You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The present clinical context of premenstrual tension syndrome (PMTS) emerged because of the high incidence of symptomatic manifestations that occur during the premenstrual period and have been observed more frequently by doctors and women over the last decades. The focus of investigation was initially in the medical clinical field, but as this distress caused serious emotional problems in the women who suffered from it, it stimulated a search for psychoanalytical aid.
Listening to patients who are victims of PMTS led to questioning its peculiar manifestation, its sudden emergence as the “female disease” of the last century, and its institution as a disease by medical science. Above all, the psychoanalytical approach to this symptomatology determined the need for greater understanding of this subject.
PMTS can be defined as a combination of symptoms that appear during a period of time before menstruation and disappear at its onset. Although these symptomatic manifestations have been studied since 1931 and were observed as well as described by Frank (1931), many queries in the medical field still remain unanswered.
Despite their efforts, researchers were unable to clearly establish the cause of PMTS. In the meantime, its symptomatic condition became more complex, with various new kinds of manifestation. PMTS is an enigma because of its approximately 150 physically catalogued symptoms that are all cyclic but are not specific to the premenstrual phase, and especially because