PMS is a culture-bound syndrome so why do so many intelligent women experience it?

[rav3n]

I'm Italian/English and never had it affect me greatly, either. It's not pleasant but nothing that is worth openly complaining about. I do know some women who were bed-ridden in high school each month and many women are mis/un-diagnosed endometriosis or have cysts.

A lot of that gets attributed to PMS when it isn't about PMS at all.

It appears to swirl around the spike in estrogen and the fall in progesterone. Women have a range of healthy estrogen levels which makes me wonder if the ones at the top end of the range spike out of the healthy levels to the degree of PMDD and others with various degrees of PMS symptoms relative to estrogen spiking. Not sure of the impacts of the drop in progesterone.

 

[ceecee]

I'm Italian/English and never had it affect me greatly, either. It's not pleasant but nothing that is worth openly complaining about. I do know some women who were bed-ridden in high school each month and many women are mis/un-diagnosed endometriosis or have cysts.

A lot of that gets attributed to PMS when it isn't about PMS at all.

That was me but fortunately I found out relatively early (late 20's). I had a endometrial ablation in my late 30's and no more heavy bleeding or pain. No more period at all. Rejoice.

 

[Yay]

It's easy to make a claim and say there's data to back it up but without showing your multiple resources I have no reason to be inclined to believe you. Interesting theory though.

While your "data" (I'd love to see it, i'm actually curious!) supports your theory, maybe you should try looking into more about the menstrual cycle works as well so you can be fully informed: Menstruation and the menstrual cycle | womenshealth.gov

And a government page that could assist informing you on PMS and the causes : Premenstrual syndrome | womenshealth.gov

The page also states that "The causes of PMS are not clear, but several factors may be involved. Changes in hormones during the menstrual cycle seem to be an important cause. These changing hormone levels may affect some women more than others. Chemical changes in the brain may also be involved. Stress and emotional problems, such as depression, do not seem to cause PMS, but they may make it worse."

 

[Yama]

Yeah I hate when men say women aren't fit to be leaders because of pms.

When women are PMSing, they have more testosterone in their body than usual. Saying women shouldn't be leaders because of PMS is basically the same as saying men should be world leaders absolutely never.

 

[Red Ribbon]

There's some fairly hard data on this, my mom has never gotten PMS or any of the women in her family, woman in China don't get it, the science doesn't back it so why do you think so many intelligent women report experiencing it. In fact, 85% of American women claim to get it and I'm sure plenty will jump in saying they for sure do but the data doesn't support the claim.

I suspect women in Asian countries don't complain about PMS because they've been culturally programmed not to. I'm pretty sure women in India experience PMS, at least some of them, but they'll never admit that they have any discomfort because of their periods. In fact, women here don't talk about sex and reproduction, and even if you asked an Indian girl if she suffers from PMS, you would probably make her very uncomfortable and she'd lie to you and say she doesn't even if she obviously does.

 

[Hitoshi-San]

hahahah i definitely get cramps so bad they can be felt into the depths of my asshole which are then exacerbated by me shitting w/ the fury of 1000 suns for roughly a week a month b/c society expects me to or something like that. what a fucking dumb whore i am!!!