Sex Rx by Lauren Streicher

Author:Lauren Streicher
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780062301536
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-01-13T06:00:00+00:00

part four

HORMONE HAVOC

12

I AM WOMAN—HEAR ME ROAR

PMS, pregnancy, postpartum,

infertility, contraception—strap in,

it’s going to be a bumpy ride

Women stoically ride the hormonal roller coaster of life navigating the ups and downs of PMS, contraception, attempting conception, pregnancy, and postpartum. And even before perimenopause hits, it’s pretty obvious that it too will be no day at the amusement park. Since the right balance of hormones is critical to maintaining a healthy sex life, anything that alters hormonal levels is going to have an impact. So strap in . . . it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Premenstrual Syndrome

Prior to the 1970s, few people had heard of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Today it’s hard to browse through a greeting card section without being inundated with dozens of examples of PMS “humor.” But for the 50 million women who suffer from monthly premenstrual mood swings, irritability, and weight gain, it’s no joke. Premenstrual syndrome is different for everyone, but one thing is consistent . . . women who suffer from PMS experience at least one physical or emotional symptom that starts five days before menses and disappears within four days after a period starts. (If moodiness and bloating come and go throughout the month, PMS is not the problem.)

There are more than 150 premenstrual symptoms that a woman might experience during the premenstrual phase of her cycle. Seventy to 90 percent of reproductive-age women report at least one adverse symptom, and up to 40 percent feel that their symptoms are bothersome enough to qualify as PMS because they not only interfere with their ability to think clearly and feel good but affect their relationships with everyone around them. It goes without saying that most women are not feeling particularly sexual when PMS hits.

It takes only one of these premenstrual symptoms to have PMS:

Emotional symptoms

Irritability

Depression

Angry outbursts

Anxiety

Confusion

Social withdrawal

Physical symptoms

Breast tenderness

Abdominal bloating

Headache

Swelling in the extremities

Is PMS the Same as PMDD?

Premenstrual dysphoric syndrome (PMDD), by contrast, is a far more severe and debilitating version of PMS that affects 3 to 8 percent of reproductive-age women. While a diagnosis of premenstrual syndrome requires the presence of only one of the symptoms just listed that are associated with PMS, women who suffer from PMDD have a minimum of five of those symptoms, and at least one of those five symptoms is depression, anxiety, or irritability severe enough to interfere with school, work, or relationships. Like PMS, PMDD symptoms are present five days before a period and are completely gone within four days of the onset of menses.

What Causes PMS?

The woman who lashes out at her family and friends the week before her period is not a wicked, nasty person—she is simply suffering from raging, out-of-control hormones. Women with PMS actually have normal estrogen and progesterone levels, but for reasons not really understood, they have an exaggerated response to normal cyclic changes. There does seem to be a genetic predisposition, but beyond that there is no way to predict who is going to have the most trouble.

Taming the Beast

Since PMS was identified

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