WHAT RISK FACTORS INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF PMS?
1. Family History
You won't thank your ancestors for this familial trait, but there is no doubt that if your mother, sisters or maternal or paternal grandmother or great grandmothers had PMS, then you are also more prone to suffer with PMS.
2. Hormonal Triggers
Many women first notice PMS after stopping the oral contraceptive pill, after pregnancy, postnatal depression or miscarriage, after hysterectomy with conservation of the ovaries or after tubal ligation (sterilization).
Some women get PMS type symptoms while taking the oral contraceptive pill (OCP) presumably because the synthetic hormones in the OCP reduce the production of natural oestrogen and progesterone from the ovaries. If this is severe, a progesterone only OCP (mini-pill) may be better tolerated.
3. Stress
PMS may appear after severe or prolonged stress, such as relationship difficulties, financial problems or unwanted pregnancies.
4. Increasing Age
Typically PMS worsens during the 30s, peaking in the mid to late 30s. During the 40s, PMS becomes intertwined with the hormonal deficiencies characteristic of the pre-menopausal years when more severe deficiencies and/or imbalances of oestrogen and progesterone can occur.
5. Being A 20th Century Woman
Today's woman has, on average, two children and spends the rest of her life having regular menstrual cycles with approximately 350 to 400 menstrual periods in her reproductive life span. Therefore, if she is susceptible, she could have 350 to 400 episodes of PMS in her lifetime. Before contraception was available, a woman had around ten pregnancies, each followed by one to two years of breast-feeding. Our great grandmothers usually only menstruated for two to five years out of their whole life span. Thus, as far as mother nature is concerned, it would seem that women are not meant to have periods and PMS, and that they are indeed designed to have more pregnancies.
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