It's Not Always Hormonal

One of the things most women, myself included, hate to hear is someone ask "Is it that time of the month again, dear?" or some such variation thereof, which essentially translates to "You're a psychotic bitch today, aren't you?"

A couple of people emailed me with regards to my last entry. I guess it was somewhat more bitter than my standard fare of bitchiness, but it didn't stem from a massive influx of female hormones.

I hate how people so often dismiss a woman's feelings by chalking it up to PMS. Yes, for sure, our hormones do wreak havoc with our emotions. I can definitely attest to that. During parts of my pregnancies and in the post-partum months, I was definitely a bit of a mess and somewhat irrational at times. It wasn't a pretty sight. What bugged me the most though was when I was upset and venting about something that really bothered me, certain people (my husband included) would pat my hand and say "There, there. It's just your hormones". If ever I wanted to rip someone's face off, it was then. Because I felt as though I was being told that what I was experiencing emotionally wasn't reality based. And sure, maybe I was over-reacting to something, but hormonally driven passion or not, doesn't mitigate the fact that I was obviously bothered by something. What apparently seldom, if ever, occurs to most people is that maybe we women are just masters at keeping our negative emotions in check, so that even though we may get ticked off, we are socialised to repress it rather than express it. And that maybe when we are having one of our "lady moments" (as one of those stupid men I was venting about likes to call them), we are not overreacting, but are simply low on our unnatural and usual ability to hold back.