A look at the key differences between these two conditions
Here at Cleanmarine, we offer a range of products which are aimed at supporting hormone health & a healthy lifestyle regardless of age and gender.
In the case of women in particular, hormones play a major part in our mood, activity level, and health and different stages of our lifecycle – with PMS giving way to perimenopause sometime during adulthood. The problem is, however, that the symptoms of both are very much interchangeable – with healthcare professionals often using age to assess which they believe may be the cause of discomfort or certain symptoms, without real explanation or assessment.
In this blog post, we’re looking at both PMS and perimenopause to try and understand what causes both and how to differentiate them.
What is PMS?
PMS stands for premenstrual symptoms and is used to characterise that time of the month before you menstruate. It is during this time that women tend to experience mood swings, cramps in the stomach, anxiety, bloating, and other side effects linked with menstruation.
The main thing to recognise about the symptoms of PMS is that they are regular and last for a set period of time just before your period.
What is perimenopause?
Perimenopause signals the very first stages of menopause that all women face at some point during their life. During this stage in the life of a woman, Estrogen levels rise and fall inconsistently and sporadically, which leads to the interchanging mood and other symptoms affected by the hormones.
Due to the vast differences in age that women experience menopause, it is difficult to pinpoint when you can expect perimenopause to occur – and it is this which makes it so hard to define and differentiate from PMS. The main symptoms of perimenopause include mood swings, bloating, anger, loss of sexual desire, irritability, and food cravings.
How can you tell which you are suffering from?
With both PMS and perimenopause largely exhibiting the same symptoms across women, the biggest thing to track is how often you suffer from these symptoms – whether they come in short sharp bursts on a regular basis or arrive and remain consistent.
If you feel that you have been suffering from the above symptoms for an extended period of time, and it feels like they are unrelated to your menstrual cycle, then the chances are that you have entered perimenopause.
Of course, it’s not always that easy – especially if a healthcare professional simply prescribes you with the standard PMS solutions as a treatment for your symptoms. In these instances, it becomes necessary to both track your symptoms and make small changes to your own lifestyle which can help to redress the imbalance in hormones which is caused by perimenopause.
How to support your body through perimenopause
PMS is a natural part of the female menstrual cycle, with a wide variety of options available to those who want to manage their symptoms and ensure that they suffer from the least amount of discomfort each month.
Perimenopause is more complex because it is caused by and signals a change in the balance of the hormones, particularly Estrogen. Thus, it becomes necessary to understand which hormones are out of balance and then turn to supplements and lifestyle changes in order to try and manage that imbalance and fix it from the inside, out.
Here at Cleanmarine, we offer a range of supplements which are tailored to women at different stages of their life. Our MenoMin product is targeted specifically at women who are seeing side effects from perimenopause and menopause, providing extra nutritional support and helping to regulate hormonal activity.
As always, it is important to consult an expert before committing to a supplementary product, and to research any side effects that may occur due to existing medication you may be taking.
Visit the Cleanmarine blog for more information about women’s health, where you will find a whole host of research-backed articles and informative guides.