Do Men Get PMS Too?

http://www.datingish.com/736095028/do-men-get-pms-too/
Jed Diamond, Ph.D. has been a health-care professional for the last
45 years. He is the author of 9 books, including Looking for Love in
All the Wrong Places, Male Menopause, The Irritable Male
Syndrome, and Mr. Mean: Saving Your Relationship from the
Irritable Male Syndrome . He offers counseling to men, women, and
couples in his office in California or by phone with people throughout
the U.S. and around the world. To receive a Free E-book on Men’s
Health and a free subscription to Jed’s e-newsletter go to
www.MenAlive.com. If you enjoy my articles, please subscribe. I
write to everyone who joins my Scribd team.

Let's forget about the "men" in "menstruation" for a minute, and focus
on the word as it's applied to the female anatomy.

Premenstrual syndrome or "PMS" as it's often called, is a hormonal

roller coaster ride where the estrogen and progesterone levels loop,
rise and free-fall with possible screaming or puking depending on
how sensitive you are to roller coaster rides. While men will
occasionally pee orange due to a combination of urine and blood, this
wonderful secondary color does not mean that males get monthly
blood drips or crave fudge-dipped chocolate ice cream cake at
3:00am.

It never helps that men lack a uterus, but that's a given. However, is
it possible that men do indeed go through cycles of hormonal
imbalance? If so, how badly does it alter their moods in
comparison to women?

If you aren't able to distinguish the difference between PMS and a

period, you should stop reading this, quit having sex if you're sexually
active, and pick out a book from the library. You'd be surprised by
how uneducated a lot of sexually active men and women are. If you
don't understand the basics of how your own sexual organs work,
don't risk breeding children who are destined to be ignorant due to
your lack of education.
Now that I'm done bringing common sense into the equation, we can
talk about our rebellious hormones and how they make us punch
goats in the face.

According to psychotherapist Jed Diamond, men can have fun

simulating the stock market with their fluctuating hormones, too! In
this interview with WebMD, he refers to the phenomenon as
"irritable male syndrome" (or "IMS") and lists a bunch of causes
and effects such as stress, fluctuations in weight, and
prescription drugs. There's even a fun little website with a quiz to
tell you what kind of IMS you have.

Here's my score from his test, for those interested:

Your Score: 50

I have found the following scores to be worth considering. They are

based on my own clinical experience with people I rated and who
then took the questionnaire. The scores are also based on over
30,000 people who participated in the Irritable Male Syndrome and
Male Depression Questionnaires on the Men’s Health Website:

• 0-25: None or few signs of IMS.

• 26-49: Some indications of IMS. May need help or watchful
waiting to see if things improve or get worse.
• 50-75 : IMS is likely and it is advisable to seek help.
• 76 and higher: IMS is definitely present and getting help is most
important.

Understanding yourself and the way IMS may be expressing itself in

your life is the first step to making things better for you and those you
love.

Looks like I need serious help. Who wants to help me, and what
did you score?

Anyway.

This Jed Diamond character lists a group of causes which aren't

male-specific, but slaps on a fancy label to imply that it is?
First of all, my name for it as depicted by the title is wittier,
dammit. He's clearly trying to sell his books with common sense
"insight" and a load of psychobabble. Yes, there's evidence that
testosterone levels can drive your aggression into a jail cell, but isn't it
obvious that taking something like selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitors (Paxil, Prozac, etc...) will make changes to your hormonal
levels? Male or female, it will have an effect.

Stress levels vary and change over time, so a sudden onset of "Jed
Diamond is a fraudulent asshole syndrome" shouldn't come as a
surprise. Both genders experience varying degrees of stress, not
just those brutes who road-rage, fist-pump and lift more weights
than book covers. The fact that The Irritable Male Syndrome is a
best-selling book might give me an aneurysm, so Jed can add that to
a list for his next book detailing the causes of male-specific deaths.

So we come back to the main question: Do men have their own

equivalent to PMS?

I wish I could say otherwise to further close the gap in gender

differences, but there's absolutely no such thing as IMS or male
menstruation. However, men do indeed get mood swings too, which
can be installed in a backyard somewhere. The gentle swaying of the
swing set can rapidly turn a gentleman into Mel Gibson's sexually
repressed, acne-faced, teenage twin with a good push. There is no
time of the month for men, but we can get hormonal just like you.

What's your take on it? Do you agree with Jed Diamond, or did
you come to the conclusion that he's full of hormonal shit?