PMS is Bullshit

And unfortunately, I don't mean in the sense that it sucks when you are on it. Sociologists have studied PMS backwards and forwards, and they've concluded that PMS probably isn't biological. The more likely cause is that it's psychosomatic.
Now, I've tried to explain this to half a dozen people this week, and only the men took me on my word, so for you ladies out there, I'm going to explain this slowly. Psychosomatic does NOT mean that there are no symptoms. It does NOT mean that you are not experiencing PMS. All it means is that any symptoms you are experiencing have little to do with biology, and more to do with mentality.
What does it mean if PMS is mental? It means that you thought that those were the symptoms you were supposed to have, so you gave yourself those symptoms.
There are some things that placebo effects can't create. They can't make you bleed, they can't make your organs fail, etc. What they can do is make you nauseous  give you pain in any location, give you rash, give you mood swings, give you sweats etc. There are a lot of things that you wouldn't think a placebo could cause that happen solely because we think they are supposed to happen. PMS is, studies show, more this and less biology.

So now the question (if you haven't already dismissed the premise) is why.
1) In order to be a disorder, it has to be track-able  It has to happen to a statistically significant number of women for the correlation to exist, and it has to have a certain number of symptoms that happen; of those, women must have some, though the symptoms that each experience varies. This is untrue. Studies have found virtually no correlation to time of month and mood reported with PMS specifically, and the list of symptoms attributed to PMS is over 150.

2) In order to be a disorder, it has to effect women of any society. This is untrue. Some societies do not consider PMS to be a disorder, and the women of these societies do not experience menstrual cramps. Furthermore, the symptoms experienced and severity of PMS varies from society to society.

This gives a very good indication already that PMS is in part psychosomatic, if it varies from culture to culture and doesn't have an agreed set of symptoms. However, the more important point is how women perceive PMS versus how it actually affects them.

I learned in a gender class that there was a study done over the course of six months where the women were told to record their mood throughout the day. Then, at the end of the month, they were told to look back and indicate any points where they were particularly moody. The goal was to see if PMS actually did affect mood. What researchers found was that the overall mood during one's menstruation was not likely to be any more emotional than any other part of the month, but women were more likely to look back on this time and attribute a worse mood. In other words, women attributed bad mood to PMS where there was none.

This is one of the tricks our mind plays on us. We see patterns everywhere. So when someone says that PMS will give you mood swings, we look back and say, "Oh I was moodier then wasn't I?" and unfairly attribute any shift in mood to menstruation. Record your own mood, over several months, every day. Mark when you are actually menstruating, and see if there actually is a correlation. I guarantee that for 1-9% of the individuals suffering from PMDD, there will be a negative correlation associated with menstruation. But for the rest of the population, there will not be a statistically significant decrease in mood during that time. That's because things happen all the time that make us sad. It's just life.

Why this is important

If it were just a matter of proving myself right, I wouldn't actually care. I don't really know if I'm right or not; I've just yet to see any factual information that proves me wrong. Everyone who argues with me on this point says, "I experience PMS, therefore PMS is real" and that is NOT an argument. I experience gay sex; that doesn't mean everyone else does. 

But it's not about that. It's really not. It's about the fact that the continued determination that women have to justify PMS as an explanation for their fluctuations in mood is inhibiting the Feminist's Movement. There's all these men out there who are convinced that women would be bad leaders because they can't control their mood. The President is supposed to keep a cool head on his shoulders at all times, and one of the arguments against female leaders is they have menstrual cycles. Their mood is not controlled by their head, but by their body. So what's to say that she won't snap, and react emotionally, and damage international relations or start a war?

Yes, people really believe that. And saying "Leave me alone I'm PMS-ing" only makes it worse, because you are telling every guy out there that yes, you cannot control your mood. Yes, your mood is subjective to biology in the same way that the tides are subjective to the phases of the moon. Yes, you cannot control your emotions, or yourself, and sometimes, you just can't handle life, so you have to curl up with a box of ice cream and a chick flick. Like a raging stereotype. Because God forbid anyone treat you like a normal human being. You're a delicate flower, and you need to be pampered when you're menstruating.

I'm not saying that menstruation is pleasant. But women cannot continue to expect to be seen as men's equals if they insist that once a month, they are going to be moody and cranky and should be taken care of. You are inhibiting yourself for no reason. And if you continue to do so, continue to fight so angrily that "PMS does fucking exist" then you are never going to be seen as anything more than your biology. You are never going to be seen as a person; you are simply going to be seen as a woman. And if a woman is as moody as a teenager, can't control it, and can't stop it... well then. Why are you trying to convince the rest of the world to stop treating you like a child when that's apparently exactly what you want?