For the woman in her 20s or early 30s who begins to experience some of the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, it can be an increasingly frightening experience.  She begins to have pain in muscles and joints, headaches, and increased body temperature.  The acne she thought had disappeared forever comes back, she has recurrent infections and vision problems.  She becomes irritable, angry or may weep at the slightest provocation--or for no reason at all.

 

Because it comes on fairly gradually, many women don't recognize the symptoms as a pattern at all.  Even if she is fairly knowledgeable about her body and understands from reading what the symptoms may mean, for a woman who is in the midst of feeling weepy, angry, stressed, not to mention fat and bloated with skin eruptions--it's pretty hard to think rationally about the fact that what she's feeling is real. 

 

At the same time, until relatively recently in the course of medical history, a woman who went to a physician about such symptoms would be labeled a hypochondriac, if not by the doctor, then by friends and family members who suffered through the monthly bouts of PMS symptoms.  The doctor--if he would take any action at all would treat symptoms individually rather than as a group.  For example, the woman might receive a pill to relieve water retention this month, or a pain killer for muscle and joint pain the following month.  She might get allergy medication for those symptoms.  If she seemed overly emotional, she might receive a medication to relieve stress or to relieve depression. 

 

Most women would not be functioning well enough to make an appointment with a doctor during the worst time of the month.  By the time the doctor's appointment time arrived, more than likely should would be feeling just fine again and it's hard to remember how bad it was when you're feeling good. 

 

When the woman arrives in the doctor's office and explains I was feeling really bad last week but I'm fine now, he may not make the connection either.  Or she may have just called and canceled the appointment. 

 

It has only been in approximately the last 20 years that PMS has been recognized as a group of related symptoms and that the symptoms have a root in something other than the mind.  Even now, doctors are not totally sure what causes the syndrome. They know it is related to the monthly menstrual cycle.  In fact, one of the diagnostic points used by medical practitioners is that the symptoms must be related to the luteal cycle and must not be present at other times in the cycle. 

 

Other physical and mental causes for the symptoms such as depression and irritable bowel syndrome must also be eliminated. 

 

Once it is determined the root of the problem is premenstrual syndrome, the treatment must still proceed under the concept that it is a group of physical symptoms, not a dozen different symptoms at the same time.