Symptoms Of PMS – Affect Body And Mind

Most women become familiar with their own particular set and pattern of PMS symptoms and these are easier to pinpoint when the problems are physical discomfort such as a headache or backache, breast tenderness, general body aches, weight gain, cramping, bloating or acne outbreaks.

While any of these conditions can be associated with PMS, they are also common to many other ailments. If the symptoms are bothersome enough to interfere with your daily life or begin to change for the worse, you should definitely be evaluated by your doctor or gynecologist to get a proper diagnosis.

The other aspects of PMS that send many women in search of treatment are the mood swings of highs and lows that leave women feeling out of control in their lives. With busy schedules, and people depending on us, we worry that our emotional weak spots will create yet other sets of problems, just when we feel least able to deal with another challenge.

We may realize that PMS is very rarely life-threatening, but there is the insecurity of wondering if that is really the only problem, what we will do if it gets worse, or if we must accept such unpleasantness for a 1/3 to 1/2 of our long reproductive years.

Many of the symptoms can be traced to hormonal fluctuations, but knowing the cause is not the same as alleviating the problem and women seek relief. Depending on the degree we are affected by it, we need to be open to any and all safe, reasonable steps we can take to obtain symptom relief.

Lifestyle changes are definitely at the top of the list, if needed. Getting regular exercise, eating and sleeping well, making time for work and play and balancing these various factors to avoid extremes, are all essential to achieving lasting relief because imbalance causes stress to the body and the mind, which in turn creates more hormonal surges.

It really is helpful to be certain that you are getting proper nutrition and taking supplements if needed. Natural remedies of various kinds have proven to provide needed PMS help for many women as well.

Many health plans, community service groups, hospitals and schools offer low or no-cost classes that teach various relaxation and pain reduction techniques which can be most helpful. If really needed, and your doctor concurs, prescription medications may help with some symptoms when other methods have failed, at least for short periods of time.

Still, the goal should be not to rely on these permanently, as our reproductive years cover decades and that is a long time to be taking any medications, unless we truly must.

Each woman is different, so anyone with PMS needs to become aware of as many potential treatments or preventive measures as possible; then be prepared to work with these for a while to get symptoms under control and more manageable.

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