PMS is a set of symptoms that women experience between ovulation and menstruation. The cause is generally unknown, however it is thought to be related to hormonal fluctuations throughout the menstrual cycle. Mood swings, sore breasts, food cravings, weariness, irritability, and sadness are all symptoms. Medications and lifestyle modifications may help to alleviate symptoms.
PMS is a set of symptoms that women experience between ovulation and menstruation. The cause is generally unknown, however it is thought to be related to hormonal fluctuations throughout the menstrual cycle. Mood swings, sore breasts, food cravings, weariness, irritability, and sadness are all symptoms. Medications and lifestyle modifications may help to alleviate symptoms.
Many women suffer PMS and in fact it is one of the more common reasons they will come to a naturopathic clinic. The term PMT and PMS are interchangeable terms. Some people use the term PMT (premenstrual tension) to describe the emotional problems faced with premenstrual problems such as tension, anxiety, irritability are tearfulness.
The acronym PMS (premenstrual syndrome) more accurately describes the fluctuating syndrome many women experience before their period involving a combination of both emotional and physical complaints. It is now widely recognised that some women with premenstrual disorders experience a markedly compromised quality of life and ability to function normally in daily life, so let’s have a look at this common complaint and how we can offer assistance with natural medicine.
PMS means Premenstrual Syndrome. Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a condition that affects women in the days leading up to their period (menstruation), which generally occurs 5–11 days before the onset of their cycle. It’s believed that 3 out of every 4 menstrual women has experienced PMS in some degree. Some of those around you may be aware that it’s ‘that time of the month.’
PMS is primarily associated with hormonal imbalances, burn-out and adrenal fatigue, which is a very common syndrome in working women today, hypo-glycemia ( blood sugar fluctuations), and nutritional deficiencies, all of which are preventable. Many of the short-lived symptoms are caused by too much oestrogen (the female sex hormone) and lack of progesterone (another hormone secreted by the ovaries and adrenal glands).
Decreased levels of the neurotransmitters, primarily the hormones dopamine and serotonin are other very important factors. These two hormones are called the “feel good” brain chemicals. Stress once again underpins fluctuating neurotransmitter levels.
Not surprising, modern women in Western societies suffer a great deal more from the symptoms of both PMS and menopause than those in more primitive and underdeveloped societies. Women in the Western world are under increasing emotional, physical, nutritional, psychological and toxic stress.
Many now work full-time just to make ends meet, eating on the run and have multiple and continuing stresses in their lives just trying to juggle their occupation and busy family life. Add to this the widespread consumption of refined foods, sugars, caffeine and alcoholic beverages, some of the primary culprits of the modern woman’s monthly woes. Is it any wonder she develops PMS?
The symptoms of PMS can also be related to other conditions which women may experience, such as ovarian cysts, endometriosis, thyroid problems, uterine fibroids and adrenal fatigue, all potentially contributing to the pervasiveness of women’s health concerns.
It is important for this reason to check in with your doctor for a referral to your gynaecologist for a thorough check-up to exclude any other underlying reasons for your cyclical health problems, and a blood test and pelvic exam are always recommended.
The most common symptoms of PMS I see in the clinic include headaches, sweet cravings (chocolate!), bloating, irritability, mood swings, weight gain, and changes in appetite. PMS symptoms may also commonly change following an event such as childbirth, which can be quite confusing.
I also see PMS symptoms appear or exacerbate in some women after a separation or divorce, job loss, moving to another country or other such similar stress. This leads me to believe that the underlying stress mechanism in her body is having a hard time coping, reflecting in an hormonal imbalance which is what PMS is all about really.
Hormonal imbalances are very difficult to define medically, and probably the most difficult conditions for your doctor to fully and accurately assess. Studies have found that long-term exposure to stress may lead to many detrimental consequences leading to various hormonal disorders. Also, stress leads to change in the clinical course or status of many hormonally conditions like PMS.
Hormones work with such an amazing precision and balance in your body, with such a complex interplay, that the best Western medicine can do to balance them is still a very crude offering in comparison with what your body is capable of when it is in a healthy state. Did you know that there are almost 180 hormones so far discovered in the human body?
Australian doctor John Harrison wrote a book some years ago called “Love Your Disease”, in which he stated that a doctor working on a woman’s hormone cycle with drugs is akin to working on a fine piece of jewellery with a pick-axe.
Despite a true medical lack of understanding the real primary causes of PMS, a great deal is known about how PMS makes a woman feel. An amazing 150 various symptoms have been recorded in association with PMS. Thank goodness, no woman will experience them all at the same time!
What we do see most commonly, is that groups of complaints appear in clusters.Whilst you can treat PMS as a condition, better results will be achieved by targeting the underlying syndrome with more precision. In 1983, G.E. Abraham devised five separate sub-categories of PMS.
