Women, Medicine and Premenstrual Syndrome in Twentieth-Century Britain
26 May 2010
A new research project
Women, Medicine and Premenstrual Syndrome in Twentieth-Century Britain
Dr Emma Jones is a Research Associate at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester. She was recently awarded a 3-year Wellcome Trust History of Medicine Fellowship to pursue research into the history of PMS.
Evidence suggests that, at least from the late Renaissance, doctors and women recognised premenstrual suffering as a very common complaint, although interpretations and experiences of the condition have been continually reconfigured. My research picks up the story of premenstrual complaints in the early twentieth century when the discovery of sex hormones and the menstrual cycle provided a new endocrinological interpretation of menstruation and its symptoms. In 1931, the American gynaecologist Robert T. Frank coined the term ‘Premenstrual Tension’ to describe a set of physical, mental and behavioural symptoms, including severe headaches, tension, restlessness, and irritability, that occurred in the days immediately prior to menstruation, caused by an accumulation of oestrogen. In 1953, the British endocrinologist Raymond Greene, and general practitioner Katharina Dalton, compiled a more exacting list of symptoms that also included headache, nausea, irritability, asthma, skin and mucosal lesions, as well as violent and abusive behaviour. Now collectively titled, ‘premenstrual syndrome’, these symptoms were ascribed to a deficiency of progesterone. Over the following decades the etiology, prevalence and treatment of PMS became an area of fierce debate. The symptoms of PMS also became increasingly important in discussions relating to women’s abilities and responsibilities in home and work life, ranging from women’s capacity to carry out certain jobs to the use of PMS as a legal defence.
My project charts the history of this complex, ill-defined, gender-specific and culturally resonant syndrome. It explores how the medical understanding, experience, and cultural meaning of PMS changed over the course of the twentieth century, influenced by developments in medical theory, clinical practice and women’s changing roles in society. The research covers the following themes: the role of scientific, medical, psychological and pharmaceutical research and practice; the representation of PMS in the popular media, including newspapers, magazines and popular fiction; the views and experiences of women as PMS sufferers; the support and resistance to PMS among women’s and feminist groups; and the origins and work of NAPS. While the life and work of major figures such as Dr Katharina Dalton will form an important focus of the research, I am also hoping to speak to a range of practitioners, PMS researchers and activists in the field in order to build a fuller picture of twentieth-century attitudes towards and understandings of PMS.
I look forward to sharing the results of this research in future bulletins.
NAPS is delighted to be assisting Emma in this important piece of research,which will reinforce the credibility of PMS as a medical condition.She intends to visit the NAPS Office later in the year so as to have access to archival material and to meet Jackie Howe, Acting CEO,who as a trustee since the founding of NAPS in 1984, is uniquely in the position of witnessing the history of NAPS at every stage of its development.
