For women, one week during every month is not the prettiest. It comes with ups and downs often paired with extreme irritability. The prejudice that can come with the term PMS (premenstrual syndrome) deems it only a condition found in women. However, men experience similar emotions that psychotherapist Jed Diamond calls Irritable Male Syndrome (IMS).

“Irritable male syndrome (IMS) can be defined as a state of hypersensitivity, frustration, anxiety, and anger that occurs in males associated with biochemical changes, hormonal fluctuations, stress, and loss of male identity,” Diamond said.

To put it simply, men become more irritable when they experience a drop in testosterone levels.

“Again, there is the assumption that women are hormonal but men are moved by logic. But the truth is, men are as hormonally driven as women,” Diamond said. “There are daily cycles with testosterone being higher in the morning and lower at night [and sometimes] men’s testosterone, for instance, varies and goes up and down four or five times an hour.”

Many factors attribute to a drop in hormone levels such as high stress or change in diet. What the public does not recognize is that these causes can result in depression in males. Depression can create a domino effect of different outcomes. Some men, depending upon their upbringing, react in ways of violence and aggression. Others can hold in their emotions and have it bottled up inside.

“What we’ve found is that one of the primary symptoms is denial. That is, men think the problem is anywhere other than in them. They think it’s their wives, their boss, people on the highway…anybody but what’s going on with themselves,” Diamond said.

Recommendations to regulating testosterone levels would be to stick with consistent diets and work out habits. Also, practicing stress-relieving exercises such as deep breathing and/or yoga are also suggested and encouraged. This would keep the body at a normal state, which would eliminate unnecessary bounces in hormone levels. Jed Diamond created a website for men to test whether they suffer from IMS, www.theirritablemale.com.

“On that site, you can take a quiz that will score your answers and give you an idea of whether you are suffering from IMS or the man that you may be concerned about is suffering. The quiz will also tell you which of nine types of IMS a man may have,” Diamond said.