MENSTRUAL EDEMA

Many changes, physiologic and biochemical, take place during menstruation. Women frequently describe subjective effects, such as general exhaustion, irritability and generalized discomfort. A certain percentage of them, and I believe an increasingly smaller percentage, experience no change in their state of being, physical, mental or emotional. My purpose in this paper is to draw attention to a phenomenon that, up to the present time, has received very little attention, as judged by the literature. I refer to an edema that seems to occur only during the menstrual cycle. William A. Thomas1recently reported two cases of extensive, generalized edema that occurred only at the menstrual period. One was admittedly the result of a gross glandular imbalance and responded nicely to glandular therapy. I shall supplement his observations and point out that such a phenomenon is not only limited to women with a clinically recognizable glandular dysfunction but also may