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From: regard@ttidcc.UUCP (Adrienne Regard)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: PMS and incompetence
Message-ID: <582@ttidcc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 22-Jul-85 13:49:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: ttidcc.582
Posted: Mon Jul 22 13:49:17 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 24-Jul-85 06:32:03 EDT
Organization: TTI, Santa Monica, CA.
Lines: 43


>I have shared living quarters with three women, and in all three cases, I
>have been able to tell at least two to three days before them when their
>period is about to begin.
>In *my* experience, the biggest problem women have with PMS is not
>the physical/psychological side effects, but just plain 'fessing up
>that there *are* some side effects....
>
>                                        Andy Cohill
Experience is an interesting thing, because it is one of the few influences
that actually change our beliefs (often, a presentation of the "facts" just
doesn't do it).  However, I'd be reluctant to base my opinion of PMS on
a sampling of three women.

What is presently known is that SOME women suffer a great deal due to this
"syndrome" (which includes a number of actual symptoms and medically
verifiable chemical changes).  What is also know is that SOME women do not
suffer at all from it.  And then there are other women who suffer in some
specific manner and to some specific degree.

I wouldn't really worry about it if the president of the US happened to
suffer from a 2 lb. waterweight gain ever 30 days or so, or happened to
have slight breast tenderness every so often.  I'd have a little more
trouble if the president suffered blinding headaches for 5 full days out
of 30 (John Kennedy had such a problem, but it wasn't on a schedule), or
was completely bedridden for weeks at a time (pick any of our past presidents
who have suffered various illnesses that kept them from office for signifi-
cant periods of time).

The point is, it's rather useless worrying about a woman's capacity re PMS,
since, if she's motivated, she's hardly likely to let it handicap her, and
if she isn't motivated, she's hardly likely to be a desirable employee
(or public servant) in other respects.  The _mistake_ is to presume that
PMS is uncontrollable, unpredictable, universal or unmanagable.  If you
take a small sampling, you may have found people who currently suffer from
some facet of the syndrome and have not yet bothered to deal effectively
with it.  You may also find that the women you talk with have no trouble
with it AT ALL.

You may also get a kick out of generalizing from the specific to the whole
world, so your opinions can march on undisturbed, but I hope not.

Adrienne Regard