I have noticed for some time now, that each month, or there about, I suffer from what seems like a mild case of depression. I feel low, lethargic, irritable and often blow things out of proportion similar to when people often over react when they are tired. In fact all I want to do when I get home is lie down and sleep. I have a massive sense of ‘whats the point!’ This is very unlike me or how I feel at most other times.

This lasts for a few days for me. When it starts I have no warning or sense that its coming. Im just in it and being reactive to its effects. It stops slightly differently because I can almost feel the shift and I become more alert, energetic and am back on track, as though I had lost reception for a while, before getting a full signal back again days later.

I had thought this was just me and never really mentioned it, but this week it happened and lasted about four days this time and then in the afternoon shifted and I was back and focused. I mentioned it to my house mate and she said that men have emotional cycles and this is what was going on.

Well on further research it appears that there is evidence to prove this theory and the symptoms fit the bill.

I will take note of the date and see if the same thing happens in a four to six week cycle as suggested.

Below is some more information regarding this if its something that you have experienced or are interested in knowing more about.

 by Paul Aitken:

The idea that men experience a monthly cycle is not new. As early as the 17th century, the Italian physician Santorio Sanctorius, after carefully measuring the weight of his body, along with it’s various excretions (Santorio was nothing if not thorough), discovered a monthly cycle in body weight of approximately two pounds. He noted that the peak of the cycle was accompanied by feelings of heaviness and lassitude.In later centuries there were various attempts to establish the existence of a male cycle. The late decades of the 19th century were a particularly fruitful period for some reason, with a number of authors (Gall, Stephenson and Campbell, if you must know) finding evidence for monthly fluctuations in mood, energy and sex drive. Later in 1929, a study found that men have emotional cycles of about one-month to six-weeks in length (as my friend had suggested). During the low period of the cycle, men were reported to feel apathetic and indifferent. During the high period they reported more energy, a greater sense of well-being, and lower body weight.

There is a male period, but of course it’s nothing like that of the female menstrual cycle in the sense that they don’t have the physical attributes of a female period, but males experience hormonal shifts and imbalances during the month. A rise of testosterone which can lead to moodiness, increased sexual arousal, depression, etc. This is what we call the Irritable Male Syndrome (IMS). IMS is more similar to Menopause, but still proof that men have cycles. According to psychotherapist Jed Diamond in an article on MediniceNet.com IMS can be defined as:

a state of hypersensitivity, frustration, anxiety, and anger that occurs in males and is associated with biochemical changes, hormonal fluctuations, stress, and loss of male identity.

Diamond furthers that men are as hormonal as women:

… In fact, men have a number of hormonal cycles:

1) Men’s testosterone, for instance, varies and goes up and down four or five times an hour.
2) There are daily cycles with testosterone being higher in the morning and lower at night.
3) Men have a monthly hormonal cycle that is unique to each man, but men can actually track their moods and recognize they are related to hormonal changes through the month.
4) We know that there are seasonal cycles with testosterone higher in November and lower in April.
5) We know about hormonal cycles with males during adolescence, but also the years between 40 and 55 have what we call male menopause or Andropause.
6) Finally, we know there are hormonal changes in men going through IMS, related to stress in a man’s life.