PMS, endometriosis, and other perceived maladies

In a previous thread, I was discussing two topics. One about premenstrual syndrome, where the argument was about whether or not such a "syndrome" exists. The other about endometriosis.I would like to gather feedback from the members about these two maladies and others, should they come up. I want to discuss possible treatments, and also the plausibility of syndromes, such as PMS, existing or not existing.Are they products of culture or is there a legitimate, scientific basis in things like PMS? Well, you are right. A hysterectomy is not classically defined as a cure. But perhaps we might better understand in another term.We could rightfully say that an appendectomy is not a cure for an appendicitis. But the reality for myself was that I would have died had I not had an appendectomy.Now, obviously it could be said that you wouldn't die from endometriosis if you didn't have a hysterectomy. The point I'm trying to illustrate is that sometimes the removal of the source, i.e. cancer, is the best chance you have.Having said that, it doesn't detract from your initial sentiment-- that no one seems to be making a concerted effort in trying to stop endo in the first place, especially when it causes many other health problems and induces great discomfort to the patient. Yeah, I know what you mean. My wife, on the other hand, had a hysterectomy, but still has her ovaries so that she can produce the regulatory hormones she needs. That was a concern for us as well. The last thing we wanted was for her to have to take pills in order to stave off an early menopause.In your case, though, it would probably be more wise for you to look towards treatment, rather than the removal of an organ-- even if you kept your ovaries.Also, as you alluded to, the endo can still grow even after the uterus is removed, where it can develop on the colon or elsewhere. That should always be a consideration.

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"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt

since you seem to be a bit confused, let me explain the disease. endometrial tissue is what lines the uterus during the cycle in preparation for a potential pregnancy. this particular disorder causes this tissue to grow outside of the uterus which can cause adhesions and ruptures, and yes, death.however, the easy solution to medicine is simply to remove the offending organ, similar to breast cancer. i am more than tempted to assume that this is due to a general disinterest in "women's problems."i'm really kind of uncomfortable with these two topics being in the same thread. they're really unrelated. while i'm not convinced that pms is quite "bullshit," i'm equally unconvinced that it's anything more than a learned social disfunction whereby women take an excuse to be completely worthless. now. having had some nasty, evil periods in my life (overnight pads every hour and cramps like you wouldn't believe for 8 days out of the month for 12 years, only slightly diminished by my hormone therapy), so i understand irritability. but it's due to being uncomfortable, not from having some hormonal imbalance in your brain. i'm not very knowledgeable about pmdd, but i know someone who claims to have it. i'm tempted to think it may be a psychologicl response to some mentral related abuse. at any rate. if you, as a man, had a vice around your intestines, had cramps that made it impossible to take a shit without screaming, had to wear some variety of diaper that smells like rotting pepperoni (or a tampon which after 3 days has dried out your vagina despite the constant flow of blood so that it hurts to put them in or remove them), had to constantly worry if you were ruining your clothes, had to choose underwear based on newness and the presence of old stains, had to choose pants based on color, couldn't fit into half of your clothes because of the bloating (did i mention the number on your pants is the sole determinant of your worth in our world, no matter how much we try to fight it), had the level of general fatigue associated because of the blood loss, and so forth, you'd be a bit grumpy too. it's not that we're crazed by hormone levels, it's that we're just so completely uncomfortable in our skin and our clothes and our very existence. but i really doubt it's a psychological condition in any sense of the word, and thus it must be a cultural phenomenon. this seems to be supported by the literature on it.Edited by brennakimi, : No reason given.Edited by brennakimi, : No reason given.Edited by brennakimi, : No reason given.

