Katharina Dalton née Kuipers (11 November 1916 – 17 September 2004) was a British physician and pioneer in the research of premenstrual stress syndrome (PMS), coining the term, treating many women and testifying as an expert witness in influential court cases.

Consulting with endocrinologist Dr. Raymond Greene,[6] she concluded that the headaches could be attributed to a deficiency in the hormone progesterone, which drops before menstruation but soars during pregnancy.

In direct conflict with the views of many of her male colleagues, Dalton said the symptoms were more physical than psychological and included migraine headaches, asthma, epilepsy, skin lesions, irritability, fatigue, and depression.

[7] In addition to her patients, she studied teenage schoolgirls, the mothers of abused children and women confined to prison for serious crimes, including murder.

[8] Her research showed that during times of severe PMS, students' academic performance dipped and women were more likely to abuse their children or commit crimes.

From historic anecdotes, she even concluded that Queen Victoria suffered from PMS, as indicated by reports of her monthly screaming and throwing objects at her husband, Prince Albert.

[7] She is largely credited with developing the use of menstrual charts for the diagnosis of the disorder, and argued that the timing of PMS in women was associated with higher rates of suicide attempts, alcohol abuse and violent crimes.

But today most experts disagree with those findings and instead rely on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) and other medications for the treatment of PMS.

The large drop in hormone levels after giving birth can cause new mothers to feel symptoms of tiredness, irritability, and depression, similar to PMS.