Women and Mood Swing

Introduction

Mood swings in men and women are very common at any age. Mood swings can be defined as quick changes from feeling happy and content to feeling sad, angry, or frustrated very fast in a person this shift may be due to hormonal imbalance, especially of sex steroids. Men’s hormones tend to stay pretty stable whereas in females it is not. Until the age of 30, testosterone level tends to stay pretty stable, but later it decline gradually. One in three men at 75 and above suffer from low levels of testosterone [1]. In addition to mood swings, erectile dysfunction, and sleep problems also develop. Females are more likely than males to experience symptoms of hormonal changes, particularly during menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause [2]. Females suffer from depression after puberty compared to males since females mature earlier. It is surprising to know that the gender gap in depression in the later part of life may continue throughout the lifespan.

Hormone Imbalances Change Female’s Life

Estrogen plays an important role in a female’s life. In addition to three times in the lifetime of a female i.e.

Opinion

Puberty, Pregnancy, and Menopause, every month, Repeated. Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) shifts the mood of a woman. Nearly, 48 % of women who are of childbearing age experience PMS, which can disrupt their daily life and cause significant physical discomfort and emotional issues [3, 4].

Origin of Menopause

The setting of the menopausal phase in a human female’s life is still an unsolved puzzle since other mammals except a few do not pass through this phase. Menopause is the time when ovaries are no longer actively synthesizing hormones and marks the end of an important event in a woman’s life, i.e. cessation of the menstrual cycles signifying the culmination of childbearing capacity. Women are marked by “the childbearing age” due to the active function of their ovaries. The main purpose is to pass their genes to the next generation, nature’s rule “live and reproduce”. But human female life does not end here she spends healthy years for decades thereafter but loses fertility [8, 9]. Then, why do women long outlive their fertility? This is a common evolutionary hypothesis to be answered. For the first time, researchers from LJMU and the University of Liverpool used a phylogenetic approach and proposed the “grandmother hypothesis,” [10].

A generous post-reproductive life span makes sense, if a grandmother improves the survival and reproduction of her grandchildren, strengthening their genes that are passed on to the F2 generation [11, 12] for the continuity of her genes. Another interesting phenomenon described by Cant [13] that states ”compared to other primates that exhibit a post-reproductive life span, humans stand out, because there is no overlap in reproduction between generations,” Cant says. “Women stop breeding on average when the next generation starts to breed.” Yet another hypothesis is the “mother hypothesis,” which explains that older mothers might profit more by investing resources in their existing children than in giving birth to new ones [14, 15, 16]. Menopause is indeed advantageous when a woman has aged enough to face an increased risk of stillbirth, birth defects, and death during delivery [17]. Menopause sets in the 40s or 50s, but the average age is 51 years of age [17]. At this time their hormone levels stabilise, and the symptoms of menopausal blues disappear and many women feel better [18].

Shifts in Mood

Many conditions and lifestyle choices can cause women to experience severe changes in mood during menopause. This shift in emotion may give a feeling that they come on for no reason. The hormonal changes due to menopause, in addition to its side effects, may be responsible for mood swings, sadness, and even rage during this time. In 70 percent of women estrogen-serotonin balance is out of proportion resulting in irritability. Insufficient amounts of serotonin may contribute to premenstrual depression, as well as fatigue, food cravings, and sleep problems. Estrogen may become the dominant hormone due to the falling levels of progesterone, which may be a contributory factor for the development of irritability and depression [19].

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS-like symptoms) before their periods includes a group of symptoms that occur in women 1 to 2 weeks before a period is still an enigma. In addition to mood shifts, PMS can cause fatigue, changes in appetite, depression, bloating, and more. The severity of these symptoms may change from month to month and they may get worse or improve with age. In the days and weeks before a period, a woman’s estrogen-progesterone levels rise and fall dramatically and researchers suspect estrogen is most likely to be blamed. They level out 1 to 2 days after menstruation begins. These shifts may affect mood and behaviour and calcium supplements may help to ease symptoms of depression, anxiety, and emotional fluctuation [19, 20].

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a more severe and rare type of PMS for which no proper solutions are available till date. The pathophysiology is unclear affects only 5 percent of women of childbearing age. Symptoms of PMDD include extreme shifts in mood, severe depression, extreme irritability, and more [21]. Many women will combine alternative treatments like stress management and dietary changes with medication to ease out from symptoms and mood shift. A chain reaction originating from Frustrations, constant state of stress and worries can lead to severe shifts in mood accompanied with psychological disorders and behavioural conditions translating to disorders including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, bipolar disorder, and more [22].