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 Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 4:45 am
Well, yes. I know there must be something called PMS because so many women claim to experience it. But is it as prevalent as society leads us to believe?
Experiences in my own life:
I've never actually experienced the symptoms of PMS. Sure, I get cramps once a month, but never the mood swings and other symptoms that supposedly happen during the time leading up to menstruation. And I can't be the only one.
A lot of women seem to use PMS as an excuse to cover up their bad behavior. But is this a valid excuse or just a convenient one that women can always fall back on when they need to?
My Psychology teacher put it this way... She said that whenever her intro class gets to the part about mental disorders, she always has kids waiting after class to talk about how they suddenly realized that they have some rare disorder once they hear what the symptoms are. And PMS is similar. Women are led to believe that they will experience the symptoms of PMS, so if they happen to have a stressful week (for whatever reason) during the time leading up to their menstrual cycle, then they're likely to attribute their symptoms of stress to PMS instead. But they conveniently ignore the fact that they have stressful weeks during other parts of the month and that men also have stress--they just don't have PMS to blame it on.
According to this article, there are no gender differences in mood, no relationship between stage of the menstrual cycle and emotional symptoms, and no consistent PMS pattern that exists across menstrual cycles. So, why do so many women claim to experience PMS each month?
Possible discussion questions for women:
--Do you regularly experience PMS symptoms?
--If so, how strongly do you feel that these symptoms are a direct result of menstruation and not just coincidental?
--Have you ever blamed a bad mood or a stressful day on PMS when you knew that it wasn't the case?
Possible discussion questions for men:
--Do you believe in PMS?
--Do you sympathize with women who claim to suffer from PMS?
--Have you ever suspected a woman of lying about PMS symptoms as an excuse for bad behavior?
(Feel free to deviate from these questions. I just wanted to make sure the men didn't feel left out because of the subject matter xp )I have no idea why I'm up this early and why I randomly decided that I wanted to make my first topic ever in this subforum. But you should go easy on me because I'm on my peri--*Shot*Edit: And for some reason, I had posted this in the Recycle Bin at first. It definitely goes to show that I shouldn't be awake right now >.<
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:26 pm
.......
Well, I'm an annoying b*****d to a great amount of people. And I have noticed that, on occasion, some of the women that I annoy react differently.
*Shot*
If it does exist, it doesn't affect me.
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:36 pm
I do not believe in it, nor do I sympathize with rude people, no matter the circumstance.
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 1:00 pm
I'm a man, my opinion does not matter on these sorts of things. xp
I have to sympathize, or more correctly, avoid them. I do this because if not I'm viewed as just a giant a*****e. sweatdrop
Every time I hear it, I suspect it. But I don't say anything or make any indication of my thoughts for the above reason.
However there is evidence to support PMS so I guess I could believe it exists.
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Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 1:15 pm
Quote: Premenstrual syndrome-PMS is estimated to affect up to 75% of women during their childbearing years. It occurs more often in women: -Between their late 20s and early 40s -Who have at least one child -With a family history of a major depression -With a history of postpartum depression or an affective mood disorder Yay Google Health! So by reading that, it's highly doubtful that every female in the world has it. But I do believe it's a real thing. I rarely even got cramps, just my arthritis acting up and the oh so fun bleeding. Though now that I'm on a BC so I don't my period but my arthritis still acts up around the time I would get it. confused
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Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 10:45 am
I can't really comment on anything other than my own experience, so I'm not going to say it doesn't exist, but I don't experience it. I get cramps, and occasionally they'll make me more irritable, but I would get annoyed if someone was bothering me when I was feeling under the weather for any other reason. I can sympathize with people who claim to suffer from PMS, but only to a certain extent. I wont accept someone being extremely rude to me then claiming it's not their fault.
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Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 1:37 pm
Let's see... I don't regularly experience PMS. I've felt some symptoms before, but they are irregular.
A woman's cycle is never really the same, nor are the chemicals flowing through her body. Everything can change so quickly. I don't believe that it's a constant, all the time.
Anyone can lie and say that they're going through PMS, but that doesn't always mean someone IS lying about it.
