THIS FEMALE PSYCHOLOGIST BELIEVES THAT ‘PMS’ IS JUST A MYTH

A lot of people would use made-up word known as “PMS-ing” as a description used most commonly by men and a few women referring to a woman who is hormonal because she has or will have a period. It is usually a description for women who are very emotional and would get easily offended or would cry over anything or is easily triggered and offended. Men even consider these moments as dangerous since it is like dealing with a crazy woman.

It is also a description used when women who are on their period or is closing on having their menstruation and are just craving for foods and are just feeling gloomy. PMS-ing is actually from the Premenstrual syndrome. According to recent statistics, almost 85% of women in the United States actually experience premenstrual syndrome during their childbearing years, it is also considered to be most common in women who are below 40 years old. However, a psychologist believes that PMS-ing is actually just a myth and is just all happening inside a woman’s head.

PREMENSTRUAL SYNDROME: MYTH OR REAL?

Psychologist Robyn Stein DeLuca surprised the Internet when she revealed that as a woman and an expert, she believes that premenstrual syndrome or PMS is just a mental thing, or is just something that is happening on women’s heads and that it is just a way to juggle stress. “Women are expected to do a lot of things these days – we work, take care of families, we make sure everyone’s health is OK, we make the Christmas dinner and a lot of women use PMS as a release valve or if they can’t just give anymore,” DeLuca started.

But I’d you say it’s PMS, it is like a get-out-of-jail-free card, it’s women’s excuse when they need a break,” she continued. She also referred to it as a scapegoat. On her book entitled Hormone Myth: How Junk Science, Gender Politics And Lies About PMS Keep Women Down, the female doctor believes that women are extremely impacted by their hormones just like how they are impacted by the society.

In 2014, DeLuca actually gave a popular TED talk regarding this issue, and she said that it is a fact that women actually experiment a couple of effects of premenstrual syndrome wherein there are about 150 symptoms. Some of the most common symptoms include physical pain such as a headache, cramps, muscle aches. As well as being emotionally unstable like being easily irritated, tired, angry. Some women even feel hungry all the time. However, the psychologist said that it doesn’t dispute that all of this actually occurs but pointed that there is actually no good way to describe what PMS actually is, but one thing she is sure of, and that is PMS do not drastically hinder women’s daily activities.

“I think that reproductive hormone does cause some physical and emotional symptoms (sadness and cramps) but that for the great majority of women, these symptoms don’t threaten their ability to function socially and professionally, and this phenomenon should be labeled a disease,” DeLuca explained. She also added that occasionally feeling anger and sadness is a part of being human.

85% of women in the United States actually experience premenstrual syndrome

In an email she sent Newsweek, she stated that a small portion of women may actually experience severe changes when it comes to their hormones and this often results in premenstrual dysphoric disorder. In order to get a medical diagnosis, women need to exhibit at least five out of eleven signs of premenstrual dysphoric disorder wherein one of them is mood-related.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT PMS

According to Healthline, symptoms of PMS usually starts about 11 days before menstruation and it usually goes away by the time women have their periods. However, experts haven’t exactly found the original cause of premenstrual syndrome, but some researchers have managed to actually relate this to the changing of hormones and serotonin levels when a menstrual cycle begins.

This is because when a woman gets her period, the levels of estrogen as well as the progesterone, actually increases and both these hormones cause irritability, mood swings, and even anxiety. The serotonin levels, on the other hand, are the ones that affect the mood because it is the chemical in the human brain that guts the emotions, moods as well as the thought.