Nervous tension, moody, irritable, anxiety
Headaches, sweet cravings, increased appetite, palpitations, fatigue, dizziness, lightheaded
Breast tenderness, abdominal bloating, weight gain, swelling (lower body, legs, tummy, eyelids/face)
Depression, crying, tearfulness, confusion, insomnia, forgetful
Aches & pains, reduced pain threshold, painful periods (needing pain relief), cramping pain.
What you will find is that if you do have PMS, then you will typically lean towards one of these categories a bit more than the others, although you will almost certainly have symptoms of several of these categories. For example, I would commonly see a woman who craves chocolate two days before her period, has bloating, irritability and may well have a degree of breast tenderness. Another lady may have increased anxiety, constipation, fluid retention and headaches. Yet another will have a terrible back pain each month, to the point where she will need to take one day of from her office job each month and stay in bed with an anti-inflammatory drug from her GP.
Standard medical treatments include pain medications, oral contraceptives, sleeping pills and antidepressants; amazing as it may seem, severe forms of PMS are actually classified as “mental disorders”! For the many women I have seen, these treatments have very limited effectiveness, and they continue to suffer from at least some of the detrimental effects of PMS. Unfortunately, all too many women seek no treatment at all, not realising that there are alternatives to conventional treatments. Fortunately, there are several natural alternatives which can help re-balance a woman’s hormone levels and eliminate symptoms of PMS.
What did women do many years ago, take drugs? PMS is nothing new; in fact a woman’s changes in mood and behaviour and physical complaints have been associated with menstruation for many thousands of years. The word hystera is Greek for uterus, and as recent as the Victorian times (1890’s) women were thought to become “hysterical” before their period and even confined to bed!
More amazing to me is that as recent as the 1960’s and even 1970’s conventional medical wisdom believed that PMS was a problem associated with a woman’s “nerves” or “failure to cope”, and because medical science could not give a rational “scientific” explanation, PMS was given very little credence and women were treated primarily with antidepressants (and unfortunately many with PMS still are today). The antidepressant, Fluoxetine (Prozac) is now marketed in America as “Serifem” for treatment of PDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder), another fancy word for PMS.
It kind of makes me wonder what the world would be like if men had menstrual periods and women were the first doctors.
But do you really need to take antidepressants, sleeping pills, pain pills or other pharmaceutical drugs for PMS? Not really. If we take into consideration the prevalence of women’s health-related conditions, the potential for reliance and side effects of drugs and the high cost of not treating this condition effectively, it is critical to examine the best natural alternatives over the standard options provided by conventional medicine.You do have natural options; let’s have a look at what we can offer the woman who has PMS. First we would be best to chart her symptoms.
I have always found that the he best way to determine any chronic condition like long-standing PMS is to “chart” the signs and symptoms and to track them over a period of time. Do you suffer from PMS? Then why not chart what’s going on? Unfortunately there is no blood test or hormonal measurement can accurately pinpoint your PMS.
Here are a few guidelines for you just in case you have never chartered your symptoms before:
Does this not make sense? By charting your complaints, especially before and during treatment, you will be able to see what works and what doesn’t. Your symptom chart provides you with a record of when symptoms occurred in relation to your ovulation and period and how closely your symptoms are related to your menstrual cycle.
Organised self care is the cornerstone of any successful PMS management program. The right diet, regular exercise, effective stress reduction, and targeted nutritional supplementation provide significant relief from PMS symptoms. There are a few extra specific recommendations below for those who may feel they relate to one of the five main PMS categories as outlined above.
Along with a healthy diet and a regular exercise program, I cannot over emphasise the importance of stress release and relaxation when it comes to PMS. This is the number 1 folks, the big one. Some of the most common complaints I hear from women with PMS are anxiety, irritability, depression and tearfulness, and these complaints in particular will respond greatly to a stress management program such as outlined here:
With PMS, I always recommend two things first – a top quality multi vitamin and mineral formulation, along with a top quality Omega 3 supplement. Take two or three multivitamins daily and two capsules of fish oil daily. Try this for three months first, this may be all you need do – to correct any underlying deficiencies initially. Then progress to a top quality B Complex, along with a good calcium/magnesium supplement. That should be it. Stop there – don’t spend anymore than you have to. But wait, there’s more! You may relate to one of the categories below. Take a look below at some more specific recommendations for the individual PMS categories.
To summarise, by adopting a positive attitude and taking care of yourself with regard to having an optimised diet, sufficient sleep, regular exercise as well as carefully managing your stress, you can alleviate the severity of symptoms of PMS. Unlike the “old days”, thankfully today there is an increased understanding of the natural hormonal influences on the body and mind of the 21st century woman. Natural medicine can improve a woman’s PMS outcome without the side effects commonly experienced in conventional medicine. My advice is to always initially opt for healthy dietary and lifestyle changes before going for pharmaceutical cures.