Premenstrual tension is known to be a group of symptoms that women experience up to 2 weeks before the start of their period.
Although this may be something that you have never heard about before, about 75% of women experience some of the symptoms.
Symptoms of PMT
The symptoms could cause various levels of discomfort, but in the majority of the cases they are harmless and they could be psychological or physical.
The physical symptoms include cravings for alcohol or food, skin problems, headaches, water retention, swollen joints, especially the ankles, weight gain and weakness.
As it has been mentioned there are also some psychological symptoms of PMT such as decreased libido, insomnia, depression, lack of concentration, irritability, and weepiness.
Naturally it’s not a must to experience all of the symptoms. Usually women experience a few of them.
The causes of the premenstrual tension
The main causes of this problem are the fluctuating hormone levels during the month, that leads to water and salt accumulation in the body and there is a decrease of the progesterone levels.
This is the hormone that prepares the uterus for the implantation of the fertilized egg.
There are some other causes as well of the hormonal imbalances leading to PMT, such as the absence of important fatty acids in the nutrition. In case you lack vitamin B6, you may experience some irregularities in your menstrual cycle.
The seriousness of premenstrual tension
As it has been mentioned not all women have all the symptoms, and the severity of the symptoms varies from one woman to the other. In some cases the severity of the psychological symptoms is so high that it looks like the victim has become an entirely different person.
As a result of PMT women could have serious mood swings and they could even get violent with the people around them. Since other people tend to judge women in this case, they could develop a certain level of anxiety regarding this part of the month.
Ways to make premenstrual tension better
During this time it is better to avoid the situations when you are under a lot of stress and make sure that the goals you have are reachable and realistic. Also in order to decrease water retention you should have less salt in your diet.
Caffeine could also be linked to PMT, and so you should consume less of it, meaning that you should cut back on coffee, tea and coke. This is because caffeine stops certain nutrients from being absorbed and so it could make the skin problems even worse.
When it comes to nutrition regarding the problem, you should also consume less saturated fats. You can do so by having less dairy products and meat. The saturated fats stop the body from producing essential fatty acids and so you may be facing a hormonal imbalance.
Although premenstrual tension isn’t something pleasant, there is always something to do about it to make the symptoms better and to improve the quality of your life during this period.
