Premenstrual syndrome and menstruation

Women who cry at silly television shows, are happy one minute but angry the next, and complains of being bloated, tired, and headachy may be suffering from premenstrual syndrome. Symptoms of premenstrual syndrome include both physical and emotional factors that take place around the time of your period. Some of those other symptoms include anxiety, depression, fatigue, breast tenderness, weight gain, mood swings, and food cravings.

Although premenstrual syndrome affects millions of women each year researchers are still unsure of the precise cause of this condition. There are theories that PMS is the result of shifting hormone levels in women who are more hypersensitive to those changes or may have some connection to neurotransmitters in the brain.

While PMS affects millions of women, and has no particular identifiable cause, doctors are aware of a number of treatments that help women to diminish their symptoms. These treatments usually involve changes in lifestyle, such as quitting smoking, switching to eating low-fat diets and getting plenty of exercise. Some women do respond well to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a class of drugs used to treat depression, because the medication inhibits the action of serotonin in the brain, which affects mood, appetite and anxiety.

Premenstrual syndrome causes many symptoms that affects all aspects of a woman’s life and can wreak havoc on her personal relationships. In some studies, more than 150 symptoms were identified that are associated with premenstrual syndrome. Most women experience only a handful of the symptoms but some may experience up to a dozen or more at one time. PMS symptoms tend to appear about midway through your menstrual cycle and continue until your period has begun. PMS can affect any woman of child bearing age at any time and, unfortunately, will continue until after menopause.

For a long time, premenstrual syndrome have been thought to be entirely a woman’s issue, but recent research has identified Irritable Male Syndrome or IMS, which is also believed to be linked to hormonal changes in the man. It is estimated that approximately 30 to 50% of men experience some symptoms related to Irritable Male Syndrome which include depression, fatigue, irritability, headaches and back pain. Physicians believe that this condition is brought on by periods of stress and high fat diet in combination with their fluctuating hormones during the month. In order to reduce symptoms of male PMS, or IMS, stress reduction and a low-fat, balanced diet is often recommended.