Okay. In the first place, if you look it up, you'll find that breast cancer research is way overfunded by comparison with the proportion of deaths it causes. This is because, as a "women's problem", it has the "women's lobby" behind it.In the second place, the reason oncologists perform mastectomies is not because they're lazy, but because they can. If you're going to get cancer anywhere, hope and/or pray that you get it in a part which can just be cut off you with a sharp knife. If not, then your chances remain poor. The survival rate for breast cancer is way above that of almost every other cancer --- precisely because amputation is an option. Mucking about with chemotherapy and radiotherapy is a very poor second best.I read recently (sorry, I don't have the reference) of a guy who came up with a way of doing a mastectomy which involved cutting away less muscle tissue, severing fewer nerves, and which, he therefore hoped, would cause less pain. It never went to trials on humans, 'cos he couldn't get any volunteers. 'Cos, if you've got cancer, and someone can simply cut it out, you yell: CUT IT OUT! CUT DEEP!Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.

Honestly, I only merged them so I could answer you and Molobigirl. You're right, they are almost totally unrelated.I don't know.... Maybe I'll change the title. This is what I know by observation. When an entire group of females are placed in close quarter situations, such as an environment like "boot camp," their bodies adjust to each others menstrual cycle. Its a fascinating phenomenon.Obviously, we aren't talking about actual menstruation here. We're talking about their mental state. They seemed to all get extremely catty once a month.Similarly, I'm not the kind of guy who keeps track of my wife's menstrual cycle to avoid her, but with or without her uterus, I can always notice a difference in demeanor when she is going through her normal cycles.Do I really understand, in depth, the processes that make up PMS? No. But at the same time, I doubt that I need to be an expert on the subject when I have observed, from many different women, the same phenomenon. That's why I don't think its a misnomer.But you bring up an interesting point-- that perhaps its a social convention. And women think they are PMSing because society tacitly suggests to them that they should be, and therefore, are. Then by the same token, are pregnant women not really hormonal, or women going through menopause not really hormonal, but that its all culturally induced? I'd be interested in knowing how many different cultures experience the same things as a way of determining whether or not PMS is an actual condition that would alter hormonal balance.

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"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt

effectiveness does not mean it's the final answer.also, what kind of advances have happened in chemo and radiation? my dad was treated with those 15 years ago.also, breast cancer has loads of research (did you know that ovarian cancer is the same variety, so that increased the suffering numbers a bit), but that doesn't mean it has excessive funding, but that other varieties have too little.but the thing about immortal cells is that they've got to have something in common. Edited by brennakimi, : No reason given.Edited by brennakimi, : No reason given.

actually, when women live in close quarters, their whole cycles tend to change to coincide, often there is one person they coincide to, my guess is because of the strength of her hormones. my freshman year everyone in my hall shifted to me. i'm like the moon. the whole cycle shifts, not just the "state of mind". sure, they're hormonal. but are they moody because they're hormonal? probably not. i think it's what i described with pms. stress can cause mood changes and i think our culture embraces that to the extreme. we don't tend to experience a lot of physical stress anymore and when we do, it freaks us out. we're very disconnected from how we work and we try to ignore these things and move on with our regular lives. think about it like drinking. if you're with people and feeling festive, you feel like you get drunk faster. there's no reason for this, as far as i know and it has to do with what i'd like to call "leaning into it". women are a little irritable relative to their discomfort, as a man would be if someone were slowly chopping of his leg. because society has made this idea of a bitchy, emotional, pmsing woman, women take license and act bitchy because they have something to blame it on.pregnant women are going through all kinds of physical and emotional changes in preparation for being a parent. as such, their stress is a lot higher and their mood shift greater. but it's not because of the hormones. it's because they're being blown up like a balloon and can't go 5 minutes without a pee. if you're referring to the specific cravings they have, everyone has specific cravings depending on what your body needs. you know how sometimes pickles taste saltier than they do other times? same deal. when you need salt, something with salt tastes good. sometimes i have specific cravings for oranges or other various things. if you don't know what your craving is for, then you just haven't paid attention. pregnant women have a complication. they have another living thing who potentially has other cravings in them. it could be that the weird cravings we hear about pregnant women having represent a clash in what each body wants.same deal with menopause. everything they've known about their bodies for the last 40 years is changing. they don't know who is gonna come out of it, and they have a cultural idea that they're either not a woman or just useless. along with this, they have dryness and some other problems which can build a distance between them and their partners. this amounts to unbelievable stress. this stress creates, you guessed it, mood swings. pms doesn't alter hormone balance. the hormones are well known to shift during the menstrual cycle. the hormone levels increase through the month to facilitate ovulation and implantation and then at the end of it, they're supposed to shift to pregnancy hormones. when they don't, the hormones have dropped and the lining is expelled. pms occurs during that last phase of really high hormones being replaced by nothing and the drop in hormone levels. again, we see change and stress. did i mention, some women have outbreaks during this time, so they're not comfortable with their faces?pms doesn't cause the hormonal shift, it results from it. my opinion is that it results indirectly due to ability or desire to handle stress, thus making it not a real psychological condition (at least not one definable outside of stress behavior).what you have to remember is that there are many places in the world where women actually have children and don't have periods. we're not designed for this stuff. we're designed to be pregnant or nursing and those things tend to suppress the cycle. this means that if you nurse for one to two years per child and have say ten kids, you'll probably never have a period. in some of these places, the mortality rate is high enough that you won't actually end up with ten kids. also, with a few gay uncles, you'll have help raising the kids anyways. that's my .02.

