The Treatment of Premenstrual Syndrome — Forward into the Past

In 1847, Dr. Ernst F. von Feuchtersleben wrote that “The menses in sensitive women is almost always attended by mental uneasiness, irritability, and sadness.”1 Over the past 100 years, this identification of some form of “sensitivity” as a basis for the mood disorders related to the menstrual cycle has been largely ignored in the often evangelical search for a single explanation (and treatment) for the condition now known as premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Myths and stereotypes (and the countervailing attempts to neutralize and contradict these stereotypes) have further compromised dispassionate observation and replaced inquiry with polemic: either every woman has PMS, . . .