Premenstrual Mood: Not Hormones, Sensitivity

Premenstrual mood changes aren't caused by too much or too little hormone. When researchers shut down ovarian function with medication and restored hormones externally, the same dose produced symptoms in one group and nothing in another. The difference, traced to cells grown in laboratories, lies in how the body reads the signal, not the signal itself. A cluster of genes calibrating hormone reception works differently in symptomatic women. The trigger isn't a high level but the act of changing: what disturbs isn't the room's temperature but the temperature shifting.

You'll learn:

- Why blood hormone levels can't distinguish symptomatic from asymptomatic women

- How cells separated from the body still show differential sensitivity

- What progesterone-derived substances do to the brain's calming system