddell, Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD): The UK research agenda. 2025: University of the West of Scotland. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14644017.

Campbell, M., et al., Final report. Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder and the welfare state: recommendations for reform. University of the West of Scotland, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15492686.

Nkeng, R.E., L. Matthews, and J. Riddell, [preprint] Exploring the relationship between Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) and disordered eating: a qualitative study. University of the West of Scotland, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15418965.

Funding

£7850 Principal Investigator. Medical Research Scotland (2025): Exploring hormonal trigger events for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD).

£10,000 Principal Investigator. UWS Crucible Initiative (2023): Impact of PMDD on mothers and their children.

£2850 Principal Investigator. Royal Society of Edinburgh (2023): Women’s health and the welfare state: reform of discriminatory assessment criteria 

£435,000 Co-applicant. NIHR Health Technology Assessment (2022): The CPOP trial - a randomised controlled trial to compare the feasibility of evaluating different surgical methods of pelvic floor repair in older women (PI Dr Laura Jones, University of Birmingham).

£1,410,000  Co-applicant. NIHR Health Technology Assessment (2022): The UNITY trial - a randomised controlled trial to compare the different methods of infertility treatment (PI Dr Jackson Kirkman-Brown, University of Birmingham).

£4000 Principal Investigator. Research England (2022): Co-development of a research agenda for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder in the UK (initiated with University of Birmingham, completed with UWS).

£5000 Principal Investigator. ESRC Impact Accelerator Fund (2022): Co-development of a systems map and programme theory for suicide prevention in people with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (initiated with University of Birmingham, now ongoing with UWS). 

£95,000 Co-applicant. Medical Research Council (2017-2018): Update of the MRC and NIHR’s Framework for Developing and Evaluating Complex Interventions (PI Professor Laurence Moore, University of Glasgow).

£87,500 Co-applicant. Baily Thomas Charitable Fund (2014-2018): A feasibility study to explore factors associated with the health behaviours of adolescents with learning disabilities as they transition from school to adulthood (PI Dr Fiona Mitchell, University of Glasgow).

£224,338 Co-applicant. Chief Scientist Office (2012-2014): The impact of a walking intervention on the physical activity levels and health of adults with learning disabilities (PI Professor Craig Melville, University of Glasgow).