Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
Introduction
Symptoms
Explanation
Risk factors
Breaking the Cycle
References
Introduction
Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or premenstrual tension (PMT) is a collection of physical, psychological, and emotional symptoms related to the hormonal changes in a woman's menstrual cycle. These symptoms normally start 8-10 days before menstruation (during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle), and cease just before or shortly after the start of menstrual flow.
Premenstrual symptoms vary widely between different women, but are of sufficient severity to interfere with some aspects of their lives. PMS does not affect all women, nor is it confined to certain age groups. Any woman who is still menstruating can suffer from PMS. It can vary from mildly disturbing to a severe and debilitating condition that greatly affects a woman's quality of life for nearly two weeks every month, for many years.
Most women experience at least one symptom that could be related to PMS, but their severity and disruption depends upon how stringently they are defined. Between 3% and 25% of women may experience mood changes and other symptoms that affect the functioning of their lives each month.
The symptoms tend to decrease in peri-menopausal women, and disappear at menopause.
Symptoms
- Mood swings, irritability, tension, unhappiness, emotional sensitivity, anxiety
- Breast tenderness or swelling
- Fatigue
- Insomnia and disrupted sleep
- Food cravings
- Libido changes
- Fluid retention
- Headaches and migraines
- Abdominal cramps, bloating, constipation
- Cyclic acne
- Joint or muscle pain
People who have never lived with someone suffering from mood swings and other severe PMS symptoms often have little empathy or understanding of the condition. Partners and families of PMS sufferers don't know what to do. Mainstream medicine offers little in the way of effective treatment because pharmaceutical companies have not publicised the effectiveness of natural progesterone in treating the condition, and the pivotal role that progesterone plays.
Explanation
In a normal healthy woman of reproductive age, the stimulatory effects of estrogen are checked and balanced by the hormone progesterone. Progesterone is produced when ovulation takes place at around day 12 of the menstrual cycle. After the egg is released from the follicle on the surface of the ovary, the follicle changes into what is called the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum makes the progesterone. Without ovulation there is no production of progesterone. Estrogen and progesterone levels peak around day 22. Just before menstruation the level of both hormones plummets and the uterine lining sheds. Then the period commences.
The cause of PMS is insufficient progesterone. Women who experience PMS don't produce enough progesterone or fail to regularly ovulate (anovulatory menstruation). Without sufficient progesterone, the estrogen in her body dominates and causes premenstrual symptoms.
Risk Factors
- Opting for childbirth in the mid to late thirties and especially having several children after this time is a risk factor. For many women, PMS starts not long after having a second or third child. Remember that pregnancy exerts a massive assault on a woman's physical body and on her endocrine (hormonal) system
- This is especially true for women who have their first pregnancy in their late twenties or thirties. These women tend to produce less progesterone once their menstrual cycle returns and ovulation recommences. Unfortunately the ovaries are still very efficient at estrogen production, and with high estrogen levels the symptoms of estrogen dominance appear
- Diet - a diet high in sugar and refined salt (generally, a processed food diet)
- Low levels of certain vitamins and minerals, particularly magnesium, iron, manganese, and vitamins B6 and E
- Caffeine
- Stress
- History of depression
- Family history of premenstrual tension
- Nicotine
Breaking the Cycle
Progesterone deficiency, estrogen dominance, PMS, and other severe problems like osteoporosis, insulin resistance, cancer risk and thyroid disease are all interlinked. The use of natural progesterone cream balances the estrogen dominance. Three to four months after applying the cream from days 12 -26 of the menstrual cycle will usually resolve the symptoms of PMS, often sooner.
The English physician, Dr Katherina Dalton(1) pioneered this work in the 1960's. She devoted her life to natural progesterone research. At first her work was ridiculed by her peers, but she proved the effectiveness of progesterone in this still-ignored area of medicine.
References
(1) Katherina Dalton. Once a Month: The Original Premenstrual Syndrome Handbook. 1978