Medical Keywords - Everything you need to know about health.

Is What I Have Premenstrual Syndrome?

If you are a woman and menstruating, you may wonder if what you experience each month is just period discomfort or if you actually have premenstrual syndrome (PMS)? How can you know if what you are experiencing is PMS? There are over 100 recognizable symptoms of PMS. Most women will only experience a few of these symptoms each month due to PMS.

The most common PMS symptoms are listed below and they can be both emotional and physical.

Emotional symptoms of PMS might include aggression, anxiety, crying spells, fatigue, irritability, mood swings, poor concentration, and also sadness, which may turn into depression.

Physical symptoms of PMS might include abdominal swelling or bloating, breast tenderness, headaches, water retention that may result in bloating and swollen ankles even weight gain.

In order to know for sure if your symptoms are from PMS and not another condition you should see your doctor for blood tests and urine tests that can rule out other conditions and diseases. The diagnosis of PMS is based on the symptoms you have, the severity of the symptoms and when the symptoms occur in your cycle. Typically women with PMS notice that the symptoms slowly worsen during the week approaching their period and rapidly disappear after the period starts.

One way a woman can help her doctor to decide if she has PMS is for her to keep a PMS symptoms journal. She should record the symptoms that she has, what date(s) she experienced the symptoms and how intense they are. She should also record if the symptoms were bad enough to prevent her from participating in the activities that she would normally be doing at work, school or home. She should also record the start date and end date of her period. This journal should be discussed with a doctor when a diagnosis of PMS is being evaluated.

Measuring hormone levels cannot help to determine PMS because there are no differences between a woman with PMS and a woman without PMS.

There is no known cause for PMS at this time but researchers have been conducting studies to help determine what causes PMS. We know that normal fluctuations in hormones causes the bloating, breast tenderness and headaches that are commonly associated with menstruation and women who have intensified symptoms may possibly have a greater fluctuation in hormones that usual. It is known that PMS is not caused by underlying abnormalities with the pelvic organs.

In order to answer the question, "Do I have premenstrual syndrome?" the woman would have to be evaluated by a medical doctor or gynecologist.

When a woman is curious as to her symptoms and wonders if she has premenstrual syndrome it is important that she be in tune to her body so that she can observe symptoms, and record them into a journal that can be shared with her doctor. A woman should not have to suffer in uncertainty. If you are concerned about the monthly symptoms that you are experiencing, it is important that you record your symptoms and then make an appointment to be evaluated by a medical professional so that you can finally have your answer regarding PMS.