Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:43:56.339Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Premenstrual Syndrome “Dis-easing” the Female Cycle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Jacquelyn N. Zita
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper reflects on masculinist biases affecting scientific research on the Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS). Masculinist bias is examined on the level of observation language and in the choice of explanatory frameworks. Such bias is found to be further reinforced by the social construction of “the clinical body” as an object of medical interrogation. Some of the political implications of the medicalization of women's premenstrual changes are also discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 3 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Feminism and Science, Part 2 , Spring 1988 , pp. 77 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abplanalp, J.M. 1983. Premenstrual syndrome: A selective review. Women and health 8:107–124.10.1300/J013v08n02_06CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Abplanalp, J.M., Rose, R.M., Donnelly, A.F. and Vaughn, L. Livingson 1979. Psychoendocrinology of the menstrual cycle. II. The relationship between enjoyment activities, moods, and reproductive hormones. Psychosomatic Medicine 41 (8):605–615.10.1097/00006842-197912000-00002CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Allen, Hilary. 1984. At the mercy of her hormones: Premenstrual tension and the law. m/f 9:19–44.Google Scholar
Altmann, M., Knowles, E. and Bull, H. 1941. A psychosomatic study of the sex cycle in women. Psychosomatic Medicine 3:199–225.10.1097/00006842-194107000-00001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arms, Suzanne. 1975. Immaculate deception: A new look at women and childbirth in America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Boorse, C. 1975. On the distinction between disease and illness. Philosophy and Public Affairs 5 (1):49–68.Google Scholar
Brahams, Diana. 1981. Premenstrual syndrome: A disease of mind. The Lancet 2 (8257): 1238–1240.Google Scholar
Coppen, A. and Kessel, N. 1963. Menstruation and personality. British Journal of Psychiatry 109:711–715.10.1192/bjp.109.463.711CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, Katharina. 1960. Menstruation and accidents. British Medical Journal 2:1425–1426.10.1136/bmj.2.5210.1425CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dalton, Katharina. 1961. Menstruation and crime. British Medical Journal 2:1752–1753.10.1136/bmj.2.5269.1752CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, Katharina. 1966. The influence of mother's menstruation on her child. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 59:1014.10.1177/003591576605901035CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, Katharina. 1977. The premenstrual syndrome and progesterone therapy. London: William Heinemann Medical Books.Google Scholar
Dalton, Katharina. 1979. Once a month. Great Britain: Hunter House, Inc.Google Scholar
Doering, C.H., Kraemer, H.C., Brodie, H.K.H. and Hamburg, D.A. 1975. A cycle of plasma testosterone in the human male. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 40:492–500.10.1210/jcem-40-3-492CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ettorre, Betsy. 1986. Women and drunken sociology. Women's Studies International Forum 9 (5):515–520.10.1016/0277-5395(86)90043-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortin, , Wittkower, J.N. E.D. and Katz, F. 1958. A psychosomatic approach to the premenstrual tension syndrome: A preliminary report. Canadian Medical Association Journal 79:978–981.Google ScholarPubMed
Glass, G.S., Heninger, G.R., Lansky, M. and Talan, K. 1971. Psychiatric emergency related to the menstrual cycle. American Journal of Psychiatry 128:705–711.10.1176/ajp.128.6.705CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haire, Doris. 1974. The cultural warping of childbirth. New Jersey: International Childbirth Education Association.Google Scholar
Harding, Sandra. 1983. The visiblity of the sex/gender system. In Discovering reality, ed. Harding, Sandra and Hintikka, Merrill Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Harrison, Wilma, Rabkin, Judith and Jean, Endicott 1985. Psychiatric evaluations of premenstrual change. Psychosomatics 26 (10):789–799.10.1016/S0033-3182(85)72792-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haskett, R.F., Steiner, M., Osmand, J.N., Carroll, J.B. 1980. Severe premenstrual tension: Delineation of the syndrome. Biological Psychiatry 15:121–139.Google ScholarPubMed
Haug, Frigga, ed. 1987. Female sexualization London: Verso.Google Scholar
Israel, S.L. 1938. Premenstrual tension. Journal of the American Medical Association 110:1721–1723.10.1001/jama.1938.02790210001001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ivey, M.E. and Bardwick, J.M. 1968. Patterns of affective fluctuation in the menstrual cycle. Psychosomatic Medicine 30:336–345.10.1097/00006842-196805000-00008CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Janowsky, D.S., Gorney, R. and Kelley, B. 1966. The curse: Vicissitudes and variations of the female fertility cycle. I. Psychiatric aspects. Psychosomatics 7:242–247.10.1016/S0033-3182(66)72121-5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Janowsky, D.S., Gorney, R., Castelnuovo‐Tedesco, P., Stone, C.B. 1969. Premenstrual increases in psychiatric admission rates. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 103:189–191.10.1016/S0002-9378(16)34387-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kihlstroem, J.E. 1971. A male sexual cycle. In Current problems in fertility, ed. Ingelman‐Sundberg, A. and Lunell, N.O. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Koeske, Randi. 1976. Premenstrual emotionality: Is biology destiny? Women and health 1:11–14.10.1300/J013v01n03_02CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koeske, Randi. 1980. Theoretical perspectives on menstrual cycle research. In The menstrual cycle: A synthesis of interdisciplinary research, ed. Dan, A.J., Graham, E. A. and Beecher, C.P. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Koeske, Randi. 1983. Lifting the curse of menstruation: Toward a feminist perspective on the menstrual cycle. Women and health 8:1–16.10.1300/J013v08n02_01CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laws, S. 1983. The sexual politics of premenstrual tension. Women's Studies International Forum 6 (1): 19–31.10.1016/0277-5395(83)90084-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieber, A. L. and Sherin, C. R. 1972. Homocides and the lunar cycle: Towards a theory of lunar influence on human emotional disturbance. American Journal of Psychiatry 129:69–74.10.1176/ajp.129.1.69CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luckhaus, Linda. 1985. A plea for PMT in the criminal law. In Gender, sex, and the law, ed. Edwards, Susan Great Britain: Croom Helm Ltd.Google Scholar
MacKinnon, P.C. and MacKinnon, I.L. 1956. Hazards of the menstrual cycle. British Medical Journal 1:555.10.1136/bmj.1.4966.555CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacPherson, Kathleen. 1981. Menopause as disease: The social construction of a metaphor. Advances in Nursing Science 3:95–113.10.1097/00012272-198101000-00009CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mandell, A. and Mandell, M. 1967. Suicide and the menstrual cycle. Journal of the American Medical Association 200:792–793.10.1001/jama.1967.03120220094022CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCance, R.A., Luff, M.C. and Widdowson, E. E. 1937. Physical and emotional periodicity in women. Journal of Hygiene 37:571–611.Google ScholarPubMed
Moos, R.H. 1968. The development of the menstrual distress questionnaire. Psychosomatic Medicine 30:853–867.10.1097/00006842-196811000-00006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moos, R.H. 1969. A typology of menstrual cycle symptoms. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 103:390–402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moos, R.H., Kopell, B.S., Melges, F.T., Yalom, I.D., Lunde, D.T., Clayton, R.B. and Hamburg, D.A. 1969. Fluctuations in symptoms and moods during the menstrual cycle. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 13:37–44.10.1016/0022-3999(69)90017-8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nicholson, John and Kay, Barltrop 1982. Do women go mad every month? New Society 59:226–228.Google Scholar
Parker, A.S. 1960. The premenstrual tension syndrome. Medical Clinician North America 44:339–341.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parlee, Mary Brown 1973. The premenstrual syndrome. Psychological Bulletin 80 (6)54–465.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parlee, Mary Brown 1974. Stereotypic beliefs about menstruation: A methodological note on the Moos menstrual distress questionnaire and some new data. Psychosomatic Medicine 36 (3):229–240.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parlee, Mary Brown 1982a. New findings: Menstrual cycles and behavior. MS 11 (3): 126.Google Scholar
Parlee, Mary Brown 1982b. Changes in moods and activation levels during the menstrual cycle in experimentally naive subjects. Psychology of Women Quarterly 7 (2):119–131.10.1111/j.1471-6402.1982.tb00824.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paulson, M.J. 1961. Psychological concommitments of premenstrual tension. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 81:733–738.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pennington, V.M. 1957. Premenstrual syndrome. Journal of the American Medical Association 164:638–643.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Premenstrual syndrome (special issue) 1985. Psychosomatics 26 (10):785–816.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, Robert, and Yen, S.S., 1981. Premenstrual syndrome. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 139:84–104.10.1016/0002-9378(81)90417-8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ritenbaugh, Cheryl. 1982. Obesity as a culture‐bound syndrome. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 6:347–361.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rubin, Gayle. 1975. The traffic in women: Notes on the political economy of sex. In Toward an anthropology of women, ed. Reiter, Rayna New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Ruble, D.N. 1977. Premenstrual syndrome: A reinterpretation. Science 197:291–292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sandall, Hilary. 1987. Feminism and psychiatry. Paper presented at the Centrum för Kvinnliga Forskare och Kvinnoforskning, Uppsala University, May 26.Google Scholar
Schacter, S. and Singer, J.E. 1962. Cognitive, social and physiological determinants of emotional states. Psychology Review 69:379–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherif, C. W., Wilcoxon, L.A., Shrader, S. L. 1976. Daily self‐reports on activities, life events, moods, and somatic changes during the menstrual cycle. Psychosomatic Change 38:399–417.Google Scholar
Seagull, E.A. 1974. An investigation of personality differences between women with high and low pre‐menstrual tension. Dissertation Abstracts International 34 (9B):4675.Google Scholar
Sommer, Barbara. 1978. Stress and menstrual distress. Journal of Human Stress 4 (3):5–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sommer, Barbara. 1982. Menstrual distress. In The complete book of women's health, ed. Hongladarom, Gail, McCorkle, Ruther and Woods, Nancy New Jersey: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Sondeheimer, S., Freeman, E., Scharlop, B. and Rickels, K. 1985. Hormonal changes in premenstrual syndrome. Psychosomatics 26 (10):803–810.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southam, A.L. and Gonzaga, F.P. 1965. Systemic changes during the menstrual cycle. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 91:142–165.10.1016/0002-9378(65)90601-0CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stark, Evan, Flitcraft, Ann, Frazier, William 1979. Medicine and patriarchal violence: The social construction of a private event. International Journal of Health Services 9 (3):461–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Suarez‐Murias, E. 1953. The psychophysiological syndrome of premenstrual tension with an emphasis on the psychiatric aspect. International Record of Medicine 166:475–486.Google Scholar
Sutherland, H. and Stewart, LA. 1965. A critical analysis of the premenstrual syndrome. Lancet 1:1180–1193.10.1016/S0140-6736(65)92718-2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tonks, C.M., Rack, P.H. and Rose, M.J. 1968. Attempted suicide and the menstrual cycle. Journal Psychosomatic Research 11:319–323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Viet, H. 1955. Psychosomatic aspects of premenstrual tension. Wisconsin Medical Journal 54:599–601.Google Scholar
Voda, Ann. 1977. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Wickham, M. 1958. The effects of the menstrual cycle on test performance. British Journal of Psychiatry 49:34–41.Google ScholarPubMed
Whitehead, R.E. 1934. Women pilots. Journal of Aviation Medicine 5:47–49.Google Scholar