Why is premenstrual syndrome still so badly understood? | Hannah Ewens

As one of the 5-8% of women who suffer from premenstrual dysphoric disorder, the most extreme form of PMS, I know how disabling and even life-threatening it can be. Medicine must take women’s health more seriously

There’s a brilliant catch-all term to encompass female hormone-related physical maladies and emotional issues. It’s spouted by advertisers, joked about in pop culture, diagnosed by a weary doctor with a shrug and pharmaceutical companies claim they cure it. It’s convenient, PMS.

Strange then, that there are over 150 different symptoms of PMS from depression to backache to migraines, and still few answers about how and why these occur. Stranger still that the contraceptive pill or antidepressants are often the only solutions offered, with little explanation. How can there be this much vagueness and confusion over the female body in 2015?

Related: Luisa Dillner on the rise in women handed antidepressants for the symptoms of PMS

PMDD is depression, lethargy and feeling out of control between ovulation and the onset of your period

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