PREVENTION OF PMT (PREMENSTRUAL SYNDROME)

• Learn about PMT. Become aware of your body. Keep a diary of any symptoms you have at any time in the month for at least three or four months so that you understand what is related to your menstrual cycle and what is not.

• Find a PMT club or group to join -other women’s experiences can be very reassuring and even curative.

• Keep a note on the family’s calendar so that the rest of the family knows why you are behaving strangely and can make allowances.

• Having learned by self-observation when to expect symptoms, do the following from ten days before their onset until the day you start bleeding:

1. Stop eating added sugar, sweet foods, refined-flour products and between-meals sugary snacks.

2. Stop adding salt to your cooking or to your food at the table. This will help reduce the amount of fluid you retain and could make you feel a lot better.

3. Stop drinking coffee and cola drinks. Drink only weak tea or other non-caffeine-containing drinks.

4. Reduce or cut out alcohol and smoking.

5. Start eating six small, high-protein meals a day rather than two or three big meals-don’t eat more over the day; simply spread it out evenly so you don’t go for long periods without eating.

6. Increase your intake of foods rich in magnesium. These include millet, corn, brown rice, potato, cashew nuts, peanuts and tomatoes. Reduce your intake of dairy foods because, being rich in calcium, they interfere with magnesium absorption.

7. Take brewers’ yeast tablets (two a day) to improve your sugar metabolism.

8. Take six capsules of evening primrose oil a day. This is especially useful for women whose main complaint is breast swelling.

9. Reduce your intake of fats, avoiding particularly animal fats and hydrogenated margarines. Consume only high quality margarines, high in polyunsaturates.

10. Take daily exercise, preferably out-of-doors. Walking and running are ideal, as are aerobic exercises and swimming.

11. If you are a PMT-H type restrict your fluid intake and beware of hidden salt in your diet as well as obvious salt. Pickled foods, preserved foods, cured meats, spinach and celery all contain large amounts of salt, so be careful. PMT-A women seem to improve with the addition of vitamin B6.

12. If this preventive regime doesn’t work then progesterone (a natural hormone made from inedible yams) can be given by a doctor. Progestogens, the synthetic versions of progesterone used in the contraceptive pill, tend to make PMT worse. Natural progesterone is best, given as a vaginal pessary or as a suppository. For some women even quite a short course of progesterone can stimulate their hormone production to normal levels.

Try to cut down on the stress in your life – this will help your PMT symptoms.

It is my own personal clinical experience, and that of several others who work in this field, that many women who suffer from PMT have emotional or marital problems that are the cause and not the result of their PMT. I find that there is often a substantial psychosexual element with many of these women and that they often give a history of troubled sexual or interpersonal relationships. I have cured many women of their PMT by psychotherapy alone and a lot of women have told me that they can date the onset of their PMT to a particular psychological, emotional or sexually-linked event in their lives. Prevention in these women involves sorting out their underlying psycho-sexual problems.

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