What is Premenstrual Tension?
Premenstrual tension was published in a medical journal in 1931. Feelings of tension, self-depreciation, and even severe depression experienced by women in the 7–10 days be ahead of menstruation were accurately described. By the 1950s the contents of symptoms reported by women in the premenstrual period had enhanced. Mounting realization that commonly named ‘tension’ was just one phase of the problems. The term ‘premenstrual syndrome’ in a paper published in 1953 was introduced to enclose the extending list of symptoms. The name in the end stuck, and the problem is now often known as PMS..
The symptoms include not only anxiety, irritability, and depression but also constipation, food cravings, sleep problems, tiredness, and a feeling of bloatedness, specifically in the abdominal area (due to water retention). These are the common complaints, and in fact it has been noted that when all reported symptoms of PMS are added up the total can reach the unbelievable number of 160.
The incidence ranges from 5% to 95% according to multifarious surveys which have been implemented. For example, in a survey by Woman's Own magazine in 1993, nine out of ten women claimed to suffer from at least some of the symptoms. In the early 1980s a study was done by the World Health Organization reported that the incidence of premenstrual mood changes varied between 23% amongst Sudanese women to 73% amongst Muslim women in the then Yugoslavia. Thus one is left with the conclusion that women can and do suffer from PMS irrespective of culture and society. However,it is such a wide variation in the estimated incidence can either fuel the sceptics or suggest that not suffering from PMS is abnormal. It is quite clear that many women do experience symptoms associated with their changing hormone levels during their menstrual cycle, and there is now extending awareness that among patients about PMS. pms not always restricted to the premenstrual period; they can spread into the menstrual period itself.
The causes of PMS remain unidentified. It is believed that symptoms result from the waning hormone secretions from the ovaries as the corpus luteum begins to degenerate towards the end of the menstrual cycle. At this stage concentrations of progesterone and oestrogen in the circulating blood decline, and this is thought to precipitate the various symptoms. How the loss of these hormone secretions results in the physical, behavioural, and psychological symptoms ranging, for example, from abdominal bloating to food cravings and lethargy remains unknown, as does the question as to why some women should suffer from PMS while others do not. Theories have been proposed regarding the ratio of oestrogen to progesterone secretions or the absolute concentrations of these hormones, but these have not been constantly approved. The cause of an individual's response to her changing hormone secretions can be aggravated by social and cultural influences.
Click here to read about the symptoms of PMS