Premenstrual syndrome occurs usually between the time of ovulation and the first day of your period. Many women experience a host of symptoms that are attributed to premenstrual syndrome aka PMS. As...

Premenstrual syndrome occurs usually between the time of ovulation and the first day of your period. Many women experience a host of symptoms that are attributed to premenstrual syndrome aka PMS. As long as they don’t really interfere with your daily life and hamper activities, PMS is no problem. For extreme symptoms that are severe enough to disrupt life in general may be classified as premenstrual dysphoric disorder or PMDD and a doctor usually must make that diagnosis.

When you have PMDD and self-treatment and lifestyle changes do not alleviate the intensity of symptoms, a doctor will typically talk with you about prescription medication. Certain medications may be needed to interrupt some of the hormones produced by the endocrine system which cause the problems. There is no cure for PMDD or PMS.

With regular PMS symptoms that are tolerable, non-steroid anti-inflammatories can help with cramping and body pains as well as SSRIs also known as serotonin reuptake inhibitors that can help with mood swings. Birth control pills also help with PMS and PMDD symptoms and have few side effects.

Pain Relievers

As mentioned before NSAIDs or non-steroidal anti-inflammatories can reduce cramping as well as any pain related to the menstrual cycle. It has even been known to reduce the bleeding itself during a period. The hormone prostaglandin causes inflammation and the NSAIDs help reduce it. These medications reduce physical pain symptoms of PMS but do not alleviate the emotional symptoms.

The SSRIs or serotonin reuptake inhibitors help boost mood and relieve some physical symptoms. Sometimes, during the time between ovulation and the first period bleeding, the levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the brain are low and can cause a variety of emotional symptoms like irritability, depression, aggressiveness, anxiety and more. These SSRIs boost the use of this serotonin.

When bloating and water retention during PMS leads to weight gain, you might need a diuretic prescribed by your doctor to reduce these symptoms. The by-product of its use, besides reducing fluid retention, is that many of these diuretics used for PMS also alleviate breast tenderness. One birth control pill called Yasmin acts as a diuretic and alleviates these symptoms as well as emotional and other physical problems.

With the panic attacks, anxiety, paranoia and mild depression, there are medications to calm these episodes. However, doctors will caution you to use them only during PMS time as they can hinders the central nervous system so in off-PMS times this could actually have a negative effect and medications like Xanax which help with these emotional symptoms are also habit-forming.

Treating the hormones likely is one of the best treatments, particularly if regular over the counter pain relievers and lifestyle changes do not alleviate the pain or emotional symptoms of PMS. As mentioned before, Yasmin is one birth control pill that can help. There are several others but Yasmin provides the double-whammy of having diuretic properties to reduce bloating and water retention in addition to working on emotional and physical symptom reduction.

When these methods fail, you likely have PMDD and require medications that are a bit more drastic and may have undesirable side effects. Only you and your doctor can come up with a workable plan in this situation.

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