Like Dr Dalton, Dr Brush has written a book about the treatments he uses. It is called P.M.T., The Unrecognised Illness and is by Judy Lever, Dr Brush and Brian Haynes. It will tell you more about these drugs if you think they could be for you.

As you can see, getting medical treatment for the miseries is rather difficult and complicated, which shouldn’t surprise us, when we consider what a complicated business menstruation is anyway. Dr Dalton and the St Thomas’ team are campaigning vigorously. And if they have their way there will eventually be pre-menstrual clinics all over the place, so that anyone who needs medical help will be able to get it.

In the meantime we must see what can be achieved by helping ourselves and helping each other.

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Epilepsy, asthma and migraine are three prime examples of illnesses which are often made worse by the approach of a period. If you keep a chart and discover that your attacks become more frequent with the onset of the aching miseries, it may be worth showing the chart to your doctor. It is possible that progesterone treatment might cut down the number of attacks you suffer.

If you suffer from hay fever or the similar condition caused by dust allergy, you may not realize that your attacks come every month until you start keeping a chart. But if you have now discovered a pattern, your hay fever may turn out to be one of the symptoms of the bloat, caused by the fact that your body is waterlogged and your natural defence system is low. One way of dealing with it might be to cut down the amount of fluid you drink.

Finally a word about cystitis. Like migraine, this is a common complaint that’s usually complicated to diagnose and treat. Thousands of women suffer from it and there is an association providing information and support for cystitis sufferers. It’s called the U & I Club, and you’ll find it at 9E Compton Road, London Nl. If you are a sufferer you have probably already been told how important it is to keep scrupulously clean. Ideally you should wash after every visit to the lavatory (difficult unless one is at home all day) and make a habit of washing from front to back and never the other way round. But it’s just possible that your cystitis is linked to the arrival of your periods. If this is so, you may find that as you treat your aching miseries, the attacks of cystitis steadily become less frequent too. It doesn’t always happen, because the complaint is so complicated. But what a relief when it does.

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