No More Pms!

Say goodbye to bloating, mood swings and those awful cramps.

Premenstrual Syndrome. The mere mention of the words is enough to make any girl wince (and any guy scurry to the nearest exit). It's a group of physical and psychological symptoms that occurs 5 to 11 days before you get your period. Those all too familiar body-related symptoms include: bloating sensation, breast tenderness, headaches and migraines, nausea, diarrhea or constipation, fatigue and vomiting. Pretty huh? As for the psychological or behavioral changes, when PMS hits suddenly you find yourself snapping at your seatmate for borrowing a pen or going into a sobfest upon seeing your crush laughing with some pretty girl; your moods from crappy to crappier.

Blame it on progeste-what?

Yes, every month our hormone levels, more specifically progesterone, normally rise and drop according to what our body normally needs. PMS is the abnormal response to those normal hormonal changes, according to the National Institute of Mental Health in the US. While research has proven that there is a link between the presence of female sex hormones and PMS symptoms, the hormones aren't necessarily the cause of disorder, because not all women experience PMS. As to why some girls have it and some blessedly don't, it's still not known.

We've got you covered!

Even if certain questions surrounding PMS remain a mystery, we've finally figured out how to cope during those totally dreadful days. Joan Tan Garcia, MD, an obstetrician-gynecologist from St.Luke's medical Center suggests the following: read more...