Photo courtesy of 24infohealth.com
Aunt Flo, the crimson wave, leak week… whatever you call that special time of the month, periods are never that much fun for anyone. One week before your menstrual cycle you may find yourself a bit more on edge and irritable than usual, and this can be attributed to what is known as PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome).
At Maxim Hygiene we may not have any magical products to make PMS go away, but we do strive to do our best to provide all natural sanitary products to make your period a bit more pleasant and to give you as much knowledge and insight as possible about your menstrual cycle.
PMS is a term you’ve probably heard before, but don’t actually know much about. Premenstrual syndrome has existed for thousands of years and is even thought to have existed in the times of the cavemen in which women would become very difficult to live with as a defense mechanism to drive off any men that seemed unfit to produce children. The Ancient Greeks also have written records of PMS, but at the time it was referred to as “hysteria” or the “disease of the wandering uterus”. Women were thought to have a physiological imbalance that was not necessarily the fault of women and could be corrected. With the emergence of Christianity, however, people started to believe that women did not suffer from a physical problem, but rather from a moral one and that the devil possessed the woman’s body.
In 1931 a gynecologist named Robert Frank gave this ancient belief of hysteria a name and helped make it more scientifically accurate and understandable. He called it “Premenstrual tension” and listed a series of symptoms that explained how a woman was feeling if affected by this “tension” one week prior to her period. In 1953 an English physician known as Katharina Dalton took Frank’s theory, extended upon it, and coined the term PMS; by 1980 the term became widespread.
If you suffer from PMS you will most likely have the following symptoms:
Photo courtesy of agemanagementoptimalwellnesscenters.com
PMS affects 3 out of 4 women and can manifest in both a physical and mental form. There is no proven reason as to why PMS occurs, but many theories point to changes in brain chemical levels which affect a woman’s mood. Many women who suffer from PMS also have high levels of estrogen and low levels of progesterone in the second half of their menstrual cycle, which signifies a hormonal imbalance which can cause physical problems like bloating, and mental unstableness. In severe cases of PMS, some women suffer from what is known as PMDD, or “Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder”. PMDD often occurs in women that have a history of depression in the family and in women that experience a huge drop in serotonin levels the week before their period. Serotonin is a brain chemical that controls your mood and keeps you feeling happy; if the levels are too low you can begin to have mood swings and feel out of sorts.
PMS is way too common for way too many women. Don’t fret though! In the long time in which we’ve been providing you with natural solutions for your menstrual care products, we’ve also learned about ways you can naturally soothe PMS symptoms and maybe thus find a way to be thankful for your period, as we believe is truly possible. There are also some great natural health experts in the field like Nicole Jardim and Alisa Vitti who have committed their life’s work to finding natural PMS remedies for the women they have successfully worked with.
We hope that you can take some of these tips into account for your next period and so that it will be a happier one!