Ah… PMS! How can we even begin to explain the misery of menstruation without mentioning the seven days in hell aka PMS? In women of reproductive age (yes, that’s you missy!) premenstrual syndrome sets in one to two weeks before the dreaded bleeding and leaves behind emotional wreckage and a bloated belly in its wake. Hell, PMS has become synonymous with extreme mood swings—and is often used as a shield in the war against patriarchy by the defending side.
Keeping the crash course on feminism aside, there are a plethora of PMS symptoms that have nothing to do with being cranky or looking like a puffed-up balloon. In fact, given how far away the locales are of some of these symptoms from your vagina—at times it can get really difficult to relate the two. This basically begs the question: is it PMS or something else? Let’s find out: