Medicalizing a mood makes it very easy to distance one’s self from one's own body. The 'illness' or 'disorder' is often seen as a separate entity. This makes it very easy for women to self-objectify. 

Self-objectification as a Result of the Medicalization of Moods

When medicalizing women's moods it becomes really easy to say that her emotions are unwarranted and to dismiss them as PMS. Women get the blame for their emotions are their stress. This stress can have a further impact on her mental health or wellbeing.

The Dismissal of Women's Feelings or Moods

Medicalizing women's moods can lead to certain stereotypes. In terms of PMS and PMDD, it means jokes about menstruation. Comments that insinuate mental instability around times of menstruation can have damaging effects on a woman's ideas of self-worth. This will have an impact on mental health. 

Stereotypes Around Mensuration as a Result of the Medicalization of Women's Moods

When medicalizing women's moods it is important to note the consequences such attitudes can have on their mental health. 

New York University

Medicalizing a woman's mood means that the experience of negative emotion is not normal and needs treatment. More specifically, adding PMS and PMDD to the DSM means that women's reproductive cycles are pathologized and once a month, women are deemed to be clinically insane. 

What Does it mean to medicalize or Pathologize Women's Moods?

Chrisler, J. C., & Gorman, J. A. (2015). The medicalization of women’s moods: Premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. In The Wrong Prescription for Women. M. McHugh and J. Chrisler, Eds. New York: Praeger. https://doi.org/10.5040/9798216039792.ch-004

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