What woman has not felt particularly badly sometime in the days before her menstruation? The so-called premenstrual syndrome is characterized by changes in mood and behavior in the time period preceding the period (several days to 2 weeks earlier), followed by a period of relief in the post to the rule expressed by instability emotional (irritability, depression), headaches, sore breasts and usually edema (swelling, resulting from fluid retention).
Approximately 80% of women of reproductive age experience physical and behavioral changes in this period, which are considered normal, provided that in all cases these produce disability or discomfort in them. In up to 10% of cases the symptoms are severe enough to harm women in their work, lifestyle or relationships.
There is no specific cause but has been associated with a hormonal imbalance, related to changes in blood levels of estrogen and progesterone (hormones involved in the ovulatory cycle), the effects of these on brain chemistry and other aspects with metabolism such as diet, and deficiency of certain minerals and vitamins.
Other associated factors are stress and lack of exercise. However, none of these bottlenecks are found in all women with this syndrome. Other investigations have focused on studying the effects of endorphins (opioid peptides), which are natural brain chemicals that have an effect on the body similar to morphine, affecting mood.
Lately it has investigated the effect of serotonin and tryptophan, which are neurotransmitters that has been created like symptoms of this syndrome experimentally. We have seen that the concentration of these components in the brain varies in response to hormonal changes of the ovary.
