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How To Interpret Your PMS

If a patient says "I have PMS" a Gyno says "Emotional symptoms or physical symptoms." And whether they both emanate from the same source is one problem we have not yet solved. Is it the ovarian hormone effect on the brain emotional areas? Or the ovarian hormone effect on the uterine lining which then breaks down and releases the prostaglandins that cause cramps and other symptoms? I spend some of my time mulling this over. And in discussions with patients sometimes we tackle this problem from the physical side, sometimes from the emotional side. I feel like it's a question of how one looks at a problem: visual or auditory? olfactory memory or taste? written or palpable? experienced or described.. My favorite is to think about how we'd tackle the problem in Japanese writing. either vertical columns right to left or horizontal lines from left to right. Very yin and yang, left hand washing the right, would you not say. So when it comes to PMS: lets look at the emotional and the physical symptoms, most women will have both.

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