Today I had a patient describe her pre-menstrual symptoms to me. Symptoms so common to many women: mood swings, water retention, headaches and anxiousness. This patient also has a history of hormone sensitive breast cancer and fibroids. After describing her pre-menstrual concerns to her family doctor, he replied that if she was menstruating every month, her hormones must be normal.
I respectfully disagree - these symptoms and her history are all suggestive of an estrogen-dominant pattern. We will likely test her saliva for hormones, as it appears to be much more sensitive than blood for levels. We need, as a society, to stop accepting "common" PMS and menopausal symptoms as "normal".
My next post will discuss the DIFFERENT types of PMS that women get, which will hopefully re-iterate the differences in hormone pictures for various women.