Letters to the Editor

• Bull. Shit.

  [Read the article: Women more likely to inherit depression]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I have never suffered from "PMS", nor do I know any women who have.

  What are the odds of that?

  I think it's because all of my friends are women who were taught to rely on their abilities and intellect. They were raised by sensible women who made no excuses.

  Women who think they have PMS were taught by their parents that they are weak and can't handle themselves.

  And this is why, until I went to college and learned about prostaglandins, I refused to take any medication for my cramps on the grounds that I could not possibly be having cramps, because cramps were a psychological result of being indoctrinated into a sexist, woman-hating worldview and I refused to let my brain play such tricks on me. (Never mind that I had not, in fact, been indoctrinated into such a worldview -- I was my family's golden child, the one expected to succeed while my brothers were not considered nearly as likely to do so, and I'd declared myself a feminist at the age of 3.)

  And then I found out that during her period, a woman's body manufactures substances called prostaglandins, which cause the uterus to contract and stay contracted, in order to force out the uterine lining. This, naturally, produces a cramping sensation (muscle contraction that doesn't relax *is* cramping). In other words, NO, it was not all in my head, it was caused by chemicals being made by my body, and when my mom told me that I was being ridiculous and I should take Motrin, she was *right*.

  The fact that one woman does not have or know anyone who has PMS means exactly jack. Anecdote is not the plural of data. And the "I don't suffer from a disorder, therefore no woman does unless she's weak" attitude is dangerously similar to Republican logic (ie, "I didn't need government handouts to get ahead in life, therefore nobody does unless they're lazy".)

  Women have rapid hormonal shifts as the result of the menstrual cycle. For some women, these shifts are well-tolerated and pretty much don't do anything. For me, they cause severe headaches right before my period and a day of being moody and weepy the last day of my period (and no, this is not the result of me thinking I am weak. I grew up thinking I was Superwoman and that I could control my emotions the way Mr. Spock does. It took years of having a single day of the month when any stupid thing could make me cry before I gathered enough data to disprove my personal hypothesis that I wasn't affected by hormones.) For other women, they may cause irritability, depression before the period, and many other symptoms.

  The truth is, of course, that *men* are affected deeply by hormonal fluctuations too -- testosterone is *always* going up and down -- but we can't see a visible effect and it's not on a regular schedule, so men don't realize how much T affects their behavior. Women know that hormones affect their behavior because it happens on a regular schedule with outwardly observable effects you can use to track the cycle.

  Now, is PMS a good reason to, say, fly off the handle and kill somebody? No. Is PMS an excuse to crawl into a hole and hide? No. Do you have to go on with your daily life whether you have PMS or not? Yes. But does that mean PMS is not real? No. Not every woman gets it, it may be affected by diet and ethnicity, it certainly *can* be mediated by culture and upbringing (women who think that their menstrual cycle is a curse and have been taught that it's okay to drop everything and lounge around the house eating chocolate and snapping at people will probably have a worse reaction to any PMS they do have), but that does not mean it does not exist or that women who suffer from it are weak-willed.

  Now, if the religious right wants to jump on "well, women are weak because they get PMS and it makes them depressed! see, it says right here!"... let 'em. The condition of being male seems to biologically predisposes people to be more violent and irritable, so as nearly as I can tell, women with PMS are more similar to what men are like all the time.

  A scientific study that says that women are more prone to inheriting depression than men are is *good* for women (if it holds up, anyway), because it will help to diagnose women faster and help to reduce the stigma of depression, a disease that affects more women than men anyway (if you inherit it from your mom, it ain't all in your head.) And maybe the feminist reaction to a study that shows that women differ from men in some regard shouldn't be "Oh my god, how will the right spin this to take away women's rights?" but "Okay, if this is true how do we compensate in a way that helps women?" Knowing the truth about potential medical problems is always better than sticking our heads in the sand. People need to know what causes depression so they know when to get help, and what kind of help. Denying the reality of a disorder doesn't make your cramps go away and it doesn't make you want to kill yourself any less.

  (Side note: I wonder how many men die because depression is seen as an illness of women, and it's all in their heads, and it's because they're weak, and certainly these big strong tough guys can't be weak, they just have to toughen up and overcome it, until the day that they can't and they blow their brains out. Sticking our heads in the sand about depression isn't any good for men, either.)

  Permalink Wednesday, January 11, 2006 09:08 AM