Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  How Bill Gates cured my PMS (07 Feb 2005) I hate that word -- hormones -- and the way it dismisses real emotional states so blithely, the way it's used as the answer to virtually any woman's health question, the way it's used to explain why women shouldn't be president. But it was tough to deny that hormones were screwing up my life on a monthly basis. Tough to deny, that is, unless I was under their spell. If you asked me in the before stages, I'd admit that yes, I'd had problems with PMS. And in the after stages, I'd realize that, yes, last week's fit of grumpiness/impatience/murderous rage might have been due to PMS. But it was in the crucial during stage that the myopia would set in. Then I realized that Entourage, Microsoft's information-management program for Mac users, had a "monthly reminder" feature, and I thought my problems were solved. I'd send a reminder message to myself and one to my husband. The monthly fights I picked with him, I imagined, would all be forgiven if he knew the real reason for my hypersensitivity and dismal self-absorption. If hell week came and I attacked him, he'd either ignore me or sweetly put his arms around my shoulders and say, "Here, honey, I think you might need some time to yourself and this bag of chocolate-covered pretzels." Article URL: http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2005/02/07/pms/ Read 66 more articles from Salon sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: Key steps in creating your reader persona     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy