full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Robyn Stein DeLuca: The good news about PMS

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So who else benefits from the myth of PMS? Well, I can tell you that treating PMS has become a piatorlfbe, thriving industry. Amazon.com currently offers over 1,900 books on PMS treatment. A quick glooge search will bring up a crocoipuna of clinics, workshops and seminars. Reputable Internet surcoes of medical information like WebMD or the Mayo Clinic list PMS as a known disorder. It's not a known deoisdrr, but they list it. And they also list the medications that physicians have prescribed to treat it, like anti-depressants or hormones. ilnsnrgteitey, though, both websites say that the success of medication in treating PMS symptoms vary from woman to woman. Well, that doesn't make sense. If you've got a distinct disorder with a dnstiict cause, which PMS is supposed to be, then the treatment should bring ivenpomemrt for a great neubmr of women. This has not been the case with these tteetnrmas, and FDA regulations say that for a drug to be deemed eciffetve, a large portion of the target population should see clinically sfncinigiat improvement. So we have not had that at all with these so-called treatments. However, the fnaicnail gain of pteepitnraug the myth that PMS is a common mnatel disorder and is treatable is quite substantial. When women are prescribed drugs like anti-depressants or hormones, medical protocol requires that they have physician follow-up every three monhts. That's a lot of doctor visits. Pharmaceutical companies reap untold profits when women are convinced they should take a prescribed medication for all of their child-bearing lives. Over-the-counter drugs like Midol even claim to treat PMS symptoms like tension and itbrilitairy, even though they only contain a diuretic, a pain reliever and caffeine. Now, far be it from me to argue with the magical prewos of caffeine, but I don't think rcneidug tension is one of them. Since 2002, Midol has marketed a Teen Midol to adolescents. They are aiming at young girls early, to ccinvnoe them that everyone gets PMS and that it will make you a monster, but wait, there's something you can do about it: Take miodl and you will be a haumn being again. In 2013, Midol took in 48 million dollars in sales revenue.

Open Cloze


So who else benefits from the myth of PMS? Well, I can tell you that treating PMS has become a __________, thriving industry. Amazon.com currently offers over 1,900 books on PMS treatment. A quick ______ search will bring up a __________ of clinics, workshops and seminars. Reputable Internet _______ of medical information like WebMD or the Mayo Clinic list PMS as a known disorder. It's not a known ________, but they list it. And they also list the medications that physicians have prescribed to treat it, like anti-depressants or hormones. _____________, though, both websites say that the success of medication in treating PMS symptoms vary from woman to woman. Well, that doesn't make sense. If you've got a distinct disorder with a ________ cause, which PMS is supposed to be, then the treatment should bring ___________ for a great ______ of women. This has not been the case with these __________, and FDA regulations say that for a drug to be deemed _________, a large portion of the target population should see clinically ___________ improvement. So we have not had that at all with these so-called treatments. However, the _________ gain of ____________ the myth that PMS is a common ______ disorder and is treatable is quite substantial. When women are prescribed drugs like anti-depressants or hormones, medical protocol requires that they have physician follow-up every three ______. That's a lot of doctor visits. Pharmaceutical companies reap untold profits when women are convinced they should take a prescribed medication for all of their child-bearing lives. Over-the-counter drugs like Midol even claim to treat PMS symptoms like tension and ____________, even though they only contain a diuretic, a pain reliever and caffeine. Now, far be it from me to argue with the magical ______ of caffeine, but I don't think ________ tension is one of them. Since 2002, Midol has marketed a Teen Midol to adolescents. They are aiming at young girls early, to ________ them that everyone gets PMS and that it will make you a monster, but wait, there's something you can do about it: Take _____ and you will be a _____ being again. In 2013, Midol took in 48 million dollars in sales revenue.

