New approach for P.M.T. sufferers being studied

Press, 16 July 1982, Page 7

New approach for P.M.T. sufferers being studied

For thousands of New Zealand women, "the curse" is n o joke. Every month, about 10 per cent of menstruating women suffer from severe pre-menstrual tension, which can make them feel anything from moody and irritable to murderous and suicidal. Unlike the headline-grab-bing case in England, where a woman was initially let off a murder charge on the grounds that she had been suffering from pre-menstrual tension at the time. P.M.T. has never been used as a defence for murder in New Zealand: but it has been put forward as a mitigating circumstance.

Actual violence as a result of P.M.T. is very, very rare, but hostile feelings are often there, and it is usually preschool children at home who are in the firing line. For some women. P.M.T. begins as much as two weeks before their period is due. and for the whole time they can feel irritable, bloated, tired, depressed, and suffer from headaches and sore breasts.

For others, the symptoms last only a couple of days, and for the lucky ones. P.M.T. is no problem at all.

In Christchurch. two women are carrying out separate surveys of the "unrecognised illness," as it is called

Dr Diane Sanders, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Canterbury, has come to New Zealand from the Medical Research Council's Reproduction Biology Unit at the University of Edinburgh for a year to further her studies of the stresses of P.M.T., and how to alleviate them. Meanwhile, at Princess Margaret Hospital, Dr Glen Metcalf, an endocrinologist, is furthering her studies into the diagnosis of P.M.T. -

studies which she began in the same unit at Edinburgh University when she was there recently. Six weeks ago. Dr Sanders put an advertisement in “The Press" and notices up around the university health centre, asking women suffering from P.M.T. to get in touch with her. About 60 women did, and from them, she has chosen 16 for her project. When she was in Edinburgh. Dr Sanders studied 70

women for her doctoral thesis on hormones and behaviour during the menstrual cycle during a period of five years. These studies showed that there was some relation between hormone levels, particularly of the hormone progesterone. and P.M.T. The women who suffered from severe P.M.T. generally had low progesterone levels, and they also had histories of adverse reaction to contraceptive pills, which are hormonal. It was while she was working on her thesis that Dr Sanders became interested in the “self-help" approach for women with P.M.T. She started to look at ways in which women could ' help themselves to overcome their problem, instead of swallowing pills. "It's important to get factual information out to women about P.M.T. and about women's health in general,” she says.

There are only a couple of books about P.M.T., and they are not easy to find in New Zealand. Until now. there has been little or no research about the subject, and doctors have on the whole refused to acknowledge that P.M.T. is an illness.

“Women have been kept in ignorance about their bodies and consequently find hormonal changes and such things as pre-menstrual tension something of a mystery." she says. "’Women should know

about what's happening inside them. I think that schools, parents, and doctors should all give girls more information about their bodies, and public attitudes should change so that girls and women are no longer kept in the dark." Dr Sanders plans to write a book about it later in the year. She will call it “Coping With Periods." She said a meeting of the Medical Women’s Association discussed the subject of P.M.T. and women's lack of knowledge about it at a recent meeting. Dr Sanders has trained as a yoga teacher, and plans to introduce yoga as a possible means of coping with the stresses of P.M.T. She acknowledges that it may work for some women, but not all.

Drugs frequently prescribed to women with P.M.T. include progesterone, and other hormonal drugs; diuretics, to relieve fluid retention: tranquillisers; and a drug to stop ovulation. Vitamin B 6 tablets' are also often frequently recommended. “Some women might get some relief from these, some might not. But I'm against the use of drugs for P.M.T. because we don't really know the causes of the illness, and neither do we know all the side effects and long-term effects of all of the drugs, especially the hormonal ones. Drugs should be only a last resort." Dr Sanders savs.

She suggests that women with P.M.T. talk to others about it (“it often helps to discover you're not the only one"); keep a menstrual diary. notes on how you feel on different days, to help you plan ahead to avoid stress’ on the days that will be bad; take plenty of exercise, get plenty of sleep, and eat a balanced diet.

Cutting down on fluids; cutting down on salt and salty foods; eating naturally diuretic foods such as prunes, figs, parsley and strawberries. and plenty of protein instead of sweets and chocolates to get your blood sugar level up again (it often goes down before you get your period); taking vitamin B 6 tablets three days before your period is due until three days after it begins, are also suggested methods of selfhelp.