You know how women who live together usually end up on the same cycle? Do you think it’s the same for women on message boards, too?
Mine just ended. I hadn’t had it in a while and I’d forgotten how bad I get. Man, I couldn’t get enough to eat the last few days! And the mood swings were unbearable. Tuesday, I got home from work, kicked off my shoes, walked straight to the bedroom, crawled into bed and under the covers. When my husband walked in a minute later and asked me what was wrong, I said in a pouty voice “I don’t know”. He then got all drill-seargenty on me and told me to go for a walk, that it would make me feel better. I kept saying (still in my pouty voice) “I don’t want to”. After a few minutes of this, I got up and went for a long, angry walk. When I came back home, I walked in and yelled at him, “I hate when you’re right!!”.
Do you think it is possible that a woman makes it to adulthood without knowing about PMS, or at least noticing a pattern?
This is why I ask. One of my husband’s friends is married to a very nice woman. She was born in a rural area and I don’t think she’s been exposed much to the ‘outside world’ until a few years ago. She still isn’t intellectually curious and her readings don’t go farther than the odd Good Housekeeping.
Anyways, the other day, when her husband was on a trip, she called me crying uncontrollably. My first thoughts were of doom and gloom because I couldn’t understand what she was saying. After I beat it out of her, I found out that she was depressed for no good reason, and she said it happens ‘often’. The depression-for-no-reason made her even more depressed, her family would just tell her to pull herself together and shut up already, making her even more depressed. Since I am not a doctor or a shrink I hesitated to do anything but to ask her to go see a doctor.
I started asking her questions and we both realized that her pattern of inexplicable mood swings between angry and depressed happened… you guessed it: right before and at the beginning of her period. Voila! I told her about PMS and how it works; how PMS is something that happens to most women and what she could do to ameliorate the situation. I told her to keep a diary noting how she felt every day… after a couple of months she told me she thought it was indeed PMS. Instead of a psychiatrist she went to the gynecologist… and bought tons of chocolate ice cream.
At 15 I already knew about PMS. And I knew what and why it was happening to me. I imagine that if at 30 I still didn’t know about PMS, or noticed a pattern, I would have thought I was a raging lunatic.
Well, if the symptoms are emotional and not physical (like someone who gets depressed every month but never has cramps or other pain), then yeah, I think it’s entirely possible to not make a connection for quite a while. When you’re depressed, you’re not necessarily paying attention to the calendar date or noting any possible contributing factors. If the physical part of your period is easy, I can see not making a connection.
I have a feeling that admitting my periods are a breeze will be about as well-received here as mentioning my 10-minute commute at work, but I don’t think it’s stated often enough that not every woman has PMS. When I was in my early 20s I was pretty sure I’d know by then if I had it, but I also knew there was a possibility that I just wasn’t aware of any moodiness, so I asked a handful of people who would know – including one or two ex-boyfriends, who had no reason to lie. I started keeping track of my ‘start’ dates about 6 years ago, just because I finally got tired of being surprised every month – I had no idea when I was ‘due.’ The whole ordeal only lasts about 4 days, often with no cramping at all, so sometimes I forget about it in between and I can still be caught off guard some months (even though I’m now in my 30s :rolleyes: ).
Anyway, my point is that when I asked around in my 20s, I might have been having PMS for almost 10 years without knowing it. And I was/am educated, travelled, well-read, etc.
Even though I am also blessed with easy periods and little (if any) PMS, I fall in with the “crave chocolate first day crowd” and “must have massive quantities of salt laden carbs second day” club.
Chocolate, then carbs with salt - the only two redeeming factors of THOSE days of the month!
Well, Mighty Girl, he’s obviously either prepared to die or too stupid to be allowed to live. I say have at him.
Hormones are some wonderful things if you’re lucky enough to respond well to them. I haven’t had an honest-to-goodness period in a year, now. I still get mild mood swings and a couple days of spotting here and there, but it’s nothing like it used to be. I don’t go around wanting to kick the dogs or slap Dr.J for no reason, I don’t start crying because my pen is out of ink, I don’t spend half a day curled up in a miserable little ball in bed feeling like someone’s using a Garden Weasel on my insides. Yay, progestin!
mrAru and I plan on throwing a huge party when I am fully menopausal and finished with the whole reproductive torture. As I am 43, it wont be too much longer=)
I used to be afflicted with
To make matters worse, I had gone from the normal first-day cramps to three days of pure, unadultrated writhing in Hell cramps every month with frightening amounts of blood loss, and I was spotting the entire month. Then I was diagnosed with a fibroid and put on birth control. Cramps are now manageable with normal doses of Aleve, and…
I don’t have the raging, teary-eyed, angry, wanting to kill myself and everyone around me PMS, that, for a bonus, came with such neurological symptoms as inability to concentrate and feeling like by body had been stolen by aliens and replaced with an identical synthetic substitute that was completely incompatible with my nervous system and therefore I wanted to claw the flesh from my bones anymore.
I used to be afflicted with raging, teary-eyed, angry, wanting to kill myself and everyone around me PMS, that, for a bonus, came with such neurological symptoms as inability to concentrate and feeling like by body had been stolen by aliens and replaced with an identical synthetic substitute that was completely incompatible with my nervous system and therefore I wanted to claw the flesh from my bones.
To make matters worse, I had gone from the normal first-day cramps to three days of pure, unadultrated writhing in Hell cramps every month with frightening amounts of blood loss, and I was spotting the entire month. Then I was diagnosed with a fibroid and put on birth control. Cramps are now manageable with normal doses of Aleve, and…
I don’t have the raging, teary-eyed, angry, wanting to kill myself and everyone around me PMS, that, for a bonus, came with such neurological symptoms as inability to concentrate and feeling like by body had been stolen by aliens and replaced with an identical synthetic substitute that was completely incompatible with my nervous system and therefore I wanted to claw the flesh from my bones anymore.
I get stupid. I don’t mean a little ditzy, I mean PMS spells “where am I, and what am I doing here?” stupidity nearly every month.
Occasionally crankiness, and definitely all the “lovely” phsyical symptoms (the headache so bad that it makes you throw up, you know the drill), but mostly, it’s the extreme, extreme 3 days of stupidity each month. Sigh.
Yeah, but we DO have to do pelvic exams. I’d rather a prostate exam any day. I don’t know why some men whine so much about a few seconds, when we have to lie down and let them fiddle around down there for a couple of MINUTES.
