There’s really is nothing quite like someone correctly pointing out that you’ve got PMT to make the red mist of bat-shit-craziness descend upon you, is there?
You feel your face get hot with rage and tears prickle your eyes as what can only be described as a demon rages incoherently at whichever poor bugger accuses you of being at the mercy of your menstrual cycle. It’s like you’re having an outer body experience – you are able to look down on yourself and see that you’re being unreasonable, but the cocktail of hormones rushing through your body has rendered you unable to actually do anything about it.
It’s a joy.
READ MORE: Let’s All Get Over Being Ashamed Of Our Periods, Shall We?
Premenstrual tension affects up to 80% of women and symptoms can include anxiety, tension, mood swings, aches and cramps, a disinterest in normal activities and the aforementioned bat-shit craziness.
It would be easy to think that PMT was just an evolutionary quirk designed to drive you and everyone around you completely insane (a bit like putting the clitoris about a fricking mile away from that part of your vagina where sex actually happens, THANKS NATURE!) but you’d be wrong. It actually looks like PMT might actually serve an important evolutionary purpose.
Michael Gillings, a professor of Molecular Evolution at Macquarie University in Australia, has conducted some research which seems to show that PMT developed in order to break up an infertile relationship.
According to Professor Gillings, in our evolutionary past there was a hidden selective advantage of PMS because it meant there was an increased chance that infertile couples would break up. He explains:
‘In the past, women had many fewer menstrual cycles than women in modern societies because they did not have control over reproduction and were either pregnant or breastfeeding most of the time.
READ MORE: There Are Countries Where Menstrual Leave Is Actually A Thing
‘Imagine that a woman was pair-bonded with a sterile or infertile male. Then, even in the past, they would have had regular cycles. If women in these relationships exhibited PMS and this increased the likelihood of the pair bond dissolving, this would be a huge reproductive advantage.
‘This simple phenomenon might explain the frequency of PMS. There are various lines of evidence from DNA and behavioural studies that confirm this idea.’
Basically, if you weren’t getting pregnant or breastfeeding you were probably with an infertile guy, so PMT was designed to rile everyone up enough for the relationship to dissolve and females could move on to a better, more fertile partner.
Puts a whole new spin on ‘If you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best’ doesn’t it? Might want to mention that next time your boyfriend points out you’ve got PMT...
Like this? Then you might also be interested in:
Ribena Face And Other Things That Come Up When You Discuss Period Sex At Length
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophiecullinane
Picture: Ada Hamza
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.