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From: berman@psuvax1.UUCP (Piotr Berman)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: PMS and the dreaded testosterone poison
Message-ID: <1761@psuvax1.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Sep-85 01:41:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: psuvax1.1761
Posted: Tue Sep  3 01:41:05 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Sep-85 01:01:07 EDT
References: <695@ttidcc.UUCP> <457@timeinc.UUCP>
Organization: Pennsylvania State Univ.
Lines: 62

> In article <695@ttidcc.UUCP> regard@ttidcc.UUCP (Adrienne Regard) writes:
> >
> >Sunny is probably no more right or wrong than Ross Greenberg. . . .
> >(No offense, you two.  It's just a little hard to generalize from your
> >obviously specific viewpoints.  Er, you did take a viewpoint, didn't you
> >Ross?  You weren't just running the net around a mulberry bush?)
> >
> 
> I think I should resent that, but I'm sure Sunny does, too! :-)
> 
> Seriously,  I've gotten a lot of mail recently regarding this PMS
> thing.  Combining that with what I've read on the net, I have reached
> a personal veiwpoint on Whether PMS Makes Women Less Effective.
> 
> I open the envelope and read:
> 
> Sometimes.
> 
> It seems the following points come up, the validity of which I can not
> vouch for (wrong genitalia and hormones):
> 
> 1)	Some women suffer from PMS in varying degrees
> 2)	In most cases, these women can deal with PMS (via a variety
> 	of different mental exercises)
> 3)	These exercises are mostly: additional concentration to tasks,
> 	including decision making. Counting to '10' (or higher! :-))
> 	Staying away from potential problems for those tough days.
> 4)	Emotions seem to run pretty high before a period, including
> 	crying bouts, and loss of temper
> 5)	In no case do the women that have responded, either to me
> 	personally, or to the net, feel that they (or any other
> 	women) are less effective due to PMS.
> 
> I have a problem with #5, due to #3 and #4.
> 
> Here's why: I just can't imagine that ANYONE, male or female, is
> capable of performing as well with #3&4 as without..............
> ................................................................

I do not understand the goal of this presentation.  OK, some women are
not performing as well before their periods as at other times.  SO WHAT?

Imagine a woman president who must take an important decision, but she
is having PMS.  Can we compare her with a male president who cannot 
perform well without his daily afternoon nap?  Or with another imaginary
president who cannot perform well without one week on his ranch every
month?
More seriously, people have usually quite variable performance (unless
they happen to be Martina Navratilova).  They have headaches, allergies,
hangovers, etc., etc.  Men tend to of poorer health than women (they
live shorter in average), thus I am not sure that they fare much better
than women, if one considers all the reasons for a diminished 
performance (who has more hangovers?).
Personally, I have my performance diminished fairly often due to my
allergy.  This fact is fairly obvious to other people in my department.
Nobody considered this as a possible objection against my employement.
Fortunately, I am productive enough at other times.  
Summarizing, I do not see any reason to dwell about efects of differing
levels of female hormons any more than on effects of adrenalin, insulin, 
cortison, hystamin etc. etc.

(male) Piotr Berman