I have to give credit to my Dad for finding this piece of useful information. (He asked me not to share it with Jock – I can see why after reading it. Jock, don’t read this entry below.)
Side Note: I apologize in advance for the content of this piece as it may offend certain people (ah hem, some men or women who have no interest in the woman’s reproductive cycles.) However, I find this extremely relevant to my situation, and how to deal with life in general – which is, in fact, what this blog is mostly about. Thank you for the feedback though!
A variety of evolutionary rationales for the syndrome have been offered, including that it is an epiphenomenon due to the selective advantage accruing to other phases of the hormonal cycle,[11] that it leads to “intensification of male ardour during the next onset of fertility”,[12] and that it prompts females to reject infertile males (who cause PMS due to not impregnating the female). “… an infertile male/potentially fertile female partnership would tend to break down, thus allowing a new pair-bond to be formed. The greater the degree of premenstrual hostility of the female, the sooner a fertile mating could ensue.”[13] Any theory would have to account for the persistence of PMS over substantial evolutionary time, as it appears to afflict baboons as well.[14] ~Wikipedia
I have some problems with the excerpt (mostly that I don’t want a baby right now!), but it makes sense on an evolutionary scale. Hey, at least it’s something. The wording is a bit hefty, but the gist of it can be understood.
I’m really getting into this PMS research – hey, knowledge is power. So, perhaps the more I know about it, the more I’ll be able to control it.
The only problem is that the more research I do, the more I realize that actually, no one has a fecking clue what causes it! Heck, even women who have their uterus removed still get it. The one thing they do know is that it comes along with menstruating. Brilliant!
If you’d like to read some more, here’s a paper written in 1992, and printed in the Social Science and Medicine. Click here for the full article.
Abstract-In 1931 a physician coined the term Premenstrual Tension, thereby commencing an extensive biomedical inquiry into the relationship between women’s menstrual cycle and the occurrence of physical, emotional and behavioral changes. However, despite 58 years of scientific research, fundamental questions remain unanswered. For example, there is still no consensus on the definition of PMS. This, in turn, has led to disagreement among researchers about which medical specialty is best suited for diagnosing and treating PMS. Is PMS a disease whose pathology is best understood by physicians in reproductive medicine or in psychiatry?
This paper argues that the inconclusiveness surrounding PMS is symptomatic of the persistence of cultural beliefs in the production (and reproduction) of medical knowledge. The roots of these cultural beliefs and their ‘naturalness’ in the context of Western ideas about reason, rationality and women are explored in the first section. The second section discusses the ubiquity of these same cultural beliefs in contemporary scientific research of PMS and in the controversy surrounding the proposed psychiatric diagnostic category of Late Luteal Phase Dysphoric Disorder (LLPDD). Finally, a new, anthropologically and sociologically informed approach to understanding the phenomenon of PMS is suggested.
Another person he suggested reading is Camille Paglia. Might just order her book.
Thanks Dad, for teaching me more about PMS!
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