PMS has got a bad name, I think. People say it makes you bitchy. Well,
one of the things that happens is that your estrogen level drops, making
your proportion of testosterone higher, so you are more like a man for
a day or two. I appreciate the way that PMS can make me stand up for myself,
even though I sometimes feel uncomfortable handling the feelings of anger
that I'm not used to. Sometimes PMS manifests itself differently, and I
feel weepy and sensitive. Most of the time I don't experience PMS at all.
I PMS pretty bad, usually by eating like a horse. I also treat my partner
quite differently, preferring not to be around him for a couple of days.
I must experience PMS because I always feel much better right after
my period than right before it. I have much more tolerance for chaos and
commotion following my period than preceding it. I do feel like I'm more
sensitive and more easily irritated before my period, sensations that manifest
in a variety of ways.
I notice changes in my body two to five days before the beginning of
my period. Often, but not always, my breasts get larger and my nipples
seem to stay erect and are sensitive. Sometimes I feel emotionally edgy
at this time, sometimes I don't. When I feel PMS-like, it is usually manifested
in having a quick temper. I begin to confront things that bother me, but
that normally I would let slide.
For instance, at my job I used to often be the one to go get everyone lunch.
I usually didn't mind, because I am pretty into food, and if I didn't go
get it, I might have to wait longer to eat. So this pattern had become
the norm, and after a while I was expected to go get lunch. Well, one day
when I was premenstrual, I said, in a laughing way, that I thought it was
someone else's turn to go get lunch. My co-worker laughed and handed me
his money and lunch order. I got pretty huffy then and said "Why are
you giving me this money? I'm not getting lunch today. It's someone else's
turn." And someone else did get lunch. And from then on we shared
the task more equally.
I know I have PMS when I'm feeling especially grumpy or "fragile"
and I haven't had my period for about six weeks. It also causes a craving
for sweets, baths and turns me into cleaning/organizing maniac. But I don't
get it every time.
I have mild PMS: mood changes, zits. Sometimes waves of sadness. When
I get my period my mood is immediately altered. It is some sort of chemical
thing. I become slightly ecstatic - which is how I usually know my period
has arrived.
I start "nesting" before my period. The week before my period
I am most likely to pay all my bills, get things out of the way, clean
house, organize things, etc. I don't know if I am sort of unconsciously
fixing things so that I don't have to do as much during my period, or if
this is some kind of nervous energy, or weird hormone thing. I just want
to drop everything so that I can clean and organize. I wish I could bottle
that energy for the times when I'm not premenstrual but my house is a mess.
The physical part of it doesn't really mean much to me, it's more the
emotional tides and not knowing whether I should discount my feelings to
PMS. A friend of mine says that those feelings are laid bare or made visible
and should be listened to, as this is a revealing time, and that I shouldn't
just write it off as PMS and ignore those emotions.
I've begun to recognize signs of PMS a couple days before, but unfortunately,
since I don't chart my cycle in any way, this is always in hindsight --
kind of like "OOOOHHH, that's why I've been wanting to kill everyone
I see since Wednesday! I thought maybe I just had a new personality and
a big fixation on Zingers!"
I use the emotional sensitivity as an opportunity to figure out what
unresolved difficulties I have in my life that I wouldn't get around to
handling as soon. But I don't assume that all of my emotional responses
are "just" hormonal (they're not), or that whenever I'm about
to get my period I'm free to freak out (I don't). It's an altered state;
I use it as a chance to find a different perspective when I can. Sometimes
I just load up on ibuprofen and ignore the whole thing.
PMS has got a bad name, I think. People say it makes you bitchy. Well,
one of the things that happens is that your estrogen level drops, making
your proportion of testosterone higher, so you are more like a man for
a day or two. I appreciate the way that PMS can make me stand up for myself,
even though I sometimes feel uncomfortable handling the feelings of anger
that I'm not used to. Sometimes PMS manifests itself differently, and I
feel weepy and sensitive. Most of the time I don't experience PMS at all.
I PMS pretty bad, usually by eating like a horse. I also treat my partner
quite differently, preferring not to be around him for a couple of days.
I must experience PMS because I always feel much better right after
my period than right before it. I have much more tolerance for chaos and
commotion following my period than preceding it. I do feel like I'm more
sensitive and more easily irritated before my period, sensations that manifest
in a variety of ways.
Do I experience PMS? Maybe? How the hell do I know? Is this PMS? Can
I yell and scream or what? I don't think I have PMS , I don't know if it
exists. I'm a moody person, always have been. I'm sure hormones have something
to do with it, but I'm not sure that I really know what PMS is...and well,
do you think PMS is just another way for medical language to construct
us women as 'sick' because we are women or what? I don't know that I trust
that one.
I experience breast tenderness as PMS. Sometimes I feel melancholy or
am a little more irritable than usual. This usually happens a week to ten
days before my period.
I often get depressed the week before, and rarely am able to convince
myself it's because of hormone changes in my body. I'm very ambivalent
about the label PMS, however. I think it's urgently important that women's
experiences with their bodies and mind be validated and recognized as real,
but I worry very much about medicalizing as a "syndrome" a natural
cyclical process that a majority of women experience for most of their
lives.
I don't think I am that bitchy, but my boyfriend would probably tell
you differently. I think he just says that because of the myth of the bitchy
PMS woman. I feel the most tuned into my body during my period. I know
that sounds strange but I feel that my emotions become heightened in order
for me to feel them.
My breasts get sore before my period, I don't know if that is officially
PMS. The one other thing is that before my period often feel problems I
am having are somehow overwhelming. I feel hopeless about things which
would not bother me too much at other times of the month. It helps me to
understand that those feelings come from PMS. I tell myself everything
will look brighter in a few days.