Sex, Lies, and Hormones

In our culture many women experience uncomfortable emotions that coincide with their menstrual cycle, and we assume that the hormones that regulate menstruation cause these negative emotions. But can we be so sure? Can we really separate what we experience from what we expect to experience?

In one study researchers asked men and women to track their moods for several months and give blood samples several times. The researchers determined where the women were in their cycle from the blood tests but assigned the men an arbitrary 28-day interval. And when they compared how much women’s moods varied over their 28-day cycles with how much men’s moods varied in an arbitrary 28-day period there were few differences. In other words, men’s moods vary over a month about as much as women’s moods do.   And everyone's moods were lower on Wednesdays and Thursdays. 

But we expect women to be more emotional, and we expect women’s emotions to track with their cycles. In fact, in a recent study, researchers found that both men and women attribute women’s emotions to their “nature” (women are "emotional creatures") and men’s emotions to the situation even when they have context information.  Seriously?  Now that's enough to give a gal agita.

Now, some women will get defensive and think that I am saying that PMS is not legitimate or doesn't exist.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  If you are a woman who suffers from premenstrual dysphoric disorder your suffering is quite real.  But it is also just as much rooted in the expectancies of our culture as it is in the biology of menstruation.  We must get beyond thinking of things as either biological and real or mental and somehow less than real.  The mind and the body are one and the same.  The very act of reading this is biological.  Every thought you have is biological.  And your expectations, whether formed by your culture or your family or something else, have a very definite biological effect on your brain and your body. 

Whether you like it or not, whether you want to believe it or not, our culture is loaded with messages that are toxic to our health.  In one study, practically illiterate women from rural Mexico were recruited and assessed for PMS or premenstrual dysphoric disorder.  None of the subjects had it.  That is, none of the subjects met any of the criterial for a diagnosis of PMS or PMDD.  Then the subjects were divided into two groups.  One group saw a basic health ed film on the menstrual cycle and the other group saw a film about the ravages of PMS and PMDD.  After seeing the film, the women were re-evaluated.  You guessed it, the group that had seen the film on the ravages of PMS/PMDD were much more likely to report symptoms (and to really, truely experience symptoms) after they had seen the film that educated them on dangerous effects menstruation can have on moods.  In another study, immigrants from other countries to the US were studied.  When they first came to the US they did not have PMS or PMDD, but the longer they were exposed to our culture, our values and beliefs about women, the more likely they were to develop the symptoms.

Folks, the truth is we cannot escape our culture.  We cannot escape being influenced by our culture.  And we cannot escape the fact that our expectancies heavily influence both our biology and our experience any more than we can escape the hollow mask illusion which is another example of the powerful effect of expectancies on experience.