Does the menstrual cycle in women affect their mood? For most women, PMS or “Premenstrual Syndrome” is a time when they experience higher than normal periods of physical, psychological, and emotional fluctuations, which collectively contribute to what people call “Mood Swings.”
In the 1970s, a vague group of physical and emotional symptoms associated with the days before menstruation, including fatigue, headache, irritability, and depression, came to be considered a disease and given the name PMS. .
The interesting question for psychologists is whether these physical changes are correlated with emotional or intellectual changes. Or if they are just myths manufactured by society.
The term PMDD, which stands for premenstrual dysphoric disorder, is a medical condition that describes a chronic case of premenstrual syndrome, according to the psychiatric association.
In 1994, over the objections of many psychologists, the American Psychiatric Association included PMDD in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a reference manual for psychiatric diagnosis.
So what does the evidence really show? During PMS, women will experience certain physical symptoms such as cramps, breast tenderness, and fluid retention, and of course, these physical symptoms can make some women feel moody or unhappy, just as pain can make men feel grumpy or unhappy. But the emotional symptoms associated with menstruation, particularly irritability and depression, are rare. In fact, less than 5% of all women have these symptoms predictably during their cycles (source: Brooks-Gun Differentiating Premenstrual Syndromes and Syndromes. Psychosomatic medicine, 1986; Reid, RL 1991 Premenstrual Syndrome. New England Journal of Medicine) .
If the mood swings associated with PMS are so rare, why do so many women think they have it? According to a Canadian psychology text; One reason could be that women tend to notice feelings of depression or irritability when these moods occur before menstruation, but miss times when such moods are absent. Or you can label symptoms that occur before a period as “PMS” and attribute the same symptoms at other times of the month to a stressful day or a low grade on an English paper. Cultural attitudes and myths about menstruation can also influence a woman’s perceptions of her own emotional ups and downs.
Major findings from other psychological research and studies have concluded that:
There are no gender differences in mood.
There is no relationship between the stage of the menstrual cycle and emotional symptoms
There is no consistent pattern of “PMS” throughout the menstrual cycles.
These results are unknown to most people and have generally been ignored by doctors, therapists, and the media. As a result, since the 1970s, premenstrual symptoms have been defined almost exclusively in medical and psychiatric terms.
So entrenched is the belief that most women suffer from PMS that those who publish reports that challenge this belief are often accused of biased reporting.