Premenstrual Syndrome Essays (1525 words) - Menstrual Cycle

Premenstrual Syndrome For three weeks out of every month you're energetic, happy, upbeat and even- tempered, then it happens. A week before your period begins the change into a ?mad women? happens. Your mood swings form frustration to irritability, to downright anger, even depression. Your breasts become tender to the touch, and your ankle, feet, hands and stomach swell so much that your clothes become to tight it's uncomfortable to move. Somehow, despite the cramps and the headaches we manage to waddle to and from the refrigerator to satisfy those ?junk food cravings?. Sounds awful? It is but it's something that we as women deal with on a monthly basis. The dreaded is known as Premenstrual Syndrome or PMS. Premenstrual Syndrome is also known as premenstrual tension, premenstrual dysphoria and most commonly PMS. PMS is a symptom or collection of symptoms that occurs regularly in relation to the menstrual cycle, with the onset of symptoms 5 to 11 days before the onset of menses and resolution of symptoms with menses or shortly thereafter (Yahoo 1). Another source describes PMS as a disorder characterized by a set of hormonal changes that trigger disruptive symptoms in a significant number of women for up to two weeks prior to menstruation. Of the estimated forty million sufferers, moor than five million require medical treatment for marked mood and behavioral changes. Often symptoms tend to taper off with menstruation and women remain symptom-free until the two weeks or so prior to the next menstrual period. These regularly recurring symptoms form ovulation until menses typify PMS (Lichten 1). The symptoms that can occur are many. The most common physical symptoms can include headache, swelling of ankles, feet and hands, backache, abdominal cramps or heaviness, abdominal pain, abdominal fullness, gaseous muscle spasms, breast tenderness, weight gain, recurrent cold sores (herpes labialis), acne flare-up, nausea, bloating, bowel changes (constipation or diarrhea), decreased coordination, food cravings, decreased tolerance to sensory input like noise and light, and painful menstruation. Other symptoms not physical can include anxiety, confusion difficulty concentration, forgetfulness, poor judgment, depression, irritability, hostility, aggressive behavior, increased guilt feelings, fatigue, decreased self image, libido changes, paranoia, lethargic movement low self-esteem (Yahoo 2). The symptoms are obviously many and have a varying degree of severity. The next question that arises is what the cause could be. The exact cause of PMS, headaches and depression are unknown. In fact, it is not known why some women have severe symptoms, some have mild ones, while others have none. It is generally believed that PMS patients, migraine and depression come from neurochemical changes within the brain. Hormonal factors, such as estrogen levels, may also be the cause. The female hormone estrogen starts to rise after menstruation and peaks around mid-cycle. It ten rapidly drops only to slowly rise and then fall again in the time before menstruation. Estrogen holds fluid and with increasing estrogen comes fluid retention; many women report weight gains of five pounds premenstrually. Estrogen has a central neurological effect: it can contribute to increase brain activity and even seizures. Estrogen can also contribute to retention of salt and a drop in blood sugar. PMS patients benefit from both salt and sugar restriction (Lichten 2). Another possible cause dates back almost sixty years. In the psychoana lytic essay on PMS by Karen Horney, she suggested that the tension preceding the period is caused by the unconscious denial of a desire for a child. In 1942 the first extensive psychological tests conducted on menstrual and premenstrual women. ?Therese Benedek an d B.B. Rubenstein examined the emotional an hormonal swings of the menstrual cycle and found a tendency toward acute emotional response and dependent behavior during the premenstruum, which they attributed to changes in the production of estrogen an d to certain psychological factors. Since 1942, many attempts have been made to evaluate the premenstrual symptoms, but psychologist Mary Brown Parlee later concluded that there is no established proof that a measurable PMS even exists. The co relational studies and the Premenstrual Distress Questionnaire results of Moos in 1968 often predict, through their wording, the very symptoms that they expect to isolate. Most of the studies on violence and PMS fail to place women in appr opriate subgroups. And in