What PMT symptoms do you suffer from?

[butterflyexperience]

First few months of getting my period back after having dd2 was horrendous.

I honestly felt like I could rip off the heads of any idiots who were stupid enough to cross my path - Dh included -

I also suffered from road rage and would have to really get a grip if myself not to have a fight especially as dc would be with me [shame]

Bloating
Tiredness
General grump and lack of patience

Pmt scares me as I really could end up losing all my friends and perhaps even divorce because I am so irritated with the world.

What's the worse thing you've done whilst having pmt

It varies. I have experienced:
the runs, unreasonable tearfulness, varying degrees of ratiness, sensitive breasts, bachache.

NO FUCKING SYMPTOMS ALRIGHT JUST PISS OFF NOW BEFORE I KICK YOUR HEAD IN !!!

Try the magnesium :) I swear by it.

I get daftly teary at stupid things a day or two beforehand, and feel a bit bleak. I'm always relieved when I realise what it is.

anxiety, insomnia (it's now almost 3am ffs), sensitive breasts, bleakness, constipation (followed very quickly by the runs when I have my period). Would like to know why our bowels are affected?

I think my DH is fortunate as I don't really have any symptoms which scare affect other people.

I do get an overwhelming desire to eat really salty things (beef oxo cubes being a favourite) a few days before things kick off though and on day one I get the runs and feel a bit queasy too.

I used to get really bad pains in my teens and twenties, and would spend a couple of days each month feeling like someone was tugging my insides out of my arse with a meat hook, but fortunately that seems to have subsided with age.

OP, this has been a bit of an eye opening thread. I always knew that many of us suffered every month, but it's never really been taken seriously, has it? How many times do we hear "what's the matter with her? Wrong time of the month?" bandied around? It's really quite tedious when you consider just how many symptoms are out there. Tedious, and bloody ignorant. The comment from RubyFakeNails's GP that it was "natural" says it all really (I know he's not the stereotype, but this attitude still exists even amongst the medical profession ).

I'm taking a close look at what some of you have suggested. The magnesium citrate and Vitamin D info has caught my eye in particular.

As for the diarrhea every month - I have learnt this:-

The cramps we get every month are due to uterine contractions that are stimulated by prostoglandins. These also stimulate our bowels and intestines, hence the frantic rushing to the loo. Ibuprofen can slightly suppress the production of prostoglandins, just enough to stop the intestinal cramps, so taking this should stop the diarrhea. If you're good with your dates, then those of you suffering should be able to avoid this.

I've got to sort this out - I also get the clumsiness symptoms to the point that I've said for years that I need to avoid driving at least once a month, for fear that I'm going to cause an accident . FFS, I have my advanced driving cert, but I know that once a month, I'm clumsy to the point of not being safe.

Sorry for the epic. It's dawned on me how much it impacts all our lives, yet it's never really taken seriously unless we push and push.

I used to get really sore breasts for a week before (but not every month), constipation followed by diarhoea, and the day before I started I would have the rage. DH always knew I was going to come on the next day! The thing is I would be shouting at him or DS about something so ridiculous and every time it would take me until about lunchtime to realise why (irregular cycles)
On the second or third day of my period I would get the worse headache in the world, that would last three days. My GP eventually diagnosed hormonal migraine.

I was/am TTC and as my GP didn't want to help with my irregular cycles I got in touch with a friend who is a medical herbalist. Since having treatment from her my PMT and hormonal migraine have stopped almost completely. She said it was because in the week before I had such a massive surge of progesterone (causing the PMT) and then the huge drop when I bled caused the migraine. Having the treatment she gave me stopped my hormones being so out of balance, and taking a multi - vit has kept on top of it.

I once went to a talk in the 80's by a Dr Dalton who advised eating a small amount of carbs at regular 2 hourly intervals if I remember rightly.

She'd supported a woman in court who had been out gardening with her OH kneeling and tidying the borders. This woman had spotted a brick, picked it up and hit her OH over the head with it! The woman claimed she felt possesed. She got off with it!

I remember ringing up a national newspaper and arguing with the writer of an artical about PMT. I told her it was just an advertising ploy and I felt let down. (LOL - I realise the arguing is a classic sign now)

I feel for all off you but glad to know I'm not alone, I get many of the above and after I stopped breastfeeding dc3 and my pmt returned I felt like it didn't know what the hell was wrong with me at times.

Had moments of just feeling so depressed the slightest thing would cause me to shout and dcs, I am usually known as an extremely patient person.

Im currently expecting number four and already dreading the return of pmt at some point later in the year not sure what to do though, as I eventually went onto ad's last time but I had finished feeding. I really want to breastfeed again but don't want to take ADs while doing so

It really annoys me how it isn't taken seriously and almost mocked :(

Don't mean to mock it thecurrantbuns. I was once asked to set up a support group for it but just wanted to forget the horror for the two weeks I was free of it.