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Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 1:47 pm
I think a lot more gets attributed to PMS than is actually PMS, but I think it does exist. It's really difficult to tell the difference between symptoms induced by PMS or other menstrual problems like dysmenorea... so I'm not for sure. Regardless though, a woman's hormone's are going to fluctuate at that time of the month, and I often find myself bawling for no reason (like, honestly, NO reason). I'd call that PMS. It's not because I feel poorly, or because anything happened... so I chalk it up to unruly hormones (AKA PMS) and get on with it.
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 7:29 am
Yup, my girlfriend has mood swings cuz of PMS, and I get the brunt of the blow xp
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:23 pm
Sometimes I get a little more peevish right beforehand...but it's just a tiny bit...nothing major, doesn't really affect anything. Though I do gain some water weight the week beforehand. But other than that, no real PMS stuff.
Though I think PMDD was something drug companies just made up to sell birth control pills ninja
Though I knew a couple people in high school who would actually get ill a couple days before it started. (I think I'm getting off topic)
but I do think, to some degree, PMS does exsist, since hormones can effect mood and such. But people shouldn't use it as an excuse.
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:34 pm
I don't really know what PMS *is*, so it'd be kind of hard to say "Oh, I have it!" everytime my period starts.
I tend to be bitchy the first and second full days of my cycle [[it starts in the middle of the day, so that's why I say first full day]], but I'm in a lot of discomfort and I feel absolutely disgusting, so I'm gonna be a little testy.
x.x
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 11:01 pm
I've seen the real research article behind the article you displayed (I hate articles from news sites, journalists don't know anything about science xD) and a few others, and there's just no evidence the vast majority of women have any PMS-like problems at all. I do believe that a lot of women unconsciously use 'PMS' as an excuse to act out sometimes; if they think it's okay to voice their opinions and be disagreeable because it's a certain point in their cycle, they'll do it. It's not that they think any differently than normal, they just act differently because they feel like they're allowed to.
I do believe in PMDD because there are women that do have severe, measurable reactions to changes in their hormones. This is a very small percentage of women, though.
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 11:32 pm
I do get some of the symptoms of PMS. I get the really bad cramps, mood swings, and depression ( I burst into tears for no reason right before and during.). I do not use it as an excuse though. I had a baby last year and noticed that before I never had the mood swings or the depression but now I do. I guess my hormones are out of wack.
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 5:08 am
Possible discussion questions for women:
--Do you regularly experience PMS symptoms?
Hardly ever, only the tummy aches, but they go away in the end.
--If so, how strongly do you feel that these symptoms are a direct result of menstruation and not just coincidental?
Never conincidental, otherwise why would it happen at the certain time all the time? xD
--Have you ever blamed a bad mood or a stressful day on PMS when you knew that it wasn't the case?
Never, I've never really used it as an excuse. When I'm in a bad mood (which isn't often), I don't blame it on other things.
This reminds me when we started talking about how PMS can be used as an excuse. It has implications to real life too, for example, this woman killed her husband because they got into an argument. She got let off because of PMS was the excuse.
Honestly, I think it's deterministic to say someone is in a bad mood because of PMS, they have to option to deviate from this. Nothing is set in stone that PMS will make you moody. I do believe in it, but only because of the physical symptoms. I know about hormones messing people about, and how it can change others, and things about it effecting your brain. But to be honest, people should get used to it and know how to over come it.
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 2:52 pm
PMS definitely exists.
During your menstrual cycle, your body releases a variety of hormones. They effect everybody differently, but the release of said chemicals IS linked to mood swings, depression, anxiety, stress, etc. Everybody is effected by hormones differently, which is why everyone experiences PMS (if they have it at all) differently. Some people are incredibly sensitive to changes in their hormones, so the symptoms are much more noticeable.
The same with occurs with menopause. Hot flashes and things like that occur because your body goes "WTF IS GOING ON?!"
Ignoring the hormones, cramps and water retention can affect your mood as well. What's also interesting is that you can have cramps without realizing it. If they're not very painful or if you tolerate pain fairly well, the cramps pay go on your mental backburner - they're still there and still irritiating, but you don't notice them. However, even though you don't notice them, they CAN effect how you react to situations.
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