TMS and PMS

yes, good point. Seems so many factors can impact human behavior around pain and discomfort, our perception of severity and how we function with our pain.

 

I used to suffer very badly from PMS. My cycle was so erratic that I seemed to have symptoms three out of four weeks. I got to a point of desperation and rang a service run at the time by Dr Maryon Stewart here in the UK. She has written a few books on PMS, menopause and women's health in general. I paid for phone consultations with her. She put me on a strict diet that was essentially gluten free and no caffeine. She also told me to eat more oily fish, prescribed a cartload of supplements and told me to up my game on the exercise front. I was desperate at that time. She explained that my symptoms stemmed from an intolerance to wheat and eventually I reintroduced rye, barley and oats back into my diet. I felt better and most symptoms subsided over the next few months. I lost weight and had more energy but this was to be expected because I had stopped eating junk and increased my physical activity. I eventually reintroduced wheat and 20 years on eat bread etc but try not to go overboard. It's just common sense. So is getting as much exercise as possible.

I absolutely sailed through menopause even though I had previously feared I would have a tough time due to my PMS history. By this point I was aware of the mind body connection.

In hindsight I feel that it was my erratic life that caused the hormonal imbalance and subsequent irregular cycle. Once I had been through the above programme, my cycle was pretty much bang on regular. Was the diet thing a placebo? I think so. Can't prove it but here was this leading expert on women's health, a published author, telling me she could cure me and so she did. I had less felt less trepidation and fear so was more relaxed. That was what put paid to the symptoms.

There were to be a few more incidents that provided proof there was a definite link between my mental state and my hormones. The most recent one was following my daughter's car accident I was in such a state of shock that 14 months post menopause, I had a period. It was approximately 3 weeks after the accident. I'm not one to consult Dr Google but I had a peek on this occasion. Having a period 6 month or more post menopause may be a cause for concern and it was suggested to see a doctor. However, I noted that at the top of the list of known causes was 'non-gynochological trauma'. I certainly qualified for that so didn't give it another thought. Never happened a second time.

 

Yb44,

Thanks for your post, struglin with ‘the big change ‘ (is that a tms provoking term already or is it me ? )
so help on the mindbody approach for this is very welcome

 

This is so interesting. The relief and confidence you must have felt to have someone say, “Do this and all will be fine!” must have been powerful. I was told to try wheat-free too but if I ate wheat happily all my life, why would it suddenly the cause of problems now?