I felt you had to relax and build up your emotional strength between bouts. I used to spend those two weeks apologising to all I'd upset.

I know what you mean I would feel the same just not nice to know you may suffer two weeks out of every month.

I then people throw comments of, what's wrong with you, time of the month!?

Feel like saying her it fucking and do you think I like feeling like this. Worse thing I've found about pmt is knowing what your doing but have no control to stop it.

My mum had a hysterectomy at 30 and said it's the best thing she ever did changed her life, so I have a plan

Hope that makes sense awful typos on my mobile.

I got horrendous PMT after DD along with PND & anxiety the rest of the month, oh joy. I knew I had to see my GP when I'd wake up angry & quite literally hated my DP. He's not perfect but it wasn't fair at all, & it was a miserable way to live.

I'm on a cbt waiting list & taking a low dose of citalopram. I had no PMT the last cycle & my mood is so much better. :)

I was quite shocked to find how many women developed terrible PMT after having a baby. I'd be interested to know more about why this happens.

I wonder how many women are put onto AD's when they would be better off looking into some of the vitamins and minerals mentioned above?

It is mocked though , and certainly not taken seriously. Odd that, considering it's a chronic problem.

welshmoth you are so right i have been back and forward to my gp for decades in my teens i was to wait until i was regular and older then go back ,
in my late teens early 20s i was on and off contraception injection had children back to gp , was told oh it could be the injection messing up hormones ,
in my 30s i was told well try the pill , I was sterillised for medical reasons ,didnt want to go on the pill , and then late 30s early 40s i have been told , oh well its hormone depletion , ( im old ) , Its a joke and i feel a fraud , I have tried prozac for it , but it really didnt agree with me ,

I have had blood tests and nothing showed up apart from the hormones depleting ,

I have read B vitamins is good so ive started a b complex vitamin recently lets see how that works sigh

After number three I did wonder if it was pmt or pnd, but I went with pmt as i didn't feel consistent awful seemed to follow a pattern and started to build when dc was 7 months old my periods returned when he was 8 months.

I can honesty say the thought of it returning again fills me with dread. I'm really hoping it doesn't. Dr advised me to go on the pill to get rid of it before but tbh I'm not sure I agree def helps with the physical factors but the extra hormones usually result in me not wanting any type of physical contact with dh

Haven't tried the vitamin b or magnesium in the past only evening primrose so if I suffer again I will try all three.

It was prozac I was put on and it did really help, but how long do you go on taking it would rather find a way of reducing symptoms than taking ADs until menopause.

you can try the vitamins three Im not sure how long they expect you to be on prozac for , i stopped taking it as it really didnt agree with me , sigh the joys I look at my teen daughters being a tad clumsy and irrate at that time and feel for them because i cant say oh it will get better because it doesnt ,

I know I have two daughters close in age and another daughter on the way, you know what they say about girls all being in sync if they live together should be interesting in a few years time.

IT is erm interesting my husband plays a lot of xbox DD1 is an adult she is on the pill so she is kinda levelled out but me and dd2 its hell I do feel for her , Im sure dd1 had PMT when she was sitting her last lot of exams she failed 2 out of the 3 and on previous exams she got all High passes

I've always suffered heavy periods, period pain and bad pmt and was forever being told to have a baby, that would help.

Well I've had DS and it's got worse! At one point I wondered if I was perhaps bipolar. My cousin is and some of the symptoms he describes are rather similar but I know it's 'only' pmt.

Also wondering if it's genetic? Both my mum and gran were the same.

Sorry you all suffer too but it does make me feel better knowing it's not just me. And thank you for all the advice and tips. A visit to a pharmacy is on the cards.

I changed my approach to my period and cycle when I was 26 and have never looked back. It all came about due to reading Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, which is a book by an American gynae woman with a feminist perspective.

It basically puts being female into a spiritual, healthy, natural political stance.

I don't take the pill. I learnt all about my cycle. I realised that what came up at that time of the month, and which garners stupid comments, is what needs to come up for our health, and which is denied by too much work, a 9-5 / 5 versus 2 week (which isnt natural). I now look at what comes up and try to accept it.

Because of that, I now get two distinct phases and I like them both. I get the ovulation phase which is about feeling really great and being out there and having a sexy feeling in my body. Then it peaks and becomes calm, and then it starts to go down, and then its about not wanting to say anything, wanting to be at home wearing pink (!!!), baby pink at that! And having my cream and pink flowery bedding on, where the ovulation bedding is olive and heavy like damask curtains. I get pain when I bleed and heavy boobs which need rubbing. I like it all though, I wear pads as well so I can feel the energy draining away. Right hippy me, but I am happier for it. Most men don't like all this though, except one in my past and hopefully one in my future.

General sense of doom and bleakness with weeping and snivelling
Raging hunger and absolute lethargy which together make me feel fat and sluggish
Horrendous wind
All my nails go weak and often break or rip
Back ache

It's a jolly old time.