Its really cool how that happens. I'd be interested in knowing what exactly causes it. I'd venture to say that you're spot on saying that it is induced by hormones as it may transmit through, say, pheromones. Well, you're right. I don't agree that anyone should use it as a license to act in whatever way they see fit. And certainly whatever is going on in a persons life, be it a poor diet, lack of sleep, cramping, annoying husbands and kids, a jerk of boss, a supposed friend that talks smack behind your back, etc, only exacerbates it. I fully believe that cravings are the bodies way of telling the person what the body needs. Sometimes the body can trick itself in to thinking that it needs something-- like craving alcohol, nicotene, caffeine, etc, but generally I think its a good thing. My wife loves salsa. She absolutely loves it. Its really annoying because we are always eating Mexican food, which is great and all, in moderation. I think her body needs the lycopene because she does not get enough of it in her diet otherwise. Some people have suggested that men also have something akin to what could be described as a male version of pms. What are your thoughts on that? Have you ever experienced a man that has mood swings that doesn't seem to be explained by circumstances alone, but rather, that it tends to correspond to a cycle?

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"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt

if it were the lycopene, she could get it better from italian food. cooked tomatoes have way more than fresh tomatoes. it might quite well be the capsasin that she's craving. it's the stuff that makes peppers hot. dear. i don't pay enough attention to my own cycles. i was always surprised by them. it wouldn't surprise me that men have some variety of cycle. i've heard of it too, but nothing more than a blurb ever. i'd have to read before i'm convinced of the reality, but things in this world tend to work in cycles. but i think this whole stability thing we pretend to have is horse shit.

Well, but look. Yes, my wife too has a "time of the month" where I observe a "change in her demeanor" but I doubt very much that it actually represents a radical change in her mental state; it's more like, she's already aggravated by having painful cramps, so she's less inclined to be charitable when I'm acting like a dipshit.How surprising is that? We don't look at people who have colds or flu and say that they're also suffering from a mental malady that makes them more annoyed with people who are idiots. We just understand that being sick, or in physical pain and discomfort, tends to sour ones outlook.Of course, "PMS" gives men an excuse to essentially dismiss the concerns, questions, and assertions of women, and blame women for being upset when the men are acting like jackasses. In that sense, it's a real problem - that men have. As a syndrome that affects the mind and turns sane women into crazy ones? It's just an excuse to avoid wondering what the hell you're doing that pisses women off so bad. Did you ever stop to think that the problem was you? That, in general, your bullshit is so grating on women that they have to be in the best of health not to kick your ass about it?Just a thought. I find that the men who complain so vigorously about women with "PMS" are the men who, I observe, are assholes to women most of the time. Myself, I've hardly ever encountered the phenomenon.

{Edited- off topic stuff}Edited by Tazmanian Devil, : No reason given.

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Disclaimer:

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Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

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He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!