Has anyone been diagnosed with PMDD?

[Mrsfrumble]

... And if so, how are you treating it? Would you mind sharing your experiences with me?

It's taken a while for me to realize what's going on because I don't pay as much attention to my cycle as I should, but the pieces are starting to come together. My period is due in the next week or so, and for want of a more eloquent description, I'm going out of my fucking head!

A mixture of fatigue and lethargy, mixed with sudden bouts of "fight or flight" with no real cause. Dread, hopelessness, head filled with cotton wool. The worst is just losing my shit over minor stuff, especially horrendous when I'm at home with small children all day. Today I lost it with my just 3 YO and shouted and ranted at her while she sobbed, over some regular toddler behaviour (scribbling on a mirror with a crayon). When I wasn't shouting I was letting them watch cartoons all day because I didn't want to be touched or talked to. I love them so much and they deserve better than a mother who turns into a monster every month.

Anyway, where do I go from here? I think I need help! I also have this suspicion that this being a "woman's issue" I might be fobbed off "self-care & vitamins" advice.

How can anxiety cause the bleeding FFS? Some GPs really don't have a clue

Thank you, Littlehag! Too flaming right! I know my own body. A GP has no business being fucking useless. It's disgraceful.

I tried the Mirena coil for about 9 months. It sent my PMS through the roof and it lasted most of each month. I was so irritable and depressed, libido packed its bag and disappeated too.

My GP refused to remove it and told me that the progesterone dose was so tiny that it couldn't possibly affect my mood. But I persevered and eventually he begrudgingly removed it. Within 24 hours of having it removed my mood improved noticeably and after a week I felt back to normal again.

superfly I recently tried Marvelon to see if it could control my symptoms. For the first pack I felt really good on it, mood very upbeat and calm. Then I had a short 4 day break at the end if the first pack and all my symptoms came back immediately. I started the 2nd pack hoping my symptoms would disappear again but they actually got worse. 2 weeks later I felt almost suicidal and I'm not joking so I stopped taking it. Felt better within 48 hours.

Do you know why it is that taking the BCP doesn't help, even when you take the packs back to back. Is it to do with the progesterone?

It's heartbreaking how much of a nuisance/hypochondriac/attention seeker you can be made to feel when you present symptoms which are hard to diagnose. Having been treated for mental and gyno issues for years, it's almost a relief when they find something 'real' wrong with you.

I got so much advice, sympathy, understanding when they found I was anaemic. But when it's just back to 'anxiety' or 'irregular periods', nobody really wants to know because you should be able to get on with it. Everybody gets anxious, most women have periods, deal with it. It makes you feel ashamed - it's so much easier to tell colleagues you look so washed out or have just thrown up in the work toilets because you have a 'tummy bug.' When I was anaemic, people understood if I didn't feel up to going out but if I say it's because of anxiety or my period making me feel so ill it's another story.

Hugs to all with poorly diagnosed 'women's problems.' Which, considering women are 51% of the population, should be viewed as everyone's problems.

Agree agentcooper. I have been anxious in the past over lots of things. But this anxiety feels very different, more like total dread and despair. And I get anxious now about doing stuff that I really used to enjoy and look forward to, like socialising and going to new places. I'm so sick of it.

LittleHag I had to look online but apparently the pill helps with physical symptoms of PMS and not emotional ones.

They suggest diet, SSRIs, yoga etc to hep emotional symptoms. I would say though do get your thyroid checked, not saying this is everyone's symptom but I think PMS and underactive thyroid can go hand in hand.

For me personally yoga also helped. Dr Katharina Daltons books helps too.

I'd echo ssris and yoga. I do think an alcohol and low sugar diet would make a big difference - if I could find the willpower!

The Pill can help a bit, yes, and so can eating sensibly and avoiding alcohol. Practising yoga and meditation can improve lives. But if you have full blown severe PMDD where you only feel reasonably OK for ten days in the month, when you are otherwise plagued by suicidal impulses or - worse - feelings that you might hurt others, when your joints ache, your clothes don't fit, when you can't think rationally and genuinely fear for your sanity, when you hate everyone but yourself worst of all, when you have to drive off in the car to find a secluded place to scream...then yoga and the Pill are not enough. Transdermal oestrogen helps, but not if you are progesterone intolerant as you have to stop the oestrogen periodically and use progesterone to avoid a build up of the uterine lining. This is why some women opt for a full hysterectomy, and get better.

born, do you know if NHS doctors will test for things like oestrogen or progesterone imbalances? As I said up thread, my GP doesn't believe me when I say my irregular bleeding might be impacting on my anxiety, even when I tell her the anxiety gets so much better when the bleeding stops. I've been on the mini pill (Cerazette) for about 7 years, having switched from combined (Cilest then Microgynon) because I had terrible cervical erosion which my old GP thought was due to too much oestrogen.

I've been on SSRIs (citalopram for 2 years then sertraline for 3 years) for 5 years now but it's been so long that I'm unsure if they've ever helped or if my anxiety has naturally levelled out. My mum is sure there's something hormonal going on, as she was similar at my age (30). She had cervical erosion, felt suicidal at times and everything - emotional and physical - cleared up when she was pregnant with me and after she had me.

Hello Agent, as far as I'm aware (and I am not a qualified person, merely someone who through my own experience has had to research these things), NHS GPs don't test for hormone imbalances. I think this is because the levels of circulating hormones vary greatly over time and between individuals, and individuals react in different ways to changes in levels anyway. But I might be wrong. Certainly neither I (when I was younger) nor my relative (more recently) were offered such tests on the NHS. What would I do in your case? For what it's worth, I'd come off all forms of hormonal contraception (putting in place an acceptable alternative) for at least 6 months and see what happens. If you continue to suffer anxiety related to your cycle once your cycle resumes its natural rhythm then perhaps see if you can get referred to a specialist or at least a GP who is a bit more sympathetic to look at alternatives to the progesterone only pill. Sorry can't be of more help.

And once off the contraception, see if you still need the ADs...but you really would need to discuss this with the doc - or preferably a different doc...

Thanks born, I'm actually planning to register with a different GP in the new year. We're planning to TTC towards the last quarter of 2016, so coming off the pill is something I need to do anyway.

I'd actually try a herbalist or someone.

I don't believe SSRIs are good long term for severe PMS or PMDD and doctors often fob you off.

Like I said before Dr Katharina Dalton believes most BCP isn't good for PMS not sure why as I don't have her book anymore.

Also like I said get your thyroid checked, so common and lots of symptoms similar to PMS.

I think there's no way my GP can say my bleeding and anxiety aren't associated anymore (or that the bleeding' causing the anxiety). I've just started bleeding again, after my period ending on Sunday. Yesterday I felt twinges in my back and abdomen but thought 'surely not' then in the evening I started to feel anxiety out of nowhere - sure enough, I woke up to bleeding.

Super, the best help my friend ever had with her periods (they had stopped completely in her early 20s) was from a Chinese medical practitioner. I wonder if that might be worth a go.

I feel like this, I was thinking if there was just a way that I could not be alone with DS for the two weekends before my period ... In case I get irritated and angry. Not that this is really feasible.

I have only recently discovered that I suffer from PMDD after in excess of 4 years worth of misery and multiple mental health issues. I track my periods religiously now to be able to identify the point my mental health will start to plummet. I have also started taking 5HTP which I have read can help to regulate mood and I’m also taking Angus Castus which is also a herbal supplement. Just hoping these will help, sympathise with you so much! It’s the worst waiting for your world to turn upside down every month and then spending the next week picking up the pieces! xx