Is it true that the PMS does not exist?

Both among men and women, the opinion is common that the premenstrual syndrome does not exist, and those who complain about it are hysteria and simulators. We decided to check what science is known about the PMS.

IN Media And Blogs Authors regularly set questionwhether there is a PMS at all or is it just female whims. Articles trying to figure out whether there are PMS in fact, came out in publications "Gazeta.ru" (“Pain, depression, hysteria: myths and truth about PMS”), “Arguments and facts" ("Yes, I'm freaking out!" Premenstrual syndrome: female whim or reality? "),"VKPress" (“Katya in fire: PMS - female whim or reality?”). In January 2022, the satirical publication "Panorama" Published Comic news: "Russian scientists have proved that PMS does not exist." Women themselves do not believe in the existence of PMS - according to data VTsIOM survey and pharmaceutical company "Gideon Richter" 37% of men and 61% of women consider the PMS to be justifying incontinence and poor mood, and not a real disorder.

PMS, or premenstrual syndrome, is state, which can occur in women seven to ten days before menstruation and include one or more manifestations. The most common Symptoms of PMS are anxiety, anger, insomnia, concentration problems, apathetic and fatigue. Flip retention can lead to edema, temporary increase in body weight, pain of mammary glands. The severity and a sense of pressure in the lower abdomen and in the back, as well as rashes on the skin, may be observed.

By data Women's health office at the US Department of Health and Social Services, up to 90% of all Americans face the manifestation of PMS. In 2014, a group of researchers I down The results of the meta -analysis of the prevalence of PMS in different countries. In general, in the world, according to them, 47.8%of women suffer from this pathology: the least in France (only 12%), and most of all in Iran (98%). By different data, from 5% to 20% Women experience symptoms so strong that they interfere with work or study. This condition is no longer called PMS, but PMDR - premenstrual dysphoric disorder. 

Both the PMS and the PMDR in the ICD-10 were encoded the same-N94.3 (section "Diseases of the genitourinary system"). But in the ICD-11, the transition to which in Russia It has begun January 1, 2022, pathologies were divided: now the code is provided for the PMS GA34.40, and for PMDR - GA34.41. The fact that the PMS is in the ICD means that the doctors have agreed on the symptoms and manifestations of diseases and can distinguish the PMS from other pathologies. However, a single opinion regarding the causes of PMS in the medical community Bye No.

Researchers MarkThat hormones can play a significant role. At the same time, the development of PMS also contributes to the mental state - at the risk group of women with a high level stress, having V family and personal anamnesis Depressive disorders. Age also acts as an additional risk factor - the most symptoms are manifested in women after 30 years and before menopause. In 2016, scientists also notedWhat stronger symptoms of PMS correlate with a higher level of CRB-C-reactive protein, an indicator of tissue damage during inflammation, as well as necrosis or injury. That is, presumably, a hidden inflammatory reaction can also play a role.

Also researchers Markthat the severity of the symptoms can affect the oscillation of the level of calcium in the body due to the cycle. Another hypothesis Binding PMS with fluctuations in the level of serotonin. Progesterone - a hormone that prepares a female body for pregnancy and increases after ovulation - reduces the level of serotonin, also known as a hormone of happiness, and therefore a woman can experience symptoms similar to depression. In such cases, for the treatment of PMS Assign Antidepressants from the SIOOS group are selective serotonin reversal inhibitors, helping to prevent fluctuations in its level in the body. In addition to antidepressants, non -steroidal anti -inflammatory drugs and diuretics, as well as hormonal contraceptives that stop ovulation, can help. In rare cases, when the symptoms are so strong that they interfere with normally living, and drug treatment does not help, doctors Accept The decision to conduct hysterectomy, that is, the removal of the uterus. 

At the same time, the research of the PMS is not funded enough. Psychologist Caroline Janda Countedthat on the Researchgate website, one of the largest libraries of scientific publications, articles dedicated to the PMS, five times less than articles on erectile dysfunction. Moreover, only 19% of men are faced with erectile dysfunction, and the prevalence of PMS can reach 90%. For example, a psychologist from the University of Washington Kathleen Lastik Refused In financing the scientific work dedicated to the PMS, on the basis of the fact that, according to the reviewers, “PMS is simply a product of our society or culture, which represents a natural process in a negative light and which, given its monthly predictability, leads to suffering through expectation.” 

The effect of a self -retreating prophecy can indeed play a role in increasing the symptoms of the PMS. In 1977, Diana Rabe from Princeton University with the help of hormonal drugs "I untied it»A cycle of female volunteers from their ideas about when it should occur. As a result, when women filled the questionnaires, the symptoms, including physical ones (for example, with fluid delayed in the body and edema), were more complained by those of them to whom the researcher reported the imminent onset of menstruation than those to whom she said that they were in the middle of the cycle. 

Thus, the nature of the emergence of the PMS has not yet been scientifically clarified, but the fact that this condition exists in reality, and not invented by women to justify their whims, does not raise questions among the scientific community. Perhaps if the grantors become more actively financed by research on this complex state of the female body, science will rather receive the answer to the question why it still arises.

Image on the cover: Bionorika

Not true

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