Recently it came to my notice that there are men do not know what IMS is all about. Initially in a bout of ‘now I have got you men’ attitude I rubbed my hands gleefully and decided to make a satire post on the issue. But then after a minute of reflection I realized that I would be no different from those sexist men who tarnish all women with PMS problems and say that men with 'attitude' suffer from IMS.

Just like PMS, IMS or Irritable Male Syndrome is no laughing matter. A grumpy man flipping channels, stone walling his wife or worse snapping at her house keeping might be feeling a shift in his hormones.

What men have hormones? Most men think that shifting levels of hormones is something that only women suffer from but facts show other wise. Men are equally prone to depression, high stress levels and mood swings.

The old traditional approach of ‘being a man’ and holding back ones feelings causes many men to implode where a seemingly regular feeling of blues slides into manic depression sometimes even leading to suicide.

Male menopause according to Jed Diamond is real and could well be reasons for marriages becoming rocky when men have 'midlife crisis' but at the same time it is a process that could hit even at puberty.

Some people might consider this whole analysis of the midlife crisis to be hogwash and tell a man to be a man and deal with his ‘manly’ problems be they work related or general blues but common sense demands that we as human beings find healthy outlets to deal with our mental or emotional issues just as we deal with any sickness that ails the body.

Cracking jokes about IMS as most macho men do for PMS would further make a man suffering from depression or having some sort of testosterone driven problems feel less of a man.

At the end of the day we need to look beyond Gender Wars or the tit for tat attitude and deal with emotional issues with compassion and wisdom. Men are not from Mars and Women from Venus. We all suffer from depression, frustrations and stress. The only difference is that women express their emotions where as men have been taught to suffer in silence and tend to become more lonely.

Could that itself be reason why women tend to lead longer lives than men?