The above symptoms typically start a few days before menstruation and abruptly disappear when the menstrual flow begins. The seriousness of PMS can have far-reaching consequences. Even so, psychological stress can alter the menstrual cycle. Thus it is hard to tell whether the premenstrual phase leads to stress or the stress causes the premenstrual phase. Feminists are concerned that PMS can be used to keep women out of positions of authority.
Many feminists believe that they are uncomfortably caught in a paradoxical situation.
The reasoning was that to admit that menstruation mattered was to open the door to charges of biological inferiority. In other words, feminists want to keep PMS from being used as a rational for denying women positions of authority. This topic can only be explored adequately by open and intensive study. Pretending that PMS does not exist would slow much-needed research. In addition, it would make those women who suffer from it feel lonely and abnormal.