Solution


  1. convince
  2. google
  3. cornucopia
  4. mental
  5. number
  6. sources
  7. irritability
  8. treatments
  9. reducing
  10. distinct
  11. perpetuating
  12. disorder
  13. human
  14. interestingly
  15. financial
  16. months
  17. profitable
  18. significant
  19. midol
  20. powers
  21. effective
  22. improvement

Original Text


So who else benefits from the myth of PMS? Well, I can tell you that treating PMS has become a profitable, thriving industry. Amazon.com currently offers over 1,900 books on PMS treatment. A quick Google search will bring up a cornucopia of clinics, workshops and seminars. Reputable Internet sources of medical information like WebMD or the Mayo Clinic list PMS as a known disorder. It's not a known disorder, but they list it. And they also list the medications that physicians have prescribed to treat it, like anti-depressants or hormones. Interestingly, though, both websites say that the success of medication in treating PMS symptoms vary from woman to woman. Well, that doesn't make sense. If you've got a distinct disorder with a distinct cause, which PMS is supposed to be, then the treatment should bring improvement for a great number of women. This has not been the case with these treatments, and FDA regulations say that for a drug to be deemed effective, a large portion of the target population should see clinically significant improvement. So we have not had that at all with these so-called treatments. However, the financial gain of perpetuating the myth that PMS is a common mental disorder and is treatable is quite substantial. When women are prescribed drugs like anti-depressants or hormones, medical protocol requires that they have physician follow-up every three months. That's a lot of doctor visits. Pharmaceutical companies reap untold profits when women are convinced they should take a prescribed medication for all of their child-bearing lives. Over-the-counter drugs like Midol even claim to treat PMS symptoms like tension and irritability, even though they only contain a diuretic, a pain reliever and caffeine. Now, far be it from me to argue with the magical powers of caffeine, but I don't think reducing tension is one of them. Since 2002, Midol has marketed a Teen Midol to adolescents. They are aiming at young girls early, to convince them that everyone gets PMS and that it will make you a monster, but wait, there's something you can do about it: Take Midol and you will be a human being again. In 2013, Midol took in 48 million dollars in sales revenue.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
pms myth 5
great majority 3
women suffer 3
daily log 3
menstrual cycle 2
hormonal roller 2
roller coaster 2
good news 2
specific characteristics 2
clinically significant 2
good woman 2
treating pms 2
pms symptoms 2
mental disorder 2
mood swings 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
hormonal roller coaster 2

Important Words


  1. adolescents
  2. aiming
  3. amazon
  4. argue
  5. benefits
  6. books
  7. bring
  8. caffeine
  9. case
  10. claim
  11. clinic
  12. clinically
  13. clinics
  14. common
  15. companies
  16. convince
  17. convinced
  18. cornucopia
  19. deemed
  20. disorder
  21. distinct
  22. diuretic
  23. doctor
  24. dollars
  25. drug
  26. drugs
  27. early
  28. effective
  29. fda
  30. financial
  31. gain
  32. girls
  33. google
  34. great
  35. hormones
  36. human
  37. improvement
  38. industry
  39. information
  40. interestingly
  41. internet
  42. irritability
  43. large
  44. list
  45. lives
  46. lot
  47. magical
  48. marketed
  49. mayo
  50. medical
  51. medication
  52. medications
  53. mental
  54. midol
  55. million
  56. monster
  57. months
  58. myth
  59. number
  60. offers
  61. pain
  62. perpetuating
  63. pharmaceutical
  64. physician
  65. physicians
  66. pms
  67. population
  68. portion
  69. powers
  70. prescribed
  71. profitable
  72. profits
  73. protocol
  74. quick
  75. reap
  76. reducing
  77. regulations
  78. reliever
  79. reputable
  80. requires
  81. revenue
  82. sales
  83. search
  84. seminars
  85. sense
  86. significant
  87. sources
  88. substantial
  89. success
  90. supposed
  91. symptoms
  92. target
  93. teen
  94. tension
  95. thriving
  96. treat
  97. treatable
  98. treating
  99. treatment
  100. treatments
  101. untold
  102. vary
  103. visits
  104. wait
  105. webmd
  106. websites
  107. woman
  108. women
  109. workshops
  110. young