Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS): PMS Is Not Just "Bad Moods" That Are Easily Ignored
Many
menstruators fear the combination of symptoms known as Pre-Menstrual Syndrome
(PMS). They consist of a complicated combination of mental and emotional
changes that cause exhaustion and distress just before the start of a menstrual
cycle. Many women who have periods suffer from PMS, but there hasn't been much
in the way of in-depth study or public awareness of the condition.
PMS
is frequently written off as simple mood swings or food cravings, and this is
done to gaslight those who experience it. PMS is much more than just pains,
mood swings, and the blues. Before the period starts, this condition has
effects that go far beyond "simply being irritable.
The
history of PMS is also a story of how menstrual discomfort was devalued and
turned into a gendered characteristic. In popular culture, PMS is viewed as a
technique used to mock menstruators, particularly women, by equating them with
weakness. Women's legitimate displeasure and rage are hidden by the constant
association of their emotions with PMS and other monthly discomforts. Similar
to the history of hysteria, sociologists have used PMS to ascribe menstruators to
gendered characteristics.
Pre-Menstrual
Syndrome: What Is It?
Pre-Menstrual
Syndrome is a collection of alterations in physical, behavioural, and emotional
characteristics that commonly take place just before the start of a period.
Before every period, it frequently repeats itself and interferes with the
person who is experiencing it in their day-to-day activities. Bloating, breast
soreness, weight gain, cramps, migraines, acne, an increase in hunger, abrupt
mood swings, and other symptoms are common PMS symptoms. Various menstruators
experience these symptoms to different degrees.
According
to a 2019 study reported in the National Medical Journal of India, the
prevalence of PMS was 62.7% among 300 students enrolled in the scientific
stream of a women's college in Puducherry. The most frequent symptoms were
abdominal heaviness and discomfort, followed by back, joint, and muscular
problems. Since PMS frequently interferes with wellbeing, productivity, and
mental health, it is believed that those who experience it during the PMS phase
have a lower quality of life.
PMS
is not something that should be ignored or written off as a temporary period of
slight discomfort. So that we do not let our gender prejudice hinder our
thorough understanding of PMS, it must be understood scientifically as well as
psychologically, and we must use the gender lens to properly examine its
numerous intricacies of it.
To
properly revive scientific discussion on the subject and advance toward
developing potential treatments for the condition, it is necessary to dispel
the many myths surrounding PMS.
Myth
1: PMS only causes moodiness.
Menstruating
women are not affected by some unusual phenomenon that makes them moody, and it
is certainly not a justification to minimise or gaslight them. A group of
symptoms known as PMS include mood swings and depressed moods. However, as was
already indicated, there is much more to it. PMS can cause symptoms that are
both emotional and physical, thus it involves a variety of simultaneous events
that go much beyond "simply being irritated."
Although
the exact cause of PMS is unknown, emotional disturbances are assumed to be
related to the peaks and valleys of estrogen-specific hormones throughout the
menstrual cycle. These hormonal changes may be the cause of the psychological
symptoms rather than the other way around. It is problematic to reduce PMS to
just an emotional experience, especially in light of the fact that it is
frequently used to minimise the suffering of menstruators, particularly women,
and to stigmatise them as weak or unstable.
Myth
2: Everyone who menstruates has PMS
Although
many people have some degree of PMS symptoms, not all women who menstruate will
necessarily experience them. Premenstrual symptoms of mild to moderate
intensity are common, but from a medical standpoint, they are not considered
PMS if they don't significantly impair a person's quality of life.
With
age, menstrual flow, and the presence of additional contributing variables
including PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), mental health issues, menopause,
and the like, PMS and its effects on a person fluctuate. The experience of
having a period is not uniform, and PMS is no different.
Myth
3: PMS is not troublesome.
This
allegation is false because PMS is a recognised medical illness. In addition to
common PMS symptoms including breast pain and bloating, Premenstrual Dysphoric
Disorder (PMDD) is a severe version of PMS that causes intense mood swings,
melancholy, hopelessness, and impatience or hostility.
PMDD
is a serious, considerably more complex form of PMS that calls for care and
attention from a doctor. It is a fallacy that has been spread to prevent
conversations about menstruation distress and maintain the taboo surrounding
such topics that PMS is merely something that happens before a person
menstruates and that it does not require examination or care.
Premenstrual
syndrome (PMS) is a diagnosis made by a medical professional based on the
frequency, nature, and severity of a patient's premenstrual symptoms.
Monitoring your symptoms might help you identify PMS symptoms and decide
whether you need to see a doctor. Knowing one's premenstrual symptom pattern
can be helpful for letting one know where they are in the cycle, assisting them
in making plans in advance to lessen uncomfortable symptoms, and assisting them
in identifying triggers that worsen symptoms.
We
should not ignore the serious nature of PMS and PMDD symptoms. It is even more
crucial that society stop using them as a tactic to minimise any real problems
that women who are menstruating may be experiencing.