Irritable Male Syndrome Is Like The Boy Form of PMS
Guys loooove to make jokes about PMS. They think it’s so funny that chicks become irritable (in bro terms: “crazy“) during the time of the month where blood is flooding out of their vag and where they have earth shattering cramps. Hilarious.
Say one bitchy comment, and some douche will ask, “is it that time of the month, Karen?” No, Dave, it’s not that time of the month, Karen’s just sick of your shit.
Well now, there’s an official term for when men start getting irritable, cranky, and whiny. It’s called Irritable Male Syndrome.
Irritable Male Syndrome was a term coined by a Scottish researcher who used the term to describe male sheep who became irritable when their testosterone levels dropped, but Dr. Jed Diamond has applied this term to human males and found that many of the same characteristics link up.
“What I had found in my research is that men often went through both times of the month and times in their life when they became particularly irritable and reactive,” explains Diamond to Galore.
Diamond developed an online questionnaire to test his theories, and confirmed them through his 60,000 male participants, as well as some female participants who answered the survey about their partners.
Diamond found changes in the brain chemistry and hormones when men had increased stressors or when they were going through a sort-of transition in their lives, such as entering a new relationship or becoming a dad.
When asked if IMS was similar to PMS, Diamond said yes and no.
“Some people call it a male form of PMS and that’s obviously misleading as it’s not tied to menstrual cycles, but it is similar in that it is hormonally tied,” says Diamond. “You find across the board it’s not just a human thing, it happens in male mammals as hormonal changes happen. You’re not just a grouchy old man, just like there were a lot of nasty things said about women on their period. It means that you’re going through hormonal stressful changes and there are things we can do about it once we know what they are.”
In layman’s terms, maybe your boyfriend is being extra testy because his testosterone levels are dropping. Or maybe you just have something to quip back when a guy comes at you with a lame PMS comment. Either way, we’re here for it.
