PREMENSTRUAL SYNDROME IS NOT A NECESSARY CONSEQUENCE OF BEING FEMALE
Allergies and Premenstrual Syndrome

The symptoms of Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) are easy for a physician to mistake for some other physical problem or for a purely psychological problem, especially if the patient herself does not realize that her crying spells or angry moods coincide with a certain time of the month. The symptoms of PMS usually appear for a few days before the onset of every menstrual period and get better when the period arrives. For some women, however, the symptoms begin as long as two weeks before the onset of the period and can even occur in midcycle. Moreover, the symptoms are not identical for every woman. The spectrum of physical symptoms include fluid retention, abdominal cramps or back pain and tender, swollen breasts. The subjective symptoms run the gamut from extreme anger or aggression to frequent crying, melancholy, depression, and anxiety. These are well-documented and commonly known.

What is less commonly known, however, is that many women with PMS are suffering from an allergic-like sensitivity to their own progesterone. Progesterone is a female hormone that increases in a woman's body from the time of ovulation to just before the onset of the menstrual period. Allergy testing helps determine if progesterone sensitivity is the real problem behind the menstrual symptoms. If it ts, patients are treated with specific dilutions of progesterone sublingually to decrease their sensitivity and consequently relieve their symptoms.

In addition to allergy treatment, nutritional supplements and dietary recommendations can also be very helpful. Even if the symptoms of PMS are alleviated, the psychological problems incurred may be deep-rooted. The longer a woman has suffered with PMS, the more likely it is that her mood swings have had a negative impact on her relationships and her self-esteem. A marriage or other relationship can be mortally wounded by PMS, and the confusion and rejection a woman experiences as a result can damage her image of herself.

Case Study: Mary's PMS
I first saw Mary when she came to me about a rash she had had for two weeks. She was in her mid-thirties and seemed a bit shy and passive. She had a habit of sighing when I questioned her, as if she were resigned to her problems. After some testing we determined that her rash was an allergic reaction. The problem went away after she avoided the substance we had identified as her allergen. As it turned out the rash was a fortunate occurrence in getting Mary to a doctor, because as I questioned her, she revealed some much more troublesome symptoms that seemed to suggest PMS. When I probed further about her cramps and moodiness, she just shrugged and said, "I guess I'm just a moody person--always have been. I think maybe I get more depressed around the time of my period, but I'm really not sure. And the cramps, I guess they're inherited or something. My mother always had bad cramps. She called it "the curse.".

Then she added so softly I could barely hear her, "That's a perfect name for it." Mary was asked to return just before her next period was due. About a week and a half later a woman resembling Mary showed up. I say "resembling" because Mary seemed to have gained several pounds of water weight, had a puffy face, and her expression was tense with pain. Her eyes were red--from crying it turned out--and this Mary was bursting with anger. "Well, here I am," she half-shouted as I entered the examining room. "You said you could take the curse off. I suppose you think some aspirin will take care of it." It took me a moment to adjust, but the change in her manner made me delighted we had scheduled her appointment for this time in her monthly cycle. I assured her I was not going to prescribe aspirin for her but wanted instead to run some tests. She argued at first that tests weren't going to do any good, but then agreed. After leaving the room briefly, I returned to find Mary no longer angry, but tearful. "Do you think there's really something wrong with me? Is it something serious? I don't know if I can handle any more problems." I told her that I suspected PMS and that, if she had it, it may be treatable. As I talked with Mary I asked what she meant by "any more problems." She was much more talkative in her present mood. Her anxiety and depression seemed to counteract her previous shyness. Mary told me that her husband had complained of her "mood swings," as he called it, and had finally found her bitchiness and crying," as she called it, "intolerable." I recalled then that she had been divorced not long before. On top of that she said she sometimes "took it out on her daughter," and felt guilty. And she had been in such pain every month that her employer was beginning to get "fed up" with the number of times she couldn't come to work. Not surprisingly, Mary tested positive in her response to progesterone, indicating that she was sensitive to her own hormone. After treating her for this condition, we found that her PMS symptoms were resolved in a short time. It was not long before I was greeting a new Mary in my office, neither the shy, resigned Mary of our first interview, nor the aggressive, tearful Mary of our second. Mary said she felt inwardly stronger, more cheerful, and, best of all, even-tempered. She had also thrown out her painkillers since the cramping was hardly